Today's Tidbit… IFA Rule #32 Inbounding

This is #32 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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Options for inbounding the ball are not something that comes to mind when we think about football, and yet, early football had five options for bringing the ball back into play after it went out of bounds. Rule 32 names those options and describes the procedures for some of them.

Rule 32: He must then himself, or by one of his own side, either bound the ball into the field of play and then run with it, kick it, or throw it back to his own side; or throw it out at right angles to the touch-line; or walk it with it at right angles to the touch-line any distance not less than five nor more than fifteen yards, and there put it down, first declaring how far he intends to walk out.