Jay Robertson Football Playbooks, Scouting Reports, and Game Plans

This collection consists of football playbooks, scouting reports and game plans from the periods 1959-1962 and 1967-1972. The materials dating from the years 1959 through 1962 were used at Northwestern during Robertson’s collegiate playing career and reflect a portion of the coaching tenure of the noted Ara Parseghian at Northwestern. The playbooks were issued to players at the start of pre-fall practice, which always started on September 1, the earliest date any NCAA team could begin practice for the upcoming season. The scouting reports were given to players at the Monday evening meeting after training table, the purpose of which was to familiarize the team with the next opponent.

During "Spring Practice," an NCAA-approved 36-day period in the spring (usually during the month of April at Northwestern), the team had 20 official practices in full equipment.  During these practices, Parseghian would draw plays on a blackboard and players would copy them in materials they had been issued for that purpose.  Over the summer, the coaches would review the progress of the team during the 20 spring sessions and assemble an offense and defense to be used that season.  Once the coaches agreed on their assembled offense and defense, the playbooks were printed, assembled, and distributed.  They were used throughout the preseason practices and were turned in the week of the first game to be placed in storage.  Players were allowed to obtain their playbooks once their eligibility had expired, usually between their last game and graduation.

The playbooks, scouting reports, and game plans from the years 1967 through 1972 were used by Robertson during his time as an assistant coach at Northwestern University and provide detailed information on Northwestern’s football strategy under another of the game’s noteworthy coaches, Alex Agase.

Discription of the Addition:

The first addition to the collection were 4 audio-tapes of Northwestern football games from the 1962 season, now a separation from the collection that was transferred to the Audio-Visual Collection belonging to the University Archives. The second addition to the collection, also a separation now in the University Archives Audio-Visual Collection, was a film of Northwestern Football game highlights from the 1962 season.

The third addition to the collection contains four items and two separations. The collection includes an autographed football Robertson received as the "game ball" following Northwestern’s victory over Notre Dame in the 1962 Homecoming game. Also included is an autographed 1949 Rosebowl program given to Robertson by a Northwestern classmate of his father, Nelson J Culver. The addition includes a set of cards from Robertson’s first trip as a scout for Northwestern in 1967 to watch Missouri play Southern Methodist University. The original binder that held the 1962 playbook has been added to the collection and is housed with the playbook.

Included as a separation is a photograph of Robertson shaking Otto Graham’s hand was taken when Robertson was a high school football player in Kansas City in 1957. Also included as a separation was a film with footage of fumbles made by Northwestern during the 1958 and 1959 seasons that the team studied to prevent turnovers.