Pittsburgh Panthers Football - Firsts

Firsts

Pitt football has been involved in several notable first-time occurrences in the history of college football, including:

• First known use of numbers on the uniforms of football players was instituted by Pitt in 1908 during the coaching tenure of John Moorehead.
• First live radio broadcast of a college football game in the United States when Harold W. Arlin announced the 21-13 Pitt victory in the Backyard Brawl over West Virginia at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh on KDKA on October 8, 1921.
• First nation-wide television broadcast of a live sporting event, a football game against Duke at Pitt Stadium, was televised coast-to-coast by NBC on September 29, 1951.
• First African-American player, Bobby Grier, to break the bowl game color barrier in the segregated, southeastern Deep South during the 1956 Sugar Bowl.
• First college football player, Tony Dorsett, at any level to rush for over 6,000 yards in a career.
• First defensive player, Hugh Green, to win the Walter Camp Award (1980).
• First sophomore, Larry Fitzgerald, to win the Walter Camp Award (2003).