Origins of the American Football Penalty Flag Revealed

Imagine watching an intense football game, completely absorbed in the action, when suddenly a shrill fish horn blares across the field. The referee signals a penalty—but who committed it? What was the infraction? Amid roaring cheers and stadium noise, you might be utterly confused. This chaotic scenario was commonplace in football games before 1941, until an innovative coach changed everything with his invention: the penalty flag.

The story begins with Dwight "Dike" Beede, football coach at Youngstown State University. Coach Beede despised the fish horns referees used to signal penalties. He found them grating and ineffective—difficult to hear in loud stadiums and impossible for spectators and reporters to interpret clearly. As Beede later recalled: "I never liked the sound of that fish horn. I thought it was obnoxious, just plain irritating."

Determined to solve this problem, Beede envisioned a visual signaling system—something immediate and unmistakable that would communicate penalties clearly to everyone in the stadium. This idea would eventually become the penalty flag.

With his concept in mind, Beede turned to his wife Irma Beede—later dubbed the "Betsy Ross of Football" (referencing the Revolutionary War-era flag maker)—to bring his vision to life. He specified the design: bright red fabric with white stripes for maximum visibility.

Resourceful and inventive, Irma repurposed materials at hand. She used red fabric from her daughter's old Halloween costume and white cloth from a worn bedsheet. To give the flag proper heft for throwing, she sewed fishing weights from Beede's tackle box into one corner.

The result was a 16-inch square flag—red with white stripes, weighted with lead. Though humble in materials, this prototype represented a revolutionary step forward for football officiating.

The penalty flag made its first appearance during a Youngstown State game against Oklahoma City University at Rayen Stadium. Beede had arranged with opposing coach Os Doenges to test the innovation, and convinced the officiating crew—referees Hugh McPhee, Jack McPhee, Bill Renner and Carl Rebele—to participate. "Do me a favor, boys," Beede told them. "Instead of using the horn, try throwing these flags when there's a penalty. The fans can't hear the horn anyway. Consider it an experiment."

When infractions occurred, referees launched the bright red flags skyward instead of sounding horns. The visual signal immediately captured attention. Spectators quickly understood the flags' purpose and appreciated the clarity they brought to the game.

"With the flags, everyone in the stadium knew when something happened. It helped tremendously," Jack McPhee remarked after the game. The successful trial marked the beginning of a football revolution.

Adoption wasn't immediate. Jack McPhee continued using the flag in other games, including an Ohio State versus Iowa matchup witnessed by Major John Griffith, the conference commissioner. Intrigued by the "fluttering rags," Griffith investigated and became an advocate for the innovation.

By 1948, the American Football Coaches Association formally incorporated penalty flags into the rulebook, cementing Beede's invention as standard equipment nationwide.

The original red-and-white design proved problematic—sometimes blending with players' uniforms—and the lead weights posed safety risks. Through iterations, officials settled on yellow as the most visible color and replaced lead with sand for safer throwing weight.

Jack McPhee used the original flags in historic games including Princeton-Yale matchups and Ohio State contests, even at the Rose Bowl before 100,000 spectators. Though faded, these pioneering flags now reside in Youngstown State's Mosure Hall at Stambaugh Stadium—tangible reminders of football's ongoing evolution toward fairness and clarity.

From fish horns to yellow flags, this innovation represents more than officiating convenience—it embodies sport's constant pursuit of better communication and spectator understanding. The penalty flag stands as both practical tool and philosophical statement about sportsmanship's ideals.