Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a saddle; thus horseracing.

1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 July 3/2: I mounted my pigskin.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Mar. 3/1: [He] shifted himself to and fro on his pig-skin.
1848		Sam Sly 30 Dec. 3/3: [T]o hear him sing a hunting song, one would think [he] had been born upon pig-skin.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 4 July 2/6: [A] simultaneous crash of music made each horseman spring three inches from the pigskin.
1868		Sporting Gaz. (London) 11 Jan. 13/3: A few battues serve to wile away the time until they can once more cross the pigskin.
1876		M.E. Braddon Dead Men’s Shoes II 246: You haven’t been brought up by these country squires, who have spent half their lives in the pigskin.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 6 Nov. 6/4: Fred Archer, the most successful jockey in England since the great George Fordham gave up straddling ‘the pigskin’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 17/3: James Goater, the veteran English jockey, experienced a little difficulty in obtaining a renewal of his licences for the current season. [...] All the same for that, it has been Goater’s misfortune through his lengthy career in the pigskin to be connected with a terrible lot of instances of ‘inexplicable form,’ and to have earned for himself the romantic-sounding soubriquet of ‘Strong-arm’ among the more suspicious of the English backers.
1886		Sporting Times 13 Mar. 1/5: New he was to Newmarket, and innocent of the pigskin for years.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 62: I had to mount an old hunter [...] I felt that weak I could scarcely get into the pigskin.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 6 Jan. 6/1: A Corinthian plate, of 6 furlongs, will give amateurs an opportunity to show their skills in the pigskin .
1938		Townsville Daily Bull. 20 Jan. 2/5: He happens to have a Tom Mix hat [...] and all that sort of thing. I have my doubts about his abilities in the ‘pigskin’.

2. (US campus) a football.

1896		Norfolk Virginian (VA) 7 Nov. 2/6: Suffolk got the pigskin and kicked it back fifteen yards.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Foiled’ in Sandburrs 87: I’ll t’row d’ pigskin over d’ grand stand.
1907		N-Y Tribune 22 Sept. 19/1: I ain’t the old riotous [...] Pigskin Pete you once knew [...] you see me here now as a pleader for clean an’ humane football.
1914		N-Y Tribune 22 Nov. 50/1: The grunt of the pigskin as it strikes the ground [...] and the answering rush of each man who had played football.
1927		E. Hemingway letter 13 Dec. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 266: Let’s hope Conrad put the pigskin over the crossbar.
1931		P. Stevenson Gospel According to St Luke’s 8: You just take the ole pigskin and tuck it in your belly like this.
1958		‘Ed Lacy’ Room to Swing 15: Played football a lot of years ago. Had a pigskin scholarship.
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 51: They don’t make ballplayers like Russ Simpson no more [...] them long-haired faggots nowdays don’t come bustin’ outta the backfield luggin’ that ole pig-skin like this boy use’ to.
1977		H. Crews Feast of Snakes 27: He’d never tote the pigskin again.