soap scrimmage n. especially in non-professional American football, a practice game for which the cost of admittance is a bar of bath soap. Also soap game. Editorial Note: Other items needed by a sports team are sometimes substituted as the price of admittance. This term is occasionally applied to any scrimmage or pre-season match, regardless of the requirements for admittance. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 1920’s, Americans were warned of a new danger sweeping across the country. This menace that harmed people’s health, ruined minds, and threatened marriages. The culprit? The national obsession with a new form of entertainment:...
Jim in Columbia, South Carolina, has noticed sportscasters’ use of the phrase on the season with reference to a period of time. This construction shows up in the sports pages as early as the 1880s, first referring to a team’s revenue and...
Soap Scrimmage, does that mean that Coach Merle “Bones Nay is the originator of the term, or the concept of the “Soap Scrimmage?
Coach Nay is the earliest citation of the term 1962. I played for Coach Nay in 1962. Great Leader and motivator.