Heard of 'Hobert's Funnies'? It's an Approach You Might Want to Take in Your Recruiting

It helped win World War II, and the creative tactic might just help you win prospects

I watched an interesting documentary the other night, and it instantly got me thinking about recruiting.

No, not because it was about battle and war and fighting (although, that really does kind of define modern collegiate recruiting, doesn’t it?) It got me thinking about recruiting because what helped the Allies win the war in Europe eighty years ago is the same approach underdog coaches and their college programs can use to win their own recruiting showdowns.

O.K., first things first: Who is this Hobart character, and what were his ‘funnies’?

If you have a spare 8-minutes as you’re readying this, watch this great mini-documentary on the topic…it’s fascinating if you love history, especially history you may have never heard of before. If you’re in a hurry, here’s the short version:

Hobart’s Funnies is, according to Wikipedia, the nickname given to a number of specialist armored fighting vehicles derived from tanks operated during the Second World War by units of the 79th Armored Division of the British Army or by specialists from the Royal Engineers. The inventor? British Major General Percy Hobart. He took traditional tanks and other fighting machines and adapted them into all kinds of weird looking, but effective, specialized armor vehicles.

The result? These vehicles helped the D-Day invasion of Normandy in ways we likely never learned in history class. I won’t get into all the details now, but if you’re interested in little known history and creative thinking, dive down the historical YouTube rabbit hole and learn more about it.

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Now, the recruiting applications I took away from this little-known piece of history: