Tar Heels Credited with Throwing First Forward Pass
A little known fact about the University of North Carolina Tar Heels is that they are credited with throwing the first foward pass in the game of football in 1895.
As author Bob Quincy notes in his 1973 book "They Made the Bell Tower Chime":
John Heisman, a noted historian, wrote 30 years later that, indeed, the Tar Heels had given birth
to the forward pass against the Bulldogs (UGA). It was conceived to break a scoreless deadlock and
give UNC a 6-0 win. The Carolinians were in a punting situation and a Georgia rush seemed destined to
block the ball. The punter, with an impromptu dash to his right, tossed the ball and it was caught
by George Stephens, who ran 70 yards for a touchdown.
Heisman wrote he was at the game standing near the action on the sidelines. He is emphatic that
Pop Warner, who was coaching Georgia, protested to the referee to no avail. And he adds he
personally wrote Walter Camp, the final authority on football, of the possibilities of "the
forward pass" making football a new and more exciting game.
Much more on George Stephens, the receiver who caught the pass and the developer of the Myers Park
section of Charlotte, NC, can be found
here:
He is credited with having caught the first forward pass thrown in football in a game between UNC and
Georgia in 1895, when the Carolina quarterback threw it to left halfback Stephens, who proceeded to
make the only score of the game against the astonished opponents.
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