Football for Player and Spectator. Fielding Yost

      Football: Its origin and development

       Table of Contents

      Football, although indefinitely known as a sport to Greek and Roman antiquity, did not come into existence as a school or college game until the eighteenth century. During the three or four centuries prior to this time football, in a vague way, figured in English inter-town and county contests. It first appeared as a distinct school game in the early part of the eighteenth century, but at this time was in more or less disfavor on account of the strict Puritanism of the period.

      It is to the English schoolboy that the game of football really owes its origin. During the middle of the nineteenth century there was an athletic revival throughout England and football became the favorite pastime of the winter months in such schools as Rugby, Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse and others. The game came to its present important position through a gradual evolutionary process in which both a standard of play and of rule were developed together. In the growth of the two principal forms of modern play, "Association" and "Rugby", the size of the particular school ground was the determining factor. In 1850 the only school playground in England large enough to permit the running and tackling game was connected with Rugby. At Harrow, kicking and fair catching were allowed. A game was developed at Eton peculiar to this school and called the "wall game", while at other schools the play consisted almost entirely of so called "dribbling", in which carrying the ball and tackling were unknown.

      The two systems of play, outgrowths of environment, have ever since retained their individuality, constantly increasing along well defined lines to the present day.

      Originally each school was bound only by self-made rules. Not until 1863 was there any attempt at codification. At that time a number of Rugby clubs in London met and attempted the adoption of laws governing their play. During the next ten years several attempts were made by the exponents of the two forms of football to formulate a code which would unify the two systems. At this time the followers of the dribbling game greatly outnumbered their rivals, but, notwithstanding this fact, Rugby retained its individuality and the numerous attempts at consolidation were without success.

      In 1871 the clubs of London met and agreed upon a code out of which the present Rugby game of England and the intercollegiate game of America developed.

      Prior to this time, however, a crude sort of football was being played on this side of the ocean. As early as 1840 at Yale, contests resembling to a certain extent the early game at Rugby were in vogue between the freshman and sophomore classes. In reality this series of games was, however, little but the prototype of the modern class rushes which are prevalent in most colleges at the present time. The so-called football soon assumed so strenuous a form that the faculty at Yale was obliged to abolish the custom, and the game was not revived at this institution until the early seventies.

      Through the influence of a Yale undergraduate who had previously attended Rugby, inter-class football games were inaugurated in 1873, under a modified system of Rugby Union rules. In the meantime the game was also being developed at other seaboard colleges in America. Harvard, Rutgers, Princeton, Columbia and others were doing their share toward its development. At first the contests were of an inter-class or inter-hall variety. In the progress of the play, however, the desire for intercollegiate competition grew, and in October, 1872, representatives