A History of the Football: Ch. 1 Pt. 2

An Evolving Game

Americans misperceive 1800s rugby by assuming the game looked much like it does today. We imagine a game in which the ball pops out of the scrum and gets passed to a teammate, who runs wide before passing it to another teammate, who passes it to another, and so on. However, rugby in those days was primarily a kicking game. Players could carry the ball, but most of the action involved players in mauls pushing and kicking the ball forward. Running with the ball was not as manly as overcoming the hacking (aka kicks to the shins) that occurred in close formation.

The form of rugby in which carrying the ball was a primary feature first appeared in America in the 1870s with the “open formation” approach to play. The IFA then reduced the number of players per side from fifteen to eleven, and with fewer players in the mauls and scrums, the ball popped out more often and was picked up and carried. Finally, American football adopted the system of downs and the controlled snap in 1882, leading to quarterbacks picking up the snapped ball on every play and tossing it to a teammate who ran with it, often around the end.

The 1888 Wake Forest football team with the center still snapping the ball to the quarterback using his foot. (Courtesy of John Gennantonio)

Rugby later embraced the sweeps that define the sport today, while changes to America's tackling rules led to football in the other direction toward the mass play, run-it-up-the-middle game, forcing us to relearn the sweeping game from our Canadian neighbors in the 1900s.