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Footballs first game
On November 6, 1869, Rutgers University faced Princeton University in a game that was played with a round ball and like all early games used improvised rules that had as many similarities to rugby and soccer as to the American game of the next century. It is still usually regarded as the first game of intercollegiate football. The game was played at a Rutgers field under Rutgers rules. Two teams of 25 players attempted to score by kicking the ball into the opposing team's goal. -
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Footballs past and present
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Footballs first official rules
Representatives from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to codify the first set of intercollegiate football rules. Before this meeting, each school had its own set of rules and games were usually played using the home team's own particular code. At this meeting, a list of rules, based more on soccer than on rugby, was drawn up for intercollegiate football games -
Expansion
In 1879, the University of Michigan became the first school west of Pennsylvania to establish a college football team. Other Midwestern schools soon followed suit, including the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Minnesota. The first western team to travel east was the 1881 Michigan team, which played at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. The nation's first college football league, -
Walter Camp: The Father of American Football
Camp was central to several more significant rule changes that came to define American football. In 1881, the field was reduced in size to its modern dimensions of 120 by 53⅓ yards (109.7 by 48.8 meters). Several times in 1883, Camp tinkered with the scoring rules, finally arriving at four points for a touchdown, two points for kicks after touchdowns, two points for safeties, and five for field goals. In 1887, game time was set at two halves of 45 minutes each. -
Violence and Controversy
The situation came to a head in 1905 when there were 19 fatalities nationwide. President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to shut down the game if drastic changes were not made. John H. Outland held an experimental game in Wichita, Kansas that reduced the number of scrimmage plays to earn a first down from four to three in an attempt to reduce injuries. The Los Angeles Times reported an increase in punts and considered the game much safer than regular play -
Modernization and innovation
requirements that at least seven offensive players be on the line of scrimmage at the time of the snap, that there be no pushing or pulling, and that interlocking interference (arms linked or hands on belts and uniforms) was not allowed. These changes greatly reduced the potential for collision injuries. Several coaches emerged who took advantage of these sweeping changes. Amos Alonzo Stagg introduced such innovations as the huddle, the tackling dummy, and the pre-snap shift. -
Innovations continued
Besides these coaching innovations, several rules changes during the first third of the 20th century had a profound impact on the game, mostly in opening up the passing game. In 1914, the first roughing-the-passer penalty was implemented. In 1918, the rules on eligible receivers were loosened to allow eligible players to catch the ball anywhere on the field—previously strict rules were in place only allowing passes to certain areas of the field -
Regional to National sport
In the early 1930s, the college game continued to grow, particularly in the South, bolstered by fierce rivalries such as the "South's Oldest Rivalry", between Virginia and North Carolina and the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry", between Georgia and Auburn. Although before the mid-1920s most national powers came from the Northeast or the Midwest, the trend changed when several teams from the South and the West Coast achieved national success. Wallace Wade's 1925 Alabama team won the Rose Bowl -
Growth Continued
As professional football became a national television phenomenon, college football did as well. In the 1950s, Notre Dame, which had a large national following, formed its own network to broadcast its games, but by and large the sport still retained a mostly regional following. In 1952, the NCAA claimed all television broadcasting rights for the games of its member institutions, and it alone negotiated television rights -
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Greatest Game Of All Time
The NFL increasing popularity was propelled when a championship game between its rival leage the AFL (American Football Leage) was played in 1958. -
The Greatest Game Ever Playes
In 1958 The Boltamore Colts Beat the New york in sudden death overtime with a score of 23 to 17. The Game was broadcanst live on NBC. This exposure to the American public propeled the NFL's increasing Popularity, -
Merge of the AFL and NFL
After years of competion for fans and players the AFL and NFL agreed to draft players in the same draft in 1968. After The AFL won two super bowls the NFL and AFL merged to create one unified leage of 26 teams. While doing so the NFL adopted many of AFL rules and marketing strategies. -
The FIrst Super Bowl
The First super bowl game every played between the Kansan City Chiefs and Greenbay packers. At the time the game was names as the world championship game. Now it is widely recognized as the first ever super bowl game every. It was won by Green bay 35- 10 -
universal college football rules
By the 1980 college football season college football rules had become standardized and universal. Previous to this year college were forced to play with there opponents home team rules. -
NFL players Strike
The NFL players go on strike. An agreement was not settled for 57 days wich reduced the standard 16 game season down to just 9. -
USFL begins play
An up and coming leage called the United States Football Leage Begins their first year of play with a 12game season. -
USFL folds
The USFL files a law suite against the NFL . The Judge rules in Favor of the USFL but instead of awarding 1.1 million dollars they are awarded 1$. As a result for an unsucsessful three years the USFL fails and goes out of buisnes. The NFL contues as the power of American Football. -
Players lockout
owners and players ossociation could not come to an agreement for the new collective barganing agreement. This lead to the leage owners locking out its players from using any NFL facilities. In result many of the pre season games were poor quality due to the lack of practice during the summer.
