This Picture in History: Who Needs Yards? Northfield Played Metric Football

This picture looks like an average college football game, but it is not.

It is actually a photo of the only NCAA-sanctioned metric football game ever played.

On September 19, 1977, and played each other in the first and only "Liter Bowl."

During the 1970s there was a push in the United States to change the measuring system to metric because the U.S. was one of only five countries still on the English system. At the time, sports like swimming and track were switching over to metric measurements, so Jerry Mohrig, a chemistry professor at Carleton, thought football should give it a try as well.

The field was 100 meters long—109.36 yds—by 50 meters wide—54.68 yds—with 10 meter—10.94 yds—endzones. Play was only marginally affected by the shift in measurements.

The wider field allowed the St. Olaf team to use their strength in running the ball outside, giving them an advantage over Carleton. It had been speculated that kicking would play a large role in the game because of the longer distances, but this did not prove to be true.

The game was a rough one for Carleton—the final score was 43-0 in favor of St. Olaf. St. Olaf held Carleton to 0 meters rushing and 106 meters—116 yds—passing, while St. Olaf had 302 meters—330 yds—rushing and 91 meters—99 yds—passing.

There was a silver lining for Carleton, however. Bob Edwards, the new Carleton president, was so disgusted with the 22-0 score at halftime, that he said, "De-emphasis of athletics is one thing, but this is ridiculous." After the game, things changed for the better for the athletics departments at Carleton.  

The game also brought a lot of publicity to Carleton. The game gained national attention. It was covered by the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, as well as NBC TV.