The Specialist Sports Whistle

The first whistle designed for referees, The Acme Thunderer, celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2009. It is still made and is still in worldwide use across many sports.

In the early days of football (soccer) in England players were considered gentlemen and would call their own fouls. As the game became more competitive and ultimately professional, officials used a handkerchief to indicate fouls but of course these are not easily spotted in the heat of play. Indeed referees still use flags thrown on the field of play in American football to show fouls.

The First Use of Whistle by a Referee

It is frequently suggested that the first use of a whistle by a referee was in 1878 in a game between Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Norfolk. However the last time those two teams met was in 1874. Nevertheless the Nottingham Forest account book of 1872 apparently recorded the purchase of an “umpire’s whistle” and in 1928 an article by R M Ruck’s about his playing days in the early 1870s referred to the use of a whistle by umpires to indicate an infringement.

The Unreliable Account of a Student and His Pet Dodo

The Unreliable Account of a Student and His Pet Dodo by Michael Johnson. Andy Tope in The Fox Gazette reports on the story in Johnson's book which suggest the last time a living Dodo was seen was not on the Island of  Mauritius in the Indioan Ocean but in Oxford in 1683. An interesting story, that one hopes is true.

Interesting Stuff!