Today's Tidbit... 1876 IFA Rule #39: Toss Up

This is #39 in a series covering football's original 61 rules adopted by the Intercollegiate Football Association in 1876. We review one rule each Friday.

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The toss up was a crucial element of early football games and warranted its own rule.

Rule 39: The captains of the respective sides will toss up before the commencement of the match; the winner of the toss shall have the option of the choice of goals or of the kick-off.

The toss-up was the 19th-century British term for the coin toss, so we call two events of equal likelihood a toss-up. Originally, the captains handled the toss-up without the aid of the referee. Then, like other elements of football, the custom changed before the rule. For instance, while the 1895 rule covering the toss-up indicated the "captains shall toss-up before the commencement of the match," an article about the 1895 Harvard-Penn game told readers:

The officials talked a few minutes with the captains, referee Prat snapped a coin and Pennsylvania won the toss, taking the north goal.

'The Gains, Yard by Yard,' Boston Globe, November 12, 1895.