Football in Culture Mr. Flynn

Football Begins its Popularity  Football became popular in colleges much before the professional game was invented  There were “mob” games that were part of the tradition at many Ivy League schools such as Yale and Harvard  Mob- with huge numbers of players attempting to advance the ball into a goal area, often by any means necessary.  Football became very popular, but was outlawed on many college campuses because of injuries to many players

College Football  On November 6, 1869, Rutgers University faced Princeton University in a game that was played with a round ball under "Football Association" rules but is often regarded as the first game of intercollegiate football.  Rutgers won by a score of six to four.

College Football  In 1880, only eight universities fielded intercollegiate teams, but by 1900, the number had expanded to 43  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.

Football Problems  From its earliest days as a mob game, football was a violent sport. The 1894 Harvard-Yale game, known as the "Hampden Park Blood Bath", resulted in crippling injuries for four players  One of the major problems was the popularity of mass-formations like the flying wedge, in which a large number of offensive players charged as a unit against a similarly arranged defense. The resultant collisions often led to serious injuries and sometimes even death.

Football Problems Cont.  The situation came to a head in 1905 when there were 19 fatalities nationwide. President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to shut the game down if drastic changes were not made.

Resolving Problems  On December 28, 1905, 62 schools met in New York City to discuss rule changes to make the game safer. As a result of this meeting, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, later named the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), was formed.  One rule change introduced in 1906, devised to open up the game and reduce injury, was the introduction of the legal forward pass.