Sports terms that have fallen out of favor in the last 60 years

I've used stanza for basketball quarters.

 

tennis players = netters

Apologies if this was submitted earlier.

 

I've used it for hockey periods, along with "frame."

 

I use that sometimes, actually. Sometimes even in basketball to refer to quarters.

In older columns that our Other Years columnist looks up, she'll notice references to the area high school, which calls its teams the "Tigers," was also sometimes referred to as the "Bengals." That apparently died out once the Cincinnati Bengals were created. My guess would be was they thought people would start assuming that "Tigers" and "Bengals" were different teams.

Even further back, I guess there was "redclads" in the early 1900s before "Tigers" became the official mascot. And she says it was always with a lower-case r.

 

Basketball players are called cagers because, several decades ago, the courts were surrounded by fences and mesh so they resembled cages.
In the same vein, football players got the name gridders and the field got the name gridiron because, decades ago, the field was divided into a grid because passing rules then restricted how far down field a team could throw the ball.

 

"You're hired".

 

It wasn't so much how far, lengthwise, they were allowed to throw the ball down the field, except for the end zone, where an incomplete pass would count as (I think) either a touchback or a fumble.

Teams were not allowed to throw the ball down the middle of the field. Rather, they were allowed to throw the ball at least five yards to the left or right of the line of scrimmage. There also weren't hashmarks back then, so wherever a guy got tackled was where the ball was spotted. If they went out of bounds, the ball was put one yard inside the boundary.

The field looked like a giant checkerboard. This ended during the 1910s.

 

"The world-champion Cleveland Indians."

"The New York football Giants"

 

"amateurs" and "Olympics" in the same sentence.

 

Oh no ... there are enough guys trying to get out of Podunk local TV that'll use that thinking sounding like Chris Berman is their ticket out. Now, if the baseball Giants were to come back ... but that seems unlikely!

 

Used to have a part timer who'd love to write "Joe Schmoe corralled 12 caroms for Podunk High."

I always wondered if the guy used to cover rodeo.

 

Pale Hose