What is American football history?

Get ready to tackle the history of America’s favorite sport! Did you know football started as a crazy mix of soccer and rugby? BOING! Join Mira and Finn as they travel back to the 1860s when college kids in New Jersey played the VERY first game—and it probably looked nothing like what we see today! Discover how one clever guy named Walter Camp invented the rules, like downs and the line of scrimmage, that make the game exciting now! From muddy fields to the giant Super Bowl spectacle in 1967, learn how this wild sport became the biggest show on Earth! Touchdown for history!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kudopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. And today's episode is a special one for James and Javen from the USA. Hey guys! I hear you and your grandma listen every day on the way to school.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Yeah, and they asked for an episode about football. It's one of my favourite things to watch.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

That's so cool you asked! Because today we are tackling the wild history of the game we know as American football. From a messy mix of soccer and rugby to the biggest sporting event on earth.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Wait, wait, soccer and rugby? So it started out like a big messy pile-up game.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Kind of. Here's a shocking number to start. The very first college football game ever played had only 25 players on each side. That's 50 kids all running around. Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

50? That's like our whole class times two. Whoa.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Whoa! Exactly! So let's set the scene. It's the 1860s, right after the American Civil War ended. Colleges in New Jersey were getting popular, and the students loved sports. But there wasn't one set game. So they just made up rules as they went? Pretty much. The earliest versions were closer to what we call soccer, kicking the ball. But some students wanted to pick it up and run with it, which was more like rugby. It was chaos.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Wait, wait. When was the first official-ish game?

SPEAKER_01 1:34

That very first intercollegiate game was on November 6, 1869. It was between Rutgers University and the College of New Jersey, which is now Princeton University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Rutgers versus Princeton, and they only had 25 guys each, you said. How many points did they score?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Rutgers won, six goals to four. But here's the funny part: they weren't exactly touchdowns. The game was played mostly by kicking the ball into the opponent's goal. Kind of like scoring in soccer, but with different ball shapes and rules mixed in.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

So if they kicked it, how did running even start?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Because the ball kept changing. Early balls were sometimes round like a soccer ball, and sometimes oval like a rugby ball. When it was oval, running became way more tempting. But the biggest rule maker, the person who turned it into American football, was a man named Walter Camp. Walter Camp, did he play? He did. He was a student and later coach at Yale University. He hated the wild scrummages, those big piles of players wrestling for the ball, which could sometimes last for hours. He wanted structure.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Hours? That's longer than watching three whole movies. So what did Walter Camp say? Stop tackling everyone.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

He said things that changed everything. In 1880, Camp convinced everyone to switch from 15 players down to 11 players per side. That's the number we still use today.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

11 is way better than 15 or 25. But what was his biggest rule that separated it from rugby?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

The snap! He introduced the concept of the line of scrimmage, an imaginary line where the ball is placed, and the centre snapping the ball back between his legs to the quarterback. Before that, players just fought for possession.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Wait, wait, the centre hikes it back? So before Camp, did they just pick it up off the ground?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Pretty much. And Camp also gave us the down system. In the 1880s, his rule was that if you gain possession, you had to advance the ball at least five yards in five tries, or downs, or you lost the ball.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Five tries to move five yards. Five yards in five tries? That sounds really hard, especially if the other team is trying to stop you.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

It was brutal. The game was getting rough. Think about it. If you failed three times, you had to punt or turn it over. This led to teams just trying to run over the defence every time. By the early 1900s, the danger was increasing rapidly. People were getting hurt badly because the focus was just brute force.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

That sounds scary. Did anyone ever stop the game because it was too dangerous?

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yes. Things got so intense that in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt had to step in. He was worried because some students were getting hurt trying to play this rough sport.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Wait, the president? Like the guy on the$5 bill? The very one!

SPEAKER_01 4:50

He called representatives from 62 different colleges to the White House in December 1905. He basically said, you must make this game safer, or unbanning it.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Wow. What did they do to make it safer from all that tackling? The biggest change? The forward pass!

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yes! To stop teams from just bunching up and running straight ahead, which was dangerous, they legalised throwing the ball forward. This spaced the players out. So throwing the ball made it safer. That's weird. It spread people out across the field, making those big, dangerous pile-ups less frequent. They also changed the down rule to 10 yards in four tries, which is what we have today. Walter Camp's original five yards in five tries rule was changed forever for safety.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Okay, so by the 1920s it was becoming more like the game we know, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Totally, and a huge moment for the whole country happened much later, on January 15, 1967. That was the date of the very first Super Bowl. The Super Bowl, that's the biggest game ever! It was called the AFL NFL World Championship game back then, between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. It was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and tickets only cost about$12. Can you believe a ticket to the biggest game costs way less than a movie ticket today?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

$12? That's like two candy bars.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Right? The impact was huge. The game moved from muddy college fields where you couldn't even see the lines to professional leagues playing in huge stadiums for millions of people.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

So, what's the biggest difference between those first muddy games and now?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Well, in 1869, they scored goals worth one point, and the final score was 6-4. Now, a touchdown is worth six points. Also, did you know that for a long time you couldn't pass the ball forward more than 20 yards? That rule has changed a lot over time, showing how much the game evolves.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Whoa, more evolution! Wait, wait, do you have any totally weird facts?

SPEAKER_01 7:12

I do. Here's a did you know? The official football used in the NFL is made from four panels of leather, and its circumference has to be between 27.75 and 28.25 inches. That's a very specific size.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

That's so precise. I bet they measure it with a super fancy ruler.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

They do. And one more, Walter Camp, the guy who gave us the rules, he actually helped design the first professional football uniforms to be slightly more protective, even back in the 1880s. He cared a lot about how the game looked and felt.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

So the guy who made it rougher also tried to make it less rough later. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

It's a sport built on constant change, from that first 6-4 score in 1869 to the massive spectacle we see today. Alright, Finn, time for the quiz! We're testing your knowledge on Walter Camp and the beginning of the game.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Okay, I'm ready. But I hope I don't get tackled by a hard question.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

First question: think about the very beginning. What two existing sports was early American football a mix of? Next one, this is about the main rule maker. What was the name of the person known as the father of American football? Question three. This is a super specific number. How many players were on each side in that very first college game in 1869? Here's number four. This was a major safety change. What key event made President Theodore Roosevelt call a meeting about the rough play? Last question. In what year was the very first Super Bowl played? Great job! You survived the gauntlet! Let's see how you did. The first answer is that it started as a mix of soccer and rugby. For question two, the main guy was Walter Camp. Number three, the answer is 25 players on each team. Question 4. The reason Roosevelt stepped in was because of the large number of injuries and the brutal style of play. And the final answer is 1967 for that first Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Wow, from 25 players on a muddy field to stadiums full of people watching the Super Bowl. That's a massive change in about a hundred years.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

It is. It's amazing how one person, like Walter Camp or even President Roosevelt, can change a sport forever just by suggesting a new rule.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Yeah, it really shows how history isn't just kings in battle, but even games.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

That's so true. If you love this deep dive into the evolution of the game, please help other history detectives find us. Can you ask your grown-up to leave us a five-star review? It really helps people find history's not boring. Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap the stars.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yeah, do it for James and Javen, who asked for this episode.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

And if you want to explore more awesome learning games and activities, head over to our site kidopoly.com.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

There's tons of stuff to explore there. Or if you want a shout out next time, or just want to tell us what you think, email us at hello at kidopoly.com.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Thanks so much for exploring the history of the pig skin with us today. Bye for now. See you next time on Histories Not Boring.