The History of Football - Walter Camp, the Father of American Football

Academe, n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy, n.: A modern school where football is taught.
~Ambrose Bierce

Walter Camp was born in 1859. He studied medicine at Yale from 1876 to 1882, where he played in the first Yale-Harvard rugby game in 1876. From that point on, he influenced the game so as to bring about an evolution to American football. He played for the Yale team until 1882 and is known historically as the Father of American Football.

He helped organize and plan the game and served on the rules committee until his death. He contributed to the establishment of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and authored a number of books about football (he also penned several novels).



Walter Camp is credited with the following changes in the evolution of rugby in to American football:

• The line of scrimmage
• 11 players on a team
• Undisputed possession of the ball by one side, until it is given up through a series of violations
• Created the quarter-back and center positions
• The  forward pass
• The numerical assessment of goals
• The safety, interference, penalties, and the neutral zone
• In 1912 a touchdown increased in value to six points and a field goal decreased to three points

In 1906, the game of football was under intense scrutiny due to the necessity of physical force. As leader of the American Football Rules Committee, Camp helped oversee the adoption of  certain changes including the forward pass. The new pattern of play added to the popularity of the game and was crucial to the continued play of the game.

Note:The first attempt to write down the rules of American football was in 1876.

Something else I learned: In 1823 William Ebb Ellis, a rugby player in England was the first person noted for picking up the ball during a soccer game and running with it.