Today's Tidbit… 1876 IFA Rule #9: Touchdown

This is #9 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 American college boys making the rules in 1876 thought they had a few better ideas than their English counterparts, and one of those ideas involved the try versus the touchdown.

Rule 9: A touchdown is when a player, putting his hand upon the ball on the ground in touch or in goal stops it so it remains dead or fairly so.

Rugby Rule 6: A try is gained when a player touches the ball down in his opponent’s goal.

Rugby players who carried the ball across the goal line and touched it down scored a try, giving their team a free kick at goal. Football players largely accomplished that same thing, but since the player had to touch the ball down in goal, the IFA chose to call this a touch-down or touchdown.