Who invented american football and when?

Answer 1

Rugby (started in England, 1823) was introduced to North America by the British Army in Montreal in 1868, which played a series of games with McGill University.

In 1874, McGill arranged to play a few games at Harvard, which liked the new game so much that it became a feature of the Ivy League.

Both the Canadian and American games evolved separately from this.

American Football was not invented. It evolved over a period of time, from 1874, for at over 30 years. Many people contributed to its development. Though Walter Camp is called the Father of American Football, this was because he promoted it and was prominent on rules committees in its early years, not because he invented it.

The game played by McGill and Harvard might not be recognized as football by a modern audience. For example, it did not permit forward passes, and did not have a line of scrimmage. These developed during the 1880s and 1890s. The flying wedge formation was introduced in 1892 and banned because it was deadly in 1894. But football remained so brutal that in Theodore Roosevelt (of all people) threatened to close it down unless rules supporting safety were adopted. The forward pass was one of the resulting improvements, and is so important to the modern game that it is hard to imagine football without it.

Answer 2

Most football historians agree that American football has its origins in English soccer (international football) and rugby. Rugby began in 1823 at the Rugby Boys School in England. But American football is, almost by definition, an American invention.

The roots of football in American colleges

After the Civil war a group of students at Princeton began playing a rugby-like game using their fists, and then their feet, to advance the ball. The one main goal was to advance the ball past the opposing team. There were no hard and fast rules.

At Harvard the freshman and sophomore classes competed in a football-type game, played on the first Monday of each school year; this event came to be known as Bloody Monday because of the roughness of the game. Pick up games, where similar in style to that played on Bloody Monday, soon became popular on the Boston Common, catching on in popularity around 1860.

Soon after the end of the American Civil War around 1865, colleges began organizing football games. In 1867, Princeton led the way in establishing some rudimentary rules of the game. Also in that year, the football itself was patented for the very first time. That early ball was a crude watermelon, almost round shape.

Rutgers College also established a set of rules in 1867, and with the relatively short distance between it and Princeton, they played a game on November 6, 1869. Rutgers won by a score of six goals to four. This was the very first intercollegiate football game.

In 1873, representatives from Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, and Yale met in New York City to formulate the first intercollegiate football rules for the increasingly popular game, still being played with many of the rules of soccer. These four teams established the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA), and set as 15 the number of players allowed on each team.

Walter Camp, the coach at Yale and a dissenter from the IFA over his desire for an 11-man team, helped begin the final step in the evolution from rugby-style play to the modern football game of American football. Led by Camp the IFAs rules committee soon cut the number of players from 15 to 11. They also instituted the size of the playing field, at 110 yards.

In 1882, Camp introduced the system of downs. After first allowing three attempts to advance the ball five yards, in 1906 it was changed to ten yards. The fourth down was added in 1912. Tackling below the waist was legalized in 1888.

Within a decade, concern over the increasing brutality of the game led to its ban by some colleges. In 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt called upon Harvard, Princeton, and Yale to help save the sport. At a meeting between the schools, reform was agreed upon, and at a second meeting, attended by more than sixty other schools, the group appointed a seven member Rules Committee and set up what would later become known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or the NCAA.

From this committee came the legalization of the forward pass, which resulted in a more open style of play on the field. The rough mass plays, which once caused so many serious injuries, and even deaths, were prohibited by the committee. Also prohibited was the locking of arms by teammates in an effort to clear the way for their ball carriers.

The length of the game was shortened, from 70 to 60 minutes, and the neutral zone, which separates the teams by the length of the ball before each play begins, was also established.

Colleges and universities are placed into three divisions under NCAA guidelines and each division has many conferences. Seasonal and conference play leads to post-season bowl games, where the champions of conferences meet to play in front of a world-wide television audience. Some of these bowls include the Rose Bowl, played on New Years Day in Pasadena, California, between the Big Ten and Pacific Ten conference champions. Other bowls include the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, and the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, Georgia.

Early Professional Football

Professional football was first played soon after the demise of the Intercollegiate Football Association, around 1895. In 1920, the American Professional Football Association was formed; one year later it was reorganized and in 1922 it was renamed the National Football League. Thus the NFL was born.

The NFL was limited to ten teams from 1946 to 1949. A merger in 1970, 50 years after the inception of the first pro football association, combined 16 NFL teams with ten AFL teams to comprise one league with two conferences.

In the 1980s, further expansion was proposed and by the 1993-1994 NFL season, approval was given for a 30-team league. The next step towards growth of the league would be to realign the NFL into eight different divisions, each with four teams.

Pro football, like its college counterpart, was not without its failures. Among the number of competitive leagues that have folded in failure are:

• The All-American Football conference, 1946-1949
• The American Football League, 1960-1969
• The World Football League, 1974-1975
• Arena Football, an indoor league played in the spring with eight man teams, debuted in 1987.

Modern Professional Football

Football has become a multi-billion dollar business in its professional form. Once watched by no more than a handful of loyal sideline enthusiasts, football is now available for worldwide viewing.

With the advent of Cable Television, dozens of high school and college games can be watched over Friday and Saturday afternoons. Pro games are televised on Sunday and Monday nights, with at least half a dozen games televised each weekend during the season.

At the end of each NFL season, champs from both the National and American conferences meet in the Super Bowl to determine a national champion. This game, always played in January, has been called the most watched sporting event of all time, with a viewing audience from around the entire globe, watching and listening in dozens of languages.

Although television commercials foot a very large part of the bill, the competition between networks for the coverage rights highly inflates the value of NFL franchises. In 1920, a franchise cost $100. By 1960, each was worth approximately two million dollars. In 1993, when the league decided to expand, selling teams to Charlotte, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida, the cost rose to $140 million dollars per franchise.

In the same year, the NFL signed a five-network, four year television contract, totaling almost four and a half billion dollars.

Answer 3

There are two main theories.

One declares that football evolved throughout human history as a common foot ball kicking game. This argument focuses on just about every nation having their own form or 'brand' of football and thereby having contributed, even if in some minute way, to the games invention. No notice is given to those entrepreneurs who devised rules and marketed their particular code of football, and in doing so popularised it, whether it be soccer, rugby or American football.

The second concept likens rugby origination, from which rugby league and American football are derived, to the 'big bang' theory. Suddenly a catalyst ignited the desire and will of people to play a running and handling form of football. The focus on what this catalyst was seems to zero in on a small group of islands in the South Pacific called New Zealand. In the late 1700s Britain started to colonise these islands that were inhabited by a very healthy and virile peoples called the Maori. The Maori had their own ball sports which were radically different from any other known ball sports at the time. Early missionaries failed to comprehend the game the Maoris were playing and falsely attributed them to paganistic religious rituals! The ball sports that the Maori played, women and men, mostly on circular type fields, involved running with a flax woven ball, passing it, fending, swerving and scoring in a central zone. These ball playing skills were much admired by early British anthropologists who suggested that learning such sports would help turn their 'puny' countrymen back home in Britain into the impressive human 'specimens', with well muscled physiques, that the Maori warriors displayed. The Maoris at that time also seemed like giants to the British, being on average 3 inches taller. The intelligentsia of Britain at the time grabbed the idea and ran with it, it seemed like a magical formula to fitten and strengthen men. But they didn't want all stratas of British society to benefit, only their 'kind', the rich and their kids who went to Public Schools. Rather than attribute this revolutionary ball playing concept to 'heathen' tribes of Maori who lived in 'squalor' way across the other side of the world, they tried to combine the Maori ball handling skills with their slow and ponderous ball hacking type game. The result was a dumbing down of the Maori game, however the actual holding and running with the ball in hand proved popular and from it rugby was more or less instantly born. To try to claim 'inventing rights' the British aristocracy created the fictitious myth that a boy called William Webb Ellis picked up a ball during a soccer (foot ball) game and thereby started the rugby craze. The Maori people have always proclaimed that it was the appropriation of their ball handling skills and game techniques that led directly, like a chemical catalyst, to the creation of rugby. The Maori play their traditional ball sports today under the modern umbrella term of Ki-o-Rahi as the game rules have become generally standardised across their country. It can be very, very rough! Both sides usually perform intimidating tribal haka (war dances) before the game even starts! However there are still rules that allow for women and men to compete equally in this full contact sport - which is a very unique concept in world sports.

As the British cover up of the William Webb Ellis myth has been increasingly exposed there is much more credence, and gratitude, being paid to the Maori people as the major contributors to rugby beginnings and from it sports like American football evolving.

Answer 4

The story of football began sometime during the 19th century in England when a soccer player, frustrated at using only his feet to manipulate the ball, decided to simply pick it up and run with it. Although it was clearly against the rules of soccer, other players soon found the new way of playing soccer appealing and thus, the sport of rugby was born.

The new sport soon became a world-wide success that found its way into America by the mid-1800s. Played by many northeastern colleges, it was not long before Harvard University and Yale University met in Massachussetts in 1876 to formalize the rules to rugby that were similar to those in England. There were differences however: instead of playing with a round ball, the schools opted for an egg-shaped ball and the game's name was changed from rugby to football. To finalize the meeting, an organization called the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA) was created to preside over the Americanized sport.

Football was still basically American rugby -- much different from the popular sport known today. Over the course of three years starting in 1880, Yale player Walter Camp eventually convinced the IFA to change a series of rules in football to create a game that is very similar to the one we know today. For his efforts, Camp is considered by historians as the father of modern football.

Nationalizing the Game College Football matured through the 1800's in a league of its own until the beginning of the twentieth century when professional football teams began appearing. By that time, college sports fell under the newly-established National College Atheletic Association(NCAA) so the rules of professional football were derived from the collegiate organization's guidelines.

When 1920 arrived, there were more than 10 professional teams across the United States. Organizers from the teams decided to meet in Canton, Ohio to form the American Professional Football Association(APFA) which later became the National Football League(NFL). The NFL continued to change the rules of the game and the game of football began to establish itself as an all-American past time.

Becoming a Popular Sport in America

From the time of the NFL's establishment, football's popularity caught on with the general public. The games played by the Chicago Bears against teams like the Los Angeles Tigers and the New York Giants featured Harold (Red) Grange, the fresh-out-of-college rookie star who helped draw record numbers of fans into the stands. After the NFL divided into two divisions, the culmination of the best teams from those sections played the first NFL championship game in 1933.

As football became a favorite sport with Americans, many leagues followed the NFL in trying to establish their own franchises. The NFL's dominance was so pervasive that many leagues did not even last beyond four years. Under millionaire Lamar Hunt, however, the American Football League (AFL) was the only lasting follow-up league that was able to keep up with the NFL. Soon thereafter, both leagues fought to draft star college players, television contracts, and other perks generated from football's popularity. The NFL bested the AFL most of the time.

In another historic moment in football history, representatives from both the NFL and the AFL met in 1966 to agree on merging both leagues, but keeping the NFL name. Within the new league which actually began in 1970, two conferences were created that reflected the NFL's origins: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference(NFC). From then on, the two best teams from each NFL conference were set to play a championship game (later named the Super Bowl. This practice started with the two champions from the NFL and the AFL.

Football Today One of the top sports in America, football has come a long way from the rebelling college students who wanted to play a different type of game. With the introduction of the television (which greatly increased football's accessibility to more parts of the United States) and the merger of the NFL and the AFL, football games became the most-watched television program. The ratings were as big as the profits. The titanic flood of fan interest generated billions of dollars by the 1990s. These enormous profits eventually trickled down to the players' salaries.

If change was how football began, it is change that has kept the sport's popularity high. The rules governing football have continued to evolve throughout the years to generate fan interest. For example, rules enacted in the 1970s promoted the passing game while placing less focus on the running game. Passing became less risky, and the rule change altered the complexion of the sport. In 1994, a greater emphasis was drawn from field goals to the two-point conversion. The game of football will continue to evolve with the times and provide Americans and people all across the world with a fun and enjoyable athletic experience. http://www.football.com/history.html The story of football began sometime during the 19th century in England when a soccer player, frustrated at using only his feet to manipulate the ball, decided to simply pick it up and run with it. Although it was clearly against the rules of soccer, other players soon found the new way of playing soccer appealing and thus, the sport of rugby was born.

The new sport soon became a world-wide success that found its way into America by the mid-1800s. Played by many northeastern colleges, it was not long before Harvard University and Yale University met in Massachussetts in 1876 to formalize the rules to rugby that were similar to those in England. There were differences however: instead of playing with a round ball, the schools opted for an egg-shaped ball and the game's name was changed from rugby to football. To finalize the meeting, an organization called the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA) was created to preside over the Americanized sport.

Football was still basically American rugby -- much different from the popular sport known today. Over the course of three years starting in 1880, Yale player Walter Camp eventually convinced the IFA to change a series of rules in football to create a game that is very similar to the one we know today. For his efforts, Camp is considered by historians as the father of modern football.

Nationalizing the Game College football matured through the 1800's in a league of its own until the beginning of the twentieth century when professional football teams began appearing. By that time, college sports fell under the newly-established National College Atheletic Association(NCAA) so the rules of professional football were derived from the collegiate organization's guidelines.

When 1920 arrived, there were more than 10 professional teams across the United States. Organizers from the teams decided to meet in Canton, Ohio to form the American Professional Football Association(APFA) which later became the National Football League(NFL). The NFL continued to change the rules of the game and the game of football began to establish itself as an all-American past time.

Becoming a Popular Sport in America

From the time of the NFL's establishment, football's popularity caught on with the general public. The games played by the Chicago Bears against teams like the Los Angeles Tigers and the New York Giants featured Harold (Red) Grange, the fresh-out-of-college rookie star who helped draw record numbers of fans into the stands. After the NFL divided into two divisions, the culmination of the best teams from those sections played the first NFL championship game in 1933.

As football became a favorite sport with Americans, many leagues followed the NFL in trying to establish their own franchises. The NFL's dominance was so pervasive that many leagues did not even last beyond four years. Under millionaire Lamar Hunt, however, the American Football League (AFL) was the only lasting follow-up league that was able to keep up with the NFL. Soon thereafter, both leagues fought to draft star college players, television contracts, and other perks generated from football's popularity. The NFL bested the AFL most of the time.

In another historic moment in football history, representatives from both the NFL and the AFL met in 1966 to agree on merging both leagues, but keeping the NFL name. Within the new league which actually began in 1970, two conferences were created that reflected the NFL's origins: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference(NFC). From then on, the two best teams from each NFL conference were set to play a championship game (later named the Super Bowl. This practice started with the two champions from the NFL and the AFL.

Football Today One of the top sports in America, football has come a long way from the rebelling college students who wanted to play a different type of game. With the introduction of the television (which greatly increased football's accessibility to more parts of the United States) and the merger of the NFL and the AFL, football games became the most-watched television program. The ratings were as big as the profits. The titanic flood of fan interest generated billions of dollars by the 1990s. These enormous profits eventually trickled down to the players' salaries.

If change was how football began, it is change that has kept the sport's popularity high. The rules governing football have continued to evolve throughout the years to generate fan interest. For example, rules enacted in the 1970s promoted the passing game while placing less focus on the running game. Passing became less risky, and the rule change altered the complexion of the sport. In 1994, a greater emphasis was drawn from field goals to the two-point conversion. The game of football will continue to evolve with the times and provide Americans and people all across the world with a fun and enjoyable athletic experience. http://www.football.com/history.html

Answer 5

it wasn't invented it evolved over time

Answer

Gridiron football (not futbol or soccer) was actually born in Canada by British soldiers against civilians in a game in Toronto on November 9, 1861. It has been modified since then.

Answer 6

Charles Lyles accually invented football in 1833.

Answer 7

Football was invented by The Romans and The Greeks many years ago