Today's Tidbit… 1876 IFA Rule #4: Goal

This is #4 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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Rule 4: Each goal shall be composed of two upright posts exceeding 11 feet in height from the ground and placed 18 feet 6 inches apart, with a cross-bar 10 feet from the ground.

Football's original rules did not specify where to place the goals, though everyone knew to place them in the middle of the boundary lines at the ends of the field, lines that became known as goal lines. (When the goal posts moved to the end line in 1927, they could have renamed the goal line to the touchdown line or something similar, but they chose not to.)