American Football Early History

Early history

American football evolved from the sports of rugby and football. Rugby, like American football, is a sport in which two competing teams compete for control of a ball, which can be kicked through a series of goalposts or run into the opponent's goal area to score points. 

The first American football game was played on November 6, 1869, between two university teams, Rutgers and Princeton. They consisted of 25 players per team and used a round ball that could not be lifted or carried. However, it could be kicked or hit with the feet, hands, head, or sides, with the goal being to get it into the opponent's goal. Rutgers won the game 6-4. University games were played for several years under the rules of the host school. On October 19, 1873, representatives from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met to establish a uniform set of rules to be used by all schools. Teams were set at 20 players each, and playing fields of 400 by 250 feet (122 m × 76 m) were specified. Harvard abstained from the conference, preferring a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball. After a game against McGill University in which both Canadian and American rules were used, Harvard players preferred the Canadian style, which involved only eleven men on the field, running the ball without being chased by an opponent, forward passing, tackling, and the use of an oblong rather than a round ball.  Harvard's rules were also set by the conference.

A game between Harvard and Yale in 1875, played under rugby rules, was observed by two Princeton athletes who were impressed by it. They introduced the sport to Princeton, which the Professional Football Researchers Association likened to "selling refrigerators to Eskimos." Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia then agreed to intercollegiate play under rugby union rules with a modified scoring system. These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879. Yale player Walter Camp, now considered the "father of American football," enforced rule changes in 1880 that reduced team strength from 15 to 11 players and introduced the snap to replace the chaotic and inconsistent scrimmage. While the game between Rutgers and Princeton is generally considered the first American football game, several years earlier, in 1862, the Oneida Football Club was founded as the oldest known football club in the United States. The team was made up of graduates of Boston's elite schools and played from 1862 to 1865.

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