Touchdown! The History of Football

Touchdown! The History of Football — page 1 — LONL O Football as it's played today is a truly American game Its origins however are more British than you might think Tough Game Football type games go back at least as far as ancient Greece and Rome These games are the ancestors of soccer and rugby which evolved into football Historians believe that the games spread with the Roman empire especially in Britain By the eleventh century British boys were playing a tackling game using an inflated cow bladder as a ball These games were so rough that players could be seriously injured or even killed By the 1600s a soccer like game had developed Players could only touch the ball with their feet The big change that led to football came in 1823 at Rugby School in England when a n player named William Webb Ellis grabbed the ball and ran with it Within a few years running with the ball became an official part of rugby When Rugby School students went on to universities they took the game with

Touchdown! The History of Football — page 2 — This 1865 artwork shows Civil War Humble Beginnings The first games played in the United States were much closer to soccer and rugby As the game evolved different teams played by different rules causing widespread confusion soldiers playing football in camp This led to a series of conferences that attempted to make a consistent set of rules for everyone As play became more similar between teams the sport became more and more popular Today football is the most watched sport live and on television in the United States It has been reported as the country's most popular sport since 1985 Gridiron Playing Field The full name of America's most popular game is actually gridiron football This helps to separate it from soccer which other parts of the world usually refer to as football This unique name came from the appearance of the The grid pattern can be seen clearly original football fields which had lines in this 1910 postcard of the Syracuse that ran the length and width of the field University stadium This made it look like a checkerboard or a kind of grill used for cooking called a gridiron Even after the game got rid of the length lines the name stuck Today it can refer to both the sport itself or the field it's played

Touchdown! The History of Football — page 3 — EPA a The first recorded game of North American football took place on November 6 1869 The contest was between two universities Rutgers and Princeton The rules used for the game were based on those used by the London Football Association with a few changes After this historic game the sport began to catch on with other colleges especially those in the northeast Certain schools within a group of elite schools known as the Ivy League were early adopters such as Yale and Columbia Rutgers has a proud football history They beat Princeton 6 4 in the very first college game AN Rival schools Yale and Princeton had the top teams in early college

Touchdown! The History of Football — page 4 — Picking the Style Schools tended to play by their own unique versions of soccer rules with one big exception A Harvard University played When Harvard played McGill in 1874 a sport called the Boston a round ball was still being used Game which was more of a cross between soccer and rugby In May 1874 they played a series of games against McGill University from Montreal The first game used Harvard's rules while the second used McGill s which incorporated more features from rugby The American team found they enjoyed this At style of play so much they quickly adopted it and began spreading it to other schools the Footballs grew more oval in shape after the forward pass was added to the game in 1906 The oval ball is The Ball easier to grip and flies better through the air The first balls used for football were round much like soccer balls As more rugby influences came into the sport and especially after the Harvard McGill games the ball began to take on more of an oval shape This made it easier to carry and toss The materials that went into making the ball were also upgraded The first balls were actually pig bladders filled with air This is why they re still sometimes referred to as pigskins Today the balls are made of plastic or rubber covered with cowhide leather and laced up with vinyl UD

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