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Leatherheads: North Dakota High School Football, 1930s


Yeah, you could consider this a tie-in to the new movie Leatherheads (opening today across the country!), but it’s as good an excuse as any to show an old movie of leather-helmeted football I own. The video linked above was part of a very small film-reel from the late 1920s or early 1930s; it couldn’t be any earlier, because the buildings depicted weren’t around before 1927. The first 80% of the film is an Armistice Day parade, which, of course, sets the date as November 11th. The last few minutes of the film, however, shows the Fargo-Grand Forks football game that evening, held on NDSU’s football field. Not much is shown, however it’s probably the oldest movie of North Dakota high school football on the internet. Sure, it doesn’t have any George Clooney, but it’s real high school football, the way it once was: full of bruised faces.