The Evolution of the Game

The game we now call "Football" was born in the backwoods and alleys of North America.  Though Walter Camp is called the "father of football," and had the greatest enfluenc on the game, it did not have just one inventor, rather, it evolved gradually...  From soccer to rugby, to "rugby football", to "football."  It eventually developed into what we know and loathe today!

Soccer is often called football on other continents...  It's the most popular sport in the world today?  Rugby is also played almost everywhere, the bi-product of British imperialism. A merican football is a cousin of these games, and they all involve, in one way or another, kicking an object up and down a field.  Kicking games are thought to have existed for 2,000 years. Kicking and throwing objects for recreation in America are as old as America itself.  In the latter part of the 18th century this hap-hazard "kicking game" assumed a place with fisticuffs, wrestling matches, and drinking bouts, enjoyed by undergraduates as a means of relief from the severe mental discipline of college life.

Two important steps in the evolution of football occurred in England. First, Rugby was invented...  In 1823 a student (William Webb Ellis) at the Rugby School picked up the ball during a soccer game and ran with it. The rules forbade advancing the ball in any way except kicking it, and many people were outraged at Ellis for breaking the rules.

Ellis became the subject of countless juvenile stories of young men who weren't afraid to go against the mainstream of opinion. A photograph of the plaque at Rugby College commemorating Ellis' achievement is virtually a requisite in any recollection of football history.

Eventually, independent of British thinking, Americans wrote rules that would overhaul the traditional style of Rugby.

As a prelude to what would become American football, collegians played rugby, but the sport was so grueling that it was barred at Harvard in 1860. Nine years later, on November 6, 1869, two New Jersey Universities (Rutgers and Princeton) played what is considered the first intercollegiate game in the United States.  It hardly resembled modern day football.  Each team had 25 players, the ball was advanced by kicking it or butting it with the head.  The game was decided by goals (posts set 25 yards apart), not touchdowns, conversions, or field goals. The first team to make 6 goals won.  Rutgers triumphed 6 goals to 4!  Princeton won the rematch a week later.  Before long, other Universities began taking up the game (Columbia in 1870, and Yale 2 years later).

For years Harvard continued to play a game more similar to rugby, but in 1875, when they played Yale, Harvard convinced its opponent to play under new rules.  Touchdowns counted for 1 point and a successful conversion kick counted for 4 points, and a field goal was worth 5 points.

It seemed as though everyone had different rules and the sport was in a state of confusion.  Then came the Massasoit convention (The Massasoit convention was the forerunner of the National Collegiate Athletic Association) of 1876 at which time the first rules of American football were written.  That same year the imposing figure of a man who would become the father of the game as we know it today, Walter Camp (of Yale), appeared on the scene.  

In 1877, the game was one in which the ball was put down on the field with both teams clustering around it and all of them kicking at the ball and trying to drive it free.  Someone finally picked up the ball and started running off with it.  Then he would meet the opposition and kick the ball away or make a lateral or backward pass to a teammate.

In 1880, Camp had the idea to give one side undisputed possession of the ball, until that side gave up the ball on it's own violation.  This was passed by the rules convention and the line of scrimmage was invented.  In the same year, Camp convinced the rules committee that teams should number 11 players, not 15 on each side.  Further, the person receiving the ball from the snapper (snapback - later called a center) should be called the "quarterback".  Snaps were first made with the foot.  Later, players were allowed to guide the ball with a hand.  Finally the center came to snap the ball entirely with both hands.

Having created the quarterback position, Camp (Yale's captain) would become the first to have his quarterback call signals.  For example, the quarterback would say, "Play up sharp, Charlie!", if a kick was about to be made.

From the line of scrimmage, the blocking game resulted.  One team would keep the ball for the entire half and the other for the second half.  Camp suggested to the rules committee a rule requiring a team to make 5 yards in 3 downs.  The rule passed!

In 1883, Camp standardized the scoring system which showed a strong prejudice towards kicking, influenced by rugby and soccer.  Touchdowns were now worth 2 points, the conversion kick 4 points, and a field goal 5 points.

In 1888, Camp proposed a rule permitting tackling as low as the knees, and it passed.  It's effect on football was stupefying.  Runners who went down that way were there to stay.  The savage mass play era evolved.  Offenses contracted and bunched themselves around the runner.  The dangerous "wedge" appeared.  Play became brutal, fights proliferated, and there were deaths on the field.

At this time (1892), a touchdown counted for 4 points, a field goal 5 points, and a goal after touchdown was 2 points but had to be kicked from the 5-yard line straight out from where the touchdown was scored. If the angle was too acute, the team could punt the ball out and kick from where the punt was caught.  Other movement on the 110-yard field was slow going. Pads of any kind were scarce and players played the entire 90-minutes, unless they were carried off the field.

In 1894 games were shortened to 70 minutes. In 1897 the value of a touchdown increased to 5 points and the still difficult point after went down to a point.

A public outcry arose in 1905 when 18 deaths and 159 serious injuries occurred.  The mass play era split intercollegiate football, led to a White House conference in 1905 and the subsequent formation of the NCAA.  

The year 1906 was one of the most momentous in the history of football. The game was under heavy fire for the brutality of its close order, mass momentous play, in which physical force was all important, and skill and science had little part. As the leader of the American Football Rules Committee, Camp played a leading role in adoption of far reaching changes that opened up the game, including introduction of the forward pass, through few took advantage of it.  These rules brought about a revolutionary change in the pattern of play that was to add immensely to its popularity, and so saved the game.

Other large scale reforms were in the making.  In 1912 the game evolved to the immediate parent of today's game...  A touchdown increased in value to 6 points and field goals went down to 3 points. The field was reduced to 100 yards and the offense now had four downs in which to gain 10 yards. The game was shortened from 70 minutes to 60.  A neutral zone was set up between the teams at the line of scrimmage and the offense had to have at least 7 men on the line, thus eliminating the dangerous plays in which blockers took running starts before the snap of the ball.  

Sources: "Walter Camp Football Foundation" http://www.waltercamp.org