Strange Sports Stories #3 (1974)

A football coach at Coldstream University is charged with putting together a winning football team. The only problem is that the University is known more for academics than for athletic ability. The Students there seem more interested in books than in playing sports. The setting then changes to 1400 years in the past where King Arthur is becoming bored with the athletic games of his time. Merlin the Magician has organized jousts, hand to hand combats and other tests of skill but the king is still not interested. Arthur orders Merlin to invent a new game so the great wizard uses his magic to search the future for promising contests of skill to appease the king. Back in the future, the Coldstream knights are about to play their first football game against the football powerhouse Midwest Maulers. They are confident but badly outmatched. Merlin is then able to witness the game through his crystal ball and materializes in the present time of 1973 to view the game for himself. He notices that the Knights are badly outmatched and decides to help them with a little sorcery. To their opponents, the Knights appear to be surrounded by suits of armor. No one in the stands can see the armor including the knights themselves but they start to sense an aura of confidence. The game progresses and the Knights take the advantage running over the Maulers. Merlin disappears back to his own time while the Knights go on to defeat the Maulers 56-28. The setting changes once more 14 centuries in the past where we find Merlin introducing the game of football to the king. The armored knights kick off only to puncture the pigskin football with their armored pointy boots. Merlin groans knowing he must go back to the crystal ball in search of another game.