OLATHE, Kan. — The football huddle was invented 131 years ago out of strategic necessity, but you may not know about its special connection to the Kansas City area.
Paul D. Hubbard was born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1871. He attended the Kansas School for the Deaf, also known as KSD, from 1877 to 1883 before moving to Colorado Springs, where he graduated from the Colorado State School for the Deaf in 1889.
After high school, Hubbard attended Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Washington, D.C. While playing quarterback for Gallaudet’s football team, Hubbard needed a way to shield his signs from the defense’s prying eyes.
Hubbard’s idea was to have his teammates surround him in a tight circle as he relayed the play call.
“He's the father of the huddle,” David Westerman, a volunteer with the Kansas School for the Deaf Museum, said. “... When playing against these other schools for the deaf, he came up with the huddle (because) he didn't want the other team to be able to see through the players, to see the signs as they were calling the next play.”
Patrick Mahomes will deliver a few dozen plays from Hubbard's invention as the Kansas City Chiefs open their 2025 season Friday against the Los Angeles Chargers in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Fans in Kansas City can watch the game on KSHB 41 News.
Hubbard’s contribution to the game remains important to the deaf community.
“There's definitely a sense of pride,” Westerman said. “... I used to play football myself. We used the huddle, and you still see the huddle is being used in both schools for the deaf and in public schools for hearing players.”
After leaving Gallaudet, Hubbard, who was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1995, brought the huddle to KSD when he returned to Olathe and started the football program in 1899.
“When he was looking for a job, KSD had a position open, so he came back,” Westerman said.
In addition to coaching football for 15 years, Hubbard was the school’s first athletic director. He taught special-needs classes, Westerman said.
“Forty-three years he worked here at the Kansas School for the Deaf, so he loved Kansas,” Westerman said.
It would take years for Hubbard to get the love he deserved for inventing football’s pre-snap gathering.
“It was once he had already passed, they started to recognize his contributions and started to honor him,” Westerman said.
That’s not totally surprising, given how the huddle is so easily taken for granted.
“I played football myself and we used the huddle; it was just what we did,” Westerman said. “I never stopped to think about, ‘Oh, I'm really proud that it was Paul's idea.’ I never had thought about it like that.”
But it’s Paul D. Hubbard’s enduring legacy.
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
