Payson High Football, Home of the Mighty Lions

               CHECK THIS PAGE FOR NEWS
                    AND UPCOMING EVENTS

    2009 will be 100 years sense Payson Football had their first season.  Over the next few months we will look back at some of the history and tradition of Payson Football.  Most of my reference material comes from newspaper archives, Peteetneet Town A History of Payson Utah and Utah High School Football by George B. Felt who has done an outstanding job of  research and collecting data and stats of Utah Football from 1883 to 1998
    
 
      
First let's get an idea of  life in 1909, their were no paved roads in Payson.  It was 10 years later in 1919 that the first street was paved.  The first Model T Ford was produced only 1 year earlier.  Horse and buggies were still a major means of transportation.  It was 3 years before the Titanic sank, 5 years before World War I started.  Talking movies did not come out until 1927.          
    
The old high school was not finished until 1912,  the students went to the Central School which was located across the street west of the park.   
         
            
     In 1909 their were only nine high schools in the state including Payson which had  football teams.  Payson played five games that first season with three wins (Mt Pleasant, Pleasant Grove and Springville). 
    Other high schools with football programs in 1909 were West(Salt Lake), Ogden, Park City, Granite and Park City.

 
Some of the rules back then

·        During 1909 if you scored a touchdown the other team had to kick off to you so as long as you kept scoring the other team might never get the ball. 

·        Touchdowns were 5 points. You only had 3 downs to make the 10 yards for a first down.

·        It wasn't illegal to conceal the ball beneath clothing until 1911

·        A player had to be stopped not just downed, if  he could crawl he could still advance the ball. 
 

                           TO BE CONTINUED


looking for old pictures or newspaper articles of Payson Football, if you could scan and email them to me at lion@paysonfootball.com I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you


        
  
         
Many of our football players are outstanding
          wrestlers.  We would like to invite everyone to
      support these young men during the wrestling season
       where the Lions should repeat as one of the states
        top wrestling teams. 

                     Printable Wrestling Schedule
            
                      
                   THANKS FOR SUPPORTING

                         PAYSON FOOTBALL
      

                         
         

 

 
 
         email us at lion@paysonfootball.com