A History of the Football: Ch. 1 Pt. 1

Every sport uses particular balls, racquets, goals, and fields or courts. The rules for the field's layout are generally rigid, sometimes allowing for local variations or ground rules. Baseball, for example, enforces a standard height for the pitching mound, the size of the home plate, and the distance and angles between the bases. Yet baseball allows substantial variation in the location and height of the fences surrounding the field, with the distinctive nature of baseball fields being part of the game's charm.

Football rigidly enforces its rules regarding the size of the field and its field markings: the sideline, yard lines, and hash marks, while allowing variation in midfield logos, end zone decorations, and other markings. The ball used in football games today has rigid specifications, but the game had few rules regarding the ball for the game's first half-century. Initially, the game of football used a ball based on custom, with several manufacturers producing balls with similar characteristics. The football's specifications became more detailed only when manufacturing and technological innovations allowed for tighter specifications.

Football in the United Kingdom

Today's gridiron football game began in 1876 when students at a handful of Eastern universities formed the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA) and adopted a slightly modified version of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) rules for the matches played against one another. Neither the RFU nor IFA rules provided specifications for the ball used in their games, but custom called for an oval rather than a round ball. So, understanding the origins of the American football requires a review of how rugby developed and how the rugby ball became customary.