Pigskin Dispatch

About Pigskin Dispatch

The host of the podcast is Darin Hayes who hails from Northwest Pennsylvania. The area is in the center of an NFL triangle approximately 100 miles away from Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Buffalo.

This dynamic helped to ingrain football into the fabric of the region. Darin played football as a youth and then officiated on the high school gridiron for almost 3 decades! 

His love of the game has spurned him to promote the positive aspects of football and preserve the game’s history with this podcast and his websites PigskinDispatch.com and CleteMarxComics.com.

Darin Hayes - Pigskin Dispatch Host

I grew up in North Western PA (still live there) and my earliest memories are in the early 70’s watching Steeler’s games with my Dad and Grandfather. The ’70’s Steelers had finally given some redemption for my Dad and Gramps after the longevity of suffering through some pretty terrible Steelers seasons in an area of the country that is filled with Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills fans along with those of  the Steelers, and that was my hook for football.

I loved watching High School, college and Pro football and even played a bit as a youngster. After college I still had the bug so I got involved in officiating HS football for 27 years. While still officiating I wrote for a couple of officiating websites and really got enamoured in the history of the game and it’s rules. This led me to May of 2020 starting PigskinDispatch.com to help give recognition to the good folks of football and also to preserve the history of the game.

What This Podcast Brings to the Table

The Pigskin Daily History Dispatch Podcast takes the listener through the historical events, people, inventions and plays that had some significance to the game of football on the date discussed.

We try to cover every angle, and look in every nook and cranny to bring these yester-year gridiron nuggets from all levels of American football all over the globe to help tell the story of American football. Check out our websites PigskinDispatch.com & CleteMarxComics.com for more positive football entertainment. So hold on as we are going to go no-huddle and throw quick slants to bring you the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch Podcast!

A Silent Thanksgiving and the Power of Nostalgia: Week 13 NFL Picks Welcome to the Pig Pen for our special Thanksgiving week edition of Big, Bold Predictions! The NFL schedule is bursting at the seams this week with games spread across four days—Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday—meaning no bye weeks and a full slate of...
The 2025 college football season has emerged as a remarkable chapter in the annals of the sport, particularly spotlighting the impressive performances of true freshman quarterbacks. We delve into the extraordinary achievements of these young signal callers, who, only recently removed from high school, are now competing at the highest collegiate level. Throughout this episode,...
Timothy P. Brown joins us to discuss a significant historical football game that took place on Thanksgiving in 1932, focusing on the remarkable achievements of Colgate University during that season. The discussion is based on Tim’s Tidbit titled: The 1932 Colgate-Brown Thanksgiving Game for the Rose Bowl The Greatest Team That Wasn’t Invited: Colgate’s Unscored-Upon...
Gridiron Time Travel: Red Grange, Ivy League Chaos, and Heisman History The week leading up to Thanksgiving 2025 was a wild blend of honoring football’s past and watching history unfold in the present. Darin Hayes of Pigskin Dispatch dives into the biggest stories from the weekend, from a 100-year-old anniversary to the emergence of a...
Chiefs in Trouble? Week 11 Reflections & Week 12 Bold Predictions The 2025 NFL season is flying by! Week 11 is wrapped, leaving the AFC playoff picture in chaos, and Week 12 is upon us. Darin Hayes of Pigskin Dispatch and analyst Ed Kleese returned to the Pig Pen to discuss the Chiefs’ unexpected struggles...
The episode presents a thorough examination of the evolution of defensive strategies in American football, with a particular focus on the tactics employed for fumble recovery. Speaker A, in conversation with Timothy P. Brown, articulates the fundamental premise of modern defensive play: to neutralize offensive threats by regaining possession of the football. The dialogue illuminates...
This episode features a great chat with James Baxenfield about how American football got started and is growing in the Baltic countries, especially Estonia. James explains that football first popped up in Estonia right after the Soviet Union broke up around 1989. It started very small—just informal games with whatever equipment people could find. Now,...
The Pigskin Daily History Dispatch embarks on an exploration of the illustrious Pigskin Parade, a celebrated series that first graced the pages of local newspapers in 1939, chronicling the rich tapestry of American football history. We delve into the origins of football, tracing its roots back to the 19th century when the game began to...
As we navigate the eleventh week of the 2025 NFL season, our discourse centers on the myriad complexities inherent in the league’s performance dynamics. Ed Kleese joins me to impart our audacious predictions, an endeavor that seeks to elucidate the evolving narratives of the teams vying for playoff contention. Throughout our dialogue, we examine the...
November 12th holds a significant place in the annals of professional football history, particularly within the context of Pittsburgh’s rich football heritage. On this day, we commemorate the inception of professional football, marked by the remarkable achievement of William “Pudge” Heffelfinger, who became the first paid professional football player in 1892. Additionally, we reflect on...

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