Posts Tagged ‘Civil War’

American football emerged from the European game of Rugby in 1879. Walter Camp, a player and coach of Yale University, is recognized as “The Father Of American Football” as the early rules of the game was instituted by him. However, previous to that, the students of Princeton were already playing a game called “Ballown”. It was about fisting the ball and then using their feet to advance the ball past their opponents. There were no hard and fast rules that applied and could be stated as the easiest form of football at it’s early times. However, the physical aspect of the game was immense and often it turned violent.

At Harvard too, a football-type game was being played on the first Monday of the school year. This game was so much physical that the day it was played was often mentioned as “Bloody Monday”. The year 1865 was very important for American Football. The Civil War had ended and football started gaining popularity in the colleges. It was in this year that some basic rules for the game were established and the game got its patent for the first time. Thus on 6th November, 1869 the first inter-collegiate football was played between Rutgers and Princeton where Rutgers won by a score of six goals to four.

In 1873, the Intercollegiate Football Association was formed by the representatives of Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, and Yale. Till then, the increasingly popular game was being played with many different rules. The association brought into effect the first set of rules of intercollegiate football which allowed fifteen players in each team. However, it was Walter Camp, a coach at Yale, who began the final process of evolution from rugby like game to what we know today as the American Football. The number of players was reduced to eleven and the standard size of the field was set to hundred and ten yards. A little later downs were introduced and tackling below the belt was legalized.

However, the violent physical challenge that the game demanded, caused many serious injuries and deaths in the next few years. As a result, though still gaining popularity, football was banned in many colleges. In 1905, under a directive from President Theodore Roosevelt, Yale, Harvard and Princeton setup a couple of meetings between schools and formed a seven member Rules Committee which was later came to be known as National Collegiate Athletic Association, or the NCAA.

American Football has now become a multi-billion dollar industry. With the advent of cable television, the game have crossed the boundaries of America and spread its wings all over the world. Dozens of games both collegiate ad professional are aired almost every Friday and Saturday afternoons and Sunday and Monday nights during the football season. The super Bowl, that decides the national champion, has become the most watched sporting event of all times. Plenty of merchandise and football products have taken the markets by storm. Quite a number of innovative products are often offered as token gifts and memorabilia. Even free American Football ecards can be found over the net . Some like 123greetings has an entire category dedicated to the game .

Thus from the humble past where football only meant throwing or kicking a ball past the opponents, American Football has emerged as a game which has influenced the culture and economy of the United States of America.

American football emerged from the European game of Rugby in 1879. Walter Camp, a player and coach of Yale University, is recognized as “The Father Of American Football” as the early rules of the game was instituted by him. However, previous to that, the students of Princeton were already playing a game called “Ballown”. It was about fisting the ball and then using their feet to advance the ball past their opponents. There were no hard and fast rules that applied and could be stated as the easiest form of football at it’s early times. However, the physical aspect of the game was immense and often it turned violent.

At Harvard too, a football-type game was being played on the first Monday of the school year. This game was so much physical that the day it was played was often mentioned as “Bloody Monday”. The year 1865 was very important for American Football. The Civil War had ended and football started gaining popularity in the colleges. It was in this year that some basic rules for the game were established and the game got its patent for the first time. Thus on 6th November, 1869 the first inter-collegiate football was played between Rutgers and Princeton where Rutgers won by a score of six goals to four.

In 1873, the Intercollegiate Football Association was formed by the representatives of Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, and Yale. Till then, the increasingly popular game was being played with many different rules. The association brought into effect the first set of rules of intercollegiate football which allowed fifteen players in each team. However, it was Walter Camp, a coach at Yale, who began the final process of evolution from rugby like game to what we know today as the American Football. The number of players was reduced to eleven and the standard size of the field was set to hundred and ten yards. A little later downs were introduced and tackling below the belt was legalized.

However, the violent physical challenge that the game demanded, caused many serious injuries and deaths in the next few years. As a result, though still gaining popularity, football was banned in many colleges. In 1905, under a directive from President Theodore Roosevelt, Yale, Harvard and Princeton setup a couple of meetings between schools and formed a seven member Rules Committee which was later came to be known as National Collegiate Athletic Association, or the NCAA.

American Football has now become a multi-billion dollar industry. With the advent of cable television, the game have crossed the boundaries of America and spread its wings all over the world. Dozens of games both collegiate ad professional are aired almost every Friday and Saturday afternoons and Sunday and Monday nights during the football season. The super Bowl, that decides the national champion, has become the most watched sporting event of all times. Plenty of merchandise and football products have taken the markets by storm. Quite a number of innovative products are often offered as token gifts and memorabilia. Even free American Football ecards can be found over the net . Some like 123greetings has an entire category dedicated to the game .

The chronicle of football is commonly traced back to it’s beginnings in rugby, the English amusement that is very like to football and soccer which also began in England back in the early 1800’s. The school campuses of Ivy League schools all played similar variations of football through the mid 1800’s. Then curtly after the end of the Civil War around the 1860’s some of the colleges began playing planned football. Princeton University frontiered some of the necessary policy of football and the tough became patented. It seems odd to be able to patent a fixture but, nonetheless the sport began to grow. The first football resolute in academy football account was then played in 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers with Rutgers as the conqueror thus producing football account. College Football History took another big stage in 1873 when several colleges met to form the first policy of the diversion and established the total of players on each squad. The coach for Yale, Walter Camp helped the absolute walk in the change from rugby form football to the American grandeur. He narrowed the number of players to eleven on each side and sized the football topic to 110 yards. He then fashioned the downs approach in 1882 which was originally three downs to grow 5 yards and then altered to 4 downs to collect 10 yards. Without proper security gear at the time the sport had become very brutal and perilous to all the players. There were even several deaths that had full place in the sport. It had become such a critical quandary that the President of the time Teddy Roosevelt summoned a change and helped apply a group of 7 preferred members to govern the rules organization and salvage football narration. This grouped eventually became the NCAA or National Athletic Association which we all know nowadays. The side twisted several new rules counting the forward succeed and several shelter trial which penalized players for brutality and unsafe acts. Football chronicle was tainted when an everyday apply for the time of locking arms and blocking in agreement which was rightfully made illegal as well. The fixture was shortened to the sixty record that we play nowadays and a neutral zone between the umbrage and defense was also incorporated. The development of the sport led to an inevitable extension into the school football sphere. College football chronicled has since flourished into an incredible weekly show. Hundreds of seminary teams now compete each year under the guidelines of the NCAA. Numerous seminary divisions now have conferences and all have hopes of pleasing a foremost New Year’s Day Bowl. The record of football and nostalgia are living in well in academy football today. Professional football was first played around 1895 and in 1920 the APFA or American Professional Football Association was fashioned. It was renamed to what we all know today as the NFL or National Football League in 1922. The NFL started sluggish and in the mid forties only had ten teams. A chief union then took place in 1970 that joint the 16 NFL teams with the 10 AFL teams to make one large association with two conferences. The growth continuous to the now 32 team league and professional football has adult tremendously since it’s beginnings in 1869 from one college diversion to a billion dollar empire. So goes the history of football.