A 4.

0 Student
Understands:
The place that football traces it
origins back to in the 1800’s
The first two teams that played
college football, why they played,
who won, and what the score was
Why is a football not Round?
What teams played in the first
nighttime football game?
Harvard Freshmen
vs. Harvard
Sophomores
1827 starts tradition
Football starts off as
the “Boston Game”
1872 – First Football
Club started at
Harvard
This annual freshman-sophomore
football game was apparently the
successor of another annual
contest, a wrestling match
between the two classes, a
Harvard custom in the eighteenth
century. Because the freshman-
sophomore affair usually ended in
a brawl, students got to calling
game-day "Bloody Monday."
The annual slaughter increased in brutality each
year until finally in 1860 the Faculty outlawed its
existence. There were, in that year, better ways for
Northern gentlemen to vent their spleen. With an
air of defiance, a group of players held a funeral
service--complete with procession and eulogy for
the sport.
They dug a grave and buried a pigskin. Football
at Harvard was officially dead.
“The two colleges were,
and still are, of course,
about 20 miles apart.
The rivalry between
them was intense. For
years each had striven
for possession of an old
Revolutionary cannon,
making night forays and
lugging it back and forth
time and again. Not
long before the first
football game, the
canny Princetonians had
settled this competition
 It all started on a cold day. There was, in
fact, a threat of snow in the air that
November 6, 1869, when a team of 25 and
some faithful followers boarded a train in
Princeton for New Brunswick. There,
starting at 3 o’clock after a leisurely dinner,
some billiards and some girl-watching,
Rutgers and Princeton played the first
game of intercollegiate football.
Accounts of this game are rather hazy, as
might be expected. The players simply
took off their hats, coats and vests and
1st College
Football Game
Rutgers vs.
Princeton
November 6,
1869
Final Score 6 to
4
 How footballs got to be prolate spheroids?
("round but pointy”) rather than perfectly
spherical as all other balls are shaped. As usual
with these pivotal episodes in history, it was an
accident.
 Henry Duffield, who witnessed the second
Princeton-Rutgers game in 1869, tells why: "The
ball was not an oval but was supposed to be
completely round. It never was, though — it was
too hard to blow up right. The game was stopped
several times that day while the teams called for
a little key from the sidelines. They used it to
unlock the small nozzle which was tucked into the
ball, and then took turns blowing it up. The last
man generally got tired and they put it back in
play somewhat lopsided."
Why is a football not
Round?
 The odd shape of the ball, eventually enshrined
in the rules, was turned to advantage with the
introduction of the forward pass in 1906, which
was made possible by the fact that you could
grip the ball (barely) around the narrow part.
 Passing got a lot easier in the 1930s when the
rules committee ordered the watermelon of
previous decades slimmed down by an inch
and a half, opening the door for the modern
aerial game.
 How fortunate for the future shape of the game
that the Ivy Leaguers of yesteryear didn't have
any more lung power than today's.
THE FIRST NIGHTTIME
FOOTBALL GAME WAS PLAYED
IN MANSFIELD, PENNSYLVANIA
ON SEPTEMBER 28, 1892
BETWEEN MANSFIELD STATE
NORMAL AND WYOMING
SEMINARY AND ENDED AT
A 4.0 Student
Understands:
Why football was almost
outlawed
The US President that saved
football from possibly being
outlawed
The rules changes that were
made to make the game safer
Name of organization created to
protect amateur athletes
Early in the 20th century, football, as
played on college gridirons, was
something close to a street fight.
The rules were lax at best, and were
routinely ignored. During the 1905
season alone, 18 college and amateur
players died.
And despite the growing violence (or,
who knows, maybe because of the
growing violence), fans were flocking to
the games -- the sport was gaining
followers.
Itwasn’t until 1906, when President
Theodore Roosevelt ordered the
leaders of college football to make
their game safer
Most modern rules actually began to
come into play
Birth of the National Collegiate
Athletic Association to protect the
college players
Rugby-style mass formations
eliminated
Gang tackling was outlawed
Distance needed for a first down was
changed from five yards to ten
“Neutral Zone” was instituted at the
line of scrimmage
Increased emphasis on sportsmanship
Most important - a new kind of play
was put into the rulebook - The
forward pass.
OFFENSE DEFENSE
11 members 11 members

per side per side

Must be set Can be set or

before the play moving before

the play begins
begins
4 chances to
go 10 yards

Football Rules
A 4.0 Student
Understands:
Who was the “Father of American
Football”?
Where does the Heisman award
come from?
Who brought football to the
children of America?
Who was the 1st “Professional”
football player? How much was
he paid?
Walter Camp
Coach that helped to
spread news about
Football from coast to
coast
Coached and played
at Yale (CONN) before
heading to Stanford
(California) and
bringing game to
West Coast
 Walter Camp came up
with many of the basic
rules of football:
 Invents modern job of
“Quarterback”
 Center to Quarterback
exchange no longer
rolled back to QB
 System of 4 downs
 Points system – 6 for a
touchdown, 1 for a
kicked extra point, 2
for a conversion, 3 for
a field goal
 Originator of the
“HIKE” call in
Football
 Came up with 4
Quarters in football
 Award bearing his
name given out
each year to most
outstanding college
football player
 Downtown Athletic
Club Award for
Most Outstanding
College Player
Glenn “Pop”
Warner also
helped start the
popular youth
American football
organization.
“Pop Warner’s
Little Scholars”
brought football to
millions of kids in
America.
1st
Professional
Football
Player
Paid $500
Allegheny vs.
Pittsburgh
ON SEPTEMBER 3, 1895 THE FIRST
PROFESSIONAL GAME WAS PLAYED, IN
LATROBE, PENNSYLVANIA, BETWEEN
THE LATROBE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
AND THE JEANNETTE ATHLETIC CLUB.
IN 1899, THE
CHICAGO
CARDINALS WAS
FOUNDED.

TODAY THEY ARE

KNOWN AS THE
ARIZONA
CARDINALS
MAKING THEM THE
OLDEST TEAM IN
THE NATIONAL
FOOTBALL LEAGUE,
(THE NFL) WAS 1ST
CALLED THE “OHIO
LEAGUE” AND STARTED
IN 1903.
1. 10.
2. 11.
3. 12.
4. 13.
5. 14.
6. 15.
7. 16.
8. 17.
9.