American Football History

Any avid American football buff will love to learn about the history of American football. Most people know that the history American football beginnings start in England, in 1823 at a Rugby Boy’s School. Soccer is known as another cousin of American football as well. During the time that rugby was being played in England, students at Princeton began playing a game they called “ballown”. They would use both their feet and fists to get the ball to go past the opposing team. This, of course, was another early version of football and had not rules that were set in concrete at the time.

American football history continues into Harvard where some of the classes began playing a game that closely resembled football. It was played on Mondays and called “Bloody Monday” because of how rough the game soon became. Then around 1865, after the American Civil War many colleges began to create planned football games. And in 1867 some of the early rules of American football were created at Princeton. It was also during this same year that the game was first patented.

The history of American football continues with Rutgers College taking an important roll by creating solid rules in 1867. And, on 1869 the first official football game between Princeton and Rutgers College took place. Rutgers College won. The history of the American football had yet another important milestone occur in 1873 when Rutgers, Princeton, Columbia and Yale met to create agreed upon intercollegiate rules for the game of football. This was when fifteen members on a team became established.

The history and development of American football continues and after about a decade of experiencing the rough and brutal characteristics of the game, many colleges began to ban football. Within that time approximately one hundred and eighty students had been hurt seriously and there were about eighteen deaths that were reported. It was President Roosevelt who approached Yale, Harvard and Princeton to try to help preserve the sport.

American football league history began around 1895 and in 1920 the American Professional Football Association was created. The American football league history changed again about a year later when the association was renamed to the National Football League or the NFL in 1922.

As you can see there is much you can learn about the American football history. You can even learn about American football uniforms history if you are so interested. American football has played a huge part of the American history overall and its details and changes are very important to many people.