Every weekend during the fall, NFL and college football fans gather around their televisions, throw on their lucky jerseys, and get ready to root for their favorite teams for 60 minutes. The game we know and love has changed so much over the years, but what is its origin story? Where did football start, and who invented it? Let’s take a closer look at Walter Camp, the man who started it all.
Who Is Walter Camp?
Camp — born on April 7, 1859, in New Britain, Connecticut — was an intriguing man who served on various collegiate football rules committees that developed the American game from what it was to what we know it to be now.
Camp played college football while enrolled at Yale University and was instrumental in the development of the game when he proposed at the U.S. College Football rules convention in 1880 that the contested scrum, as it is known in Rugby, be replaced with a line of scrimmage where the team with the ball started with uncontested possession.
That suggestion changed the game of American football as we know it and set in motion everything that has led to how the game is played today. Camp was also credited with innovations to the game, such as the snap from center, the four-down system, and the points system that we use today.
Camp would also introduce what would eventually become a standard offensive arrangement of players: a seven-man line and a four-man backfield. Camp was also responsible for introducing the “safety” position and would add that to the point-scoring system he already previously implemented.
When Was the First Football Game Played?
The first official game of American football was played in 1869 between Rutgers University and Princeton University. At the time, there was no such thing as a forward pass, 25 players were on the field for each team, and the maximum score for a game was 10.
The game would finish with a 6-4 victory for Rutgers over Princeton and would officially begin the journey to the American football that we now see today.
The Game Is Bigger Now Than Camp Could Have Imagined
American football, specifically the NFL and collegiate football, is an absolute staple in American culture. It owns a day of the week in the NFL, and trips, plans, weddings, and other life events are built around the viewership of the game.
The amount of money, attention, and impact the great game has provided surely exceeds anything Camp may have envisioned over 100 years ago.