1. American Football’s Beginnings
Before the 19th century “football” referred to any number of games played on foot with a ball.
The rules varied from game to game.
Legend says that an Englishman was tired of “no hands” rule and picked up ball and ran.

2. American Football’s Beginnings
While he was running with the ball, the other players chased him down and tackled him to enforce the rules.
Amidst this event – and the fun of the event – the idea of American football was born.
The idea of that brand of the game spread throughout U.S. colleges.

3. American Football’s Beginnings
The game was not universal – every college played with their own rules.
However, each version did have similarities.
Huge number of players trying to move the ball into a goal – and violence and injury were common.

4. American Football’s Beginnings
Because of the injuries, protests formed to abandon the games.
Yale banned the game in 1860 – Harvard banned it in 1861.
However, the game was growing popular among east coast prep schools.

5. American Football’s Beginnings
A special ball was created specifically for the game – made kicking and carrying easier.
A version of the game called the “Boston Game” was created by the Oneida Football Club.
They are considered the first formal football club in the United States (1862).

6. American Football’s Beginnings
The Boston Game caught the eye of the press and soon returned to college campuses.
On November 6, 1869 – Rutgers University played Princeton University in New Jersey.
Considered the first intercollegiate football game – Rutgers won at home 6-4.

7. American Football’s Beginnings
Rematch was played one week later at Princeton – Princeton won 8-0.
Columbia and Yale joined the series in the 1870s.
Organization improved and colleges tried to set a rules standard.

8. Walter Camp Enter Walter Camp – the “father of American football”.
Camp was a great athlete – excelled in track, baseball, and soccer.
Camp coached Yale and attended the meetings to make one set of rules.

9. Walter Camp Camp introduced a number of rules including…
Reducing the number of players from 15 to 11.
Camp also established the line of scrimmage and the snap from a “center” to “quarterback”

10. Walter Camp
Camp’s ideas intended to place emphasis on speed instead of strength.
Instead his rules slowed the game down – teams held the ball and methodically moved down the field.
The game became boring and changes had to be made.

11. Walter Camp
Camp made more adjustments – teams had to go five yards in three downs.
Camp helped reduce the size of the field to what is today – 120 yards long, yards wide.
Camp also made the seven-man offensive line, a quarterback, two halfbacks and a fullback.

12. Walter Camp
Camp also established a game time set for two halves – 45 minutes each.
Two paid officials began attending each game.
Camp died in 1925 and his legacy continues – he personally selected an All- American team from 1898 to 1924.

13. Walter Camp
To this day, the Walter Camp Foundation continues to select All-American teams in his honor.
In other words, Camp – through his contributions made football look like what it does today.

14. Modern College Football Emerges
The popularity of the game grew among the general public.
By 1900 – 43 colleges had teams – and it was spreading across the country.
In 1879 Michigan (yuck) became the first school west of Pennsylvania to establish a team.

15. Modern College Football Emerges
Others soon followed – Chicago, Northwestern and Minnesota made teams.
This led to the first league – the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives – also called the Western Conference.
This was the pre-cursor of the Big Ten Conference.

16. Modern College Football Emerges
Notable figure Fielding Yost – coach of Michigan (yuck) early 20th century.
From 1901 to 1905 Michigan (yuck) won 56 games in a row – outscored opponents 2,831 to 40.
In 1902 Michigan (yuck) played in the Rose Bowl – first post season bowl game – Michigan (yuck) beat Stanford 49-0.

17. Modern College Football Emerges
Controversy followed football – in the Harvard vs. Yale game led to four crippling injuries.
Army and Navy suspended their annual game from 1894 to 1898 for similar reasons.
The problem was large formations of players – like the flying wedge.

18. Modern College Football Emerges
Large numbers charged as a unit against a large defense – led to serious collisions.
In 1905 – 19 fatalities occurred from football nationwide.
President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to end the game – but he loved the sport and wanted to fix it.

19. Modern College Football Emerges
In 1906 the forward pass was created to open up the game and reduce injuries.
However, forward pass was rarely used – rules made it unattractive.
On December 28, 1905 – 62 schools met in New York to make game safer – called the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States.

20. Modern College Football Emerges
This meeting was the pre-cursor to establishing the current National Collegiate Athletic Association – or NCAA.
As a result of the meeting, mass formations – including flying wedge – became illegal.
New rules helped reduce injuries.

21. Modern College Football Emerges
Bradbury Robinson playing for St. Louis University threw the first legal forward pass on September 5, 1906.
In 1910, players could not push or pull – interlocking arms were not allowed.
Roughing the passer implemented in

22. Modern College Football Emerges
More changes to football were made.
The huddle was introduced, as well as pre-snap shifts to create deception.
Field goals were lowered from five points to three in 1909 – and touchdowns were raised to six points in 1912.

23. College Football’s Golden Age
The game began to produce famous players – Jim Thorpe, Red Grange and Bronko Nagurski.
Sportswriters covered football and created national following.
Grantland Rice used poetic descriptions and colorful nicknames – called Grange “Galloping Ghost”.
“The Four Horsemen” “The Seven Blocks of Granite”.

24. College Football’s Golden Age
Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.

25. College Football’s Golden Age
Coaches became living legends.
Pop Warner – coached Georgia, Cornell, Pittsburgh, Stanford and Temple.
Wrote books about strategy and how to play the game.

26. College Football’s Golden Age
Warner created the single and double wing formations – most popular formations for 40 years.
One of the first to use the forward pass routinely.
Created modern blocking schemes and the three-point stance.

27. College Football’s Golden Age
Knute Rockne – played and coached for Notre Dame.
Deceptive plays, tricky schemes – led to rule that lineman had to stop for a full second before snap.
Started USC-Notre Dame rivalry – went before dying in plane crash.

28. College Football’s Golden Age
In the 1930s, football had become the number one spectator sport in the south.
More conferences popped up – Pacific Coast Conference (Pac-12), Southeastern Conference (SEC).
New bowl games developed – Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Sun Bowl and Cotton Bowl.

29. College Football’s Golden Age
In 1936 the press began a weekly poll of ranking the teams
The AP Poll was used to determine the champion at the end of the year.
In 1935 the Heisman Trophy was created – named after coach John Heisman.

30. College Football’s Golden Age
First winner of the Heisman Trophy was Chicago’s Jay Berwanger – also becomes the first NFL draft pick.
College football lost some popularity to the NFL but still was going strong.
In 1966 ABC began televising a “game of the week”.

31. College Football’s Golden Age
This brought key games and rivalries to the whole nation.
Overall – Michigan (yuck) (935), Notre Dame (896) and Texas (893) are ranked 1, 2 and 3 in total wins.
As television and radio progressed so did college football.

32. College Football Today
The number of bowl games grew – in there were five.
By 1970 there were eight – and 11 in
Cable television emerged, including ESPN which led to 15 bowls in 1980 – currently there are 34 bowl games.

33. College Football Today
The argument has risen over the number of bowl games.
More bowl games dilute the significance of playing in one.
Others say more bowl games give increased exposure and revenue for more schools.

34. College Football Today
In the 1990s college football wanted to come up with a better way then the AP picking a champion.
In 1998 a new system was invented to force a “true” championship game.
Called the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) it included the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac 10 and SEC conferences.

35. College Football Today
Each year the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the nation will play in the championship.
Venues rotated between the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl.
A combination of computers, human votes, and strength of schedule determined #1 and #2 teams.

36. College Football Today
The first BCS Championship game played on January 4, 1999 at the Fiesta Bowl – Tennessee 23, Florida State 16.
In 2006 a fifth BCS game was added to open up the BCS to two more teams.
On January 6, 2013, the BCS held it’s final championship game – Florida State 35, Auburn 31.

37. College Football Today
BCS was controversial – there were arguments for and against the current system.
Critics claimed a playoff – not votes – should determine a champion.
Defenders say that every week of the college football season is a playoff – and popularity of the sport soared.

38. College Football Today
Beginning in 2015, FBS college football will hold a four-team playoff to determine its champion.
Format is simple – the four top-ranked teams play in the semifinals at traditional bowl game locations.
Winners play for the championship in different host cities each year.

39. Early Pro Football
The creation and popularity of professional football has also had a tremendous impact in the United States.
A Pittsburgh football club called the Allegheny Athletic Association hired Yale guard William “Pudge” Heffelfinger to be first paid player.
He received $500 – and won the game.

40. Early Pro Football
On September 3, 1895 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the first wholly pro game was played.
Latrobe YMCA vs. Jeannette Athletic Club – Latrobe won 12-0.
Was not the sole source of income for players – still had to work elsewhere.

41. Early Pro Football In 1899 the South Side of Chicago was founded.
Later changed names to the Chicago Cardinals – now known as the Arizona Cardinals.
The franchise is the oldest continuously operating professional football team.

42. Early Pro Football
Ohio became the center of professional football in the early twentieth century.
Small towns supported pro teams in what was called the Ohio League – later called National Football League (NFL).
The best team was the Canton Bulldogs – where the current NFL Hall of Fame is located.

43. Early Pro Football
By 1921 there were 22 teams – including the Green Bay Packers
Packers hold the record for longest use of an unchanged team name.
By the mid-1920s the NFL was up to 25 teams.

44. Early Pro Football
At the end of the 1932 season, the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans were tied with the best record.
To determine the champion a playoff game was played – first ever.
Chicago won 9-0 – cold weather forced game indoors.

45. Early Pro Football
The playoff game was very popular – and following season teams split into two divisions.
The winners of each division played in an annual championship game.
Many teams folded during WWII – by NFL had 10 teams.

46. Early Pro Football
Bert Bell became commissioner and kept the league stable.
Also in 1946, NFL integrated – Los Angeles Rams signed two African- American players.
Kenny Washington and Woody Strode.

47. Modern NFL Television and radio also helped NFL popularity.
Rams first team to televise its entire schedule of games in 1950.
1958 was the turning point for the NFL when Baltimore Colts and NY Giants played championship game.

48. Modern NFL Game played at Yankee Stadium and tied after 60 minutes.
First game to go into sudden death overtime – Colts won 23-17
Televised live on NBC – called the “Greatest Game Ever Played” – NFL became a national sport.

49. Modern NFL
In 1959 a new league formed called the American Football League – AFL.
AFL posed a significant threat to the NFL – thanks to television exposure.
In 1960 AFL had eight teams led by Al Davis owner of the Oakland Raiders.

50. Modern NFL
AFL began luring players away from NFL like Joe Namath star quarterback from Alabama.
NFL agreed to a merger – common draft and AFL vs. NFL championship at end of season.
Two years later that game renamed to “Super Bowl”.

51. Modern NFL
January 15, 1967 first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles, California.
Green Bay (NFL) defeated Kansas City (AFL)
Green Bay beats Oakland in Super Bowl II to extend NFL dominance.

52. Modern NFL
In Super Bowl III NFL’s Baltimore Colts were heavily favored over AFL’s New York Jets.
Jets led by Namath upset Colts and gave AFL respect.
In 1970 – both leagues merged to form 26-team league – all called NFL.

53. Modern NFL
Currently NFL has 32 teams – and Super Bowl is one of the most popular television events in history.
NFL is the most popular spectator sport in the U.S.
Parity and salary caps have helped league sustain popularity.

54. Modern NFL
Limits on teams salaries allow smaller cities like Green Bay to compete with larger cities.
Other football leagues tried forming to tap into money made by NFL.
World Football League in 1974 – folded in

55. Modern NFL
In 1982 the United States Football League formed as a spring league.
USFL successful at first – but in moved to fall season to compete directly with NFL.
USFL failed and folded – could not “hang” with NFL.

56. Modern NFL
The XFL was formed in 2001 – and folded after one season due to lack of fan interest.
NFL went international in 1995 with NFL Europe – had success initially.
Folded in 2007 – NFL now plays scheduled NFL games in Europe to hit their market.