Six-man football

Six-man football is a variant of American football that is played with six players per team, instead of 11.

History

Six-man football was developed in 1934 by Chester (Nebraska) High School Coach Cody Pardy as an alternative means for small high schools to field a football team during the Great Depression.

The first six-man game played Thursday, September 27, 1934 in the Hebron Athletic Gridiron (in Nebraska) under the lights with a crowd of almost 1000 watching. This game was played so that coaches all over Kansas and Nebraska could see if they wanted to try this new game of 6 man. The two teams playing in the game were the combined team from Hardy-Chester and a combined team from Belvalex-Alexandria. The two teams had 2 weeks to practice prior to this game. After that night rules for the game were distributed to approximately 60,000 coaches in the United States (Franklin M. Reck, "Play Six Man Football" The American Boy": September 1937 p30).

On October 5, 1940, Windham High School from Windham, Ohio defeated Stamford Collegiate of Niagara Falls, Ontario, 39-1 in the first international six-man football game.