Football Rules Evolution Part II - Organizing the game Darin Hayes April 22nd, 2011 At the end of Part I of this series, we left football in the 1880s where Walter Camp had helped bring about a growing popularity of the sport. Football at that infantile stage had evolved from a combination of soccer and rugby when Camp added a few new wrinkles of his own. Men who draped cloth, turban-like scarves upon their heads attempted to cross their opponents goal line on a 110-yard long field. Colleges, high schools, and local communities were forming teams to participate in the new game. As his sport approached the Twentieth Century, Walter Camp knew that his role as an innovator of football was not yet completed. Taming the game Camp knew his growing sport needed more structure and organization. He set up governing bodies, such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the American Football Rules Committee, to initiate and govern a uniform system of rules across the realm of football. Camp also raised the theme of good sportsmanship in 1893 in his essay Walter Camp on Sportsmanship: Be each, pray God, a gentleman! A gentleman does not make his living, however, from his athletic prowess. He does not earn anything by his victories except glory and satisfaction.... There is still no harm where the mug or trophy hangs in the room of the winner. That is indicative of his skill; but if the silver mug becomes a silver dollar, either at the hands of the winner or the donor, let us have the laurel back again. Despite players being gentlemen, the game was brutal and physically demanding. Very serious injuries and even a few deaths occurred at the turn of the century. Things became so dire that President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 asked the American Football Rules Committee to reform the game in some way as colleges pondered dropping the rough sport from their schools. Had that occurred, the game would have soon died out. The next year, Walter Camp and the Rules Committee helped to reform the game to make it less brutal. The yards to gain were changed from five to ten and the amount of downs to gain a new series was upped to four. The biggest change to the game occurred in 1906 with the adoption of the forward pass. The Committee hoped that passing would open up the game a little bit so that the twenty-two man pileups, common at that point because of the running-only style of play, would be reduced, thus preventing injuries from occurring as frequently. Their idea eventually paid off and probably saved the game. Fans and players alike loved the excitement of the passing game mixed in with the grind and force of the running plays. In 1912 a touchdown was changed from four to six points. But passing was not widely accepted at first. Coaches felt it was a poor way to advance the ball down field on an opponent. But one game in particular changed this way of thinking. Notre Dame vs Army: 1913 Army was a powerful running team in the 1913 season, and the cadets were heavy favorites to win against Notre Dame, the small Catholic school from the Midwest. Fighting Irish quarterback Gus Dorias changed the tide of his teams underdog status, as well as basic offensive strategy forever, as he guided the Fighting Irish to a 35-13 victory over Army by throwing several long passes to his end, Knute Rockne. Thus the finesse of the passing game became a staple in the way offenses could move the ball. After his playing days were over, Rockne went on to coach the Irish. The passing strategy of Notre Dame against Army did not go unnoticed. Amos Alonzo Stagg, a former player under Walter Camp at Yale, was coaching the University of Chicago football squad at the time of the 1913 game. Stagg was considered the first to showcase consistently the forward pass in his offensive scheme. This heralded coach developed innovations such as the T-formation, tackling dummies, scrimmages, and the flea-flicker pass play. Stagg, along with his former mentor Walter Camp, was credited for the numbers being placed on players jerseys. He also developed many defensive strategies and concepts that are still used to this day. By 1920 the game looked much more like what we now know as football. Our story is not done, however, as equipment changes and new technologies arrived almost every decade. Tomorrow Part III - Player protection develops
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 20:16:42 +0000