Today's Tidbit... When Did Football Really Begin?

One year ago today, I sent the first issue of Today's Tidbits to a subscriber list of one: me. Some stories on Football Archaeology show earlier publishing dates because I imported 100+ articles from my old site, but today is the first anniversary of Football Archaeology!

The Tidbit I sent one year ago covered one of my favorite stories of a multi-sport athlete, Dick Reichle. Reichle started for Great Lakes Naval in the 1919 Rose Bowl before returning to the University of Illinois, where he was in the lineup in 1922 when his coach, Bob Zuppke, introduced football's modern huddle. After being in the first modern huddle, Reichle's multi-sport connection came while playing for the Boston Red Sox, which you can read about in a one-year-old Tidbit When Dick Reichle Huddled and Homered.

Perhaps the best way to recognize the anniversary of Football Archaeology is to address a fundamental football question, like when football began? Which event marks football's birthday? So, here's a quick attempt to argue that football did not start with games between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869 but with a rules meeting that occurred seven years later.