I have started a new UA-cam channel solely about college football history called Hardcore College Football History. Here: youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Really love how you did these college football history videos. You genuinely have a really good way of storytelling and relaying information based off your research. First time watcher but once I started the first one I binged the whole series. Thank you for your time and dedication to providing these gems on the history of football. Alot of my knowledge came from around the super bowl Era and later. Nice to dive a little deeper
The pass did not truly become sexy until 1913, when a small Catholic college in Indiana sent its' squad to NYC to face Army. An end by the name of Knute Rockne caught a pair of TDs in a stunning 35-13 win that put Notre Dame on the map.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
I can’t believe your videos don’t have hundreds of thousands of views. I’m not even a huge football fan, but I’m a history buff, and after searching for football history your videos are the only ones that go in depth into the full history of the sport. Nuances and all. You also do a great job speaking and editing, balancing the visuals with video of you narrating. Make more of these videos!
I have moved this to a channel called Hardcore College Football History. I would like to keep doing them, but time is very challenging. But yeah, nobody else are doing these and I would like to continue.
As a community coach bringing the game to kids who have often never even seen a game in the UK, Ive found this series fascinating and has filled in so many of the holes in my knowledge of the history of the games development. I will be using your excellent history to answer all those questions about 'why do they call it football, if you never kick?'...
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
There is a 1908 juvenile prep-school novel (set in 1907), 'Forward Pass' (Barbour) where figuring out how to execute and defend against this new-fangled forward pass play is a major plot point. There are play diagrams. It's quite interesting as a kind of snapshot of the game of the time.
Thank you for your content. I've learned a lot from listening to you. I'm an Australian NRL fan. Do I understand what you mean by 'mass plays' as what the rugby codes (rugby union and rugby league) call rucks and mauls? If so, then those 'set plays' still exist in rugby union. They were scrapped from rugby league shortly after 1895 by the former Northern Rugby Football Union, the forerunner of The Rugby League. By the time rugby league began in Australia in 1908 there were no rucks, mauls or line-outs and there were 13 players instead of 15. The scrum is no longer a contested set play in the NRL or the English Super League. These changes made the old rugby game a better spectacle as rugby league was professional from 1895 and needed ticket sales to survive. Union stayed amateur until 1995. American Football seems to have developed in isolation from rugby union, the 'mother game' of both league and NFL. The start of forward passing in 1905 made your American game very one-dimensional in my opinion as it became easier to throw the ball up-field than to develop other skills. Rugby League borrowed the 'limited tackle rule' from NFL, a version of the 'down'. Limited tackles began in the 1967 Sydney season and was a huge success; it stopped teams from hogging the ball, similar to the historical college game you described.
My grandmother was old enough to remember WW1 ending... she said she saw one football game as a kid and she was turned off from football after seeing guy after guy after guy get carried off the field. I soon realized she saw a game before passing was a thing (though probably legal st the time).
Wonderful series! Learning about the evolution of the game of football has been fascinating. I am mostly interested in professional football and loved discovering where the rules and concepts came from. Thank you so much for these great presentations.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Onside kick in the 1906 sense is similar to a rule still in existence in Canadian football, the kicker and anyone behind them can recover. Sometimes this is used similarly to a fake punt
Thank you for presenting this. The thing I found interesting was the diagram of the defense in response to the forward pass. It listed the pass defenders as the left halfback and right halfback. When I started following football about 1958, that terminology was still being used. They became known as cornerbacks later, but I was surprised that the basic position names lasted so long.
You didn't address the new 1906 4th down rule that promoted the punt. Three fair downs to make 10 yards and 4th try in which the offense can only advance the ball, but lose possession with no possibility of making a "first down." This made punting on fourth down make sense.
@@CornNationIt was worth it. Ready for the next episode. Now that we are seeing, the first major evolutions. That's bringing it to be more recognizable.
Walter Camp created the T-formation in 1882 and in 1905 Fielding Yost said the T-formation was the "regular formation". 1906 passing was legal. 1907 Pop Warner created the single-wing formation specifically for Jim Thorpe as the tailback.
I have moved history! There is a playlist that covers the years 1869 to the creation of “modern” football in 1912. ua-cam.com/play/PLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7.html Note that playlist is on a different channel, focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. If you liked this history video, please like and subscribe on the new channnel! youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
One of the fatalities of early college football was Richard Von Albade Gammon, a University of Georgia player. His mom asked the Governor *not* to sign a law outlawing football in Georgia. All the bill needed was his signature. She wrote a letter to the governor, and thus convinced him to veto it.
There is a playlist that covers the years 1869 to the creation of “modern” football in 1912. ua-cam.com/play/PLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7.html Note that playlist is on a different channel, focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. If you liked this history video, please like and subscribe on the new channnel! youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
After the Harvard and Yale annual football game was suspended for two years after 1894, Theodore Roosevelt, an avid supporter of the sport, sought to “revive the annual Harvard-Yale football series,” while acknowledging that the sport needed to change, according to History
Old stories to me, but I always love hearing them again. 20yrs ago I started a deep dive into college football history, deveoping a ranking and handicapping system, and I went ALL the way back to Rutgers. The first 40yrs of the records were fascinating, like messages in a bottle from another world. 1906 WAS a sea change, but it had to happen, the game had to be matured and cleaned up, as the backlash had reached all the was to the White House!
There is a playlist that covers the years 1869 to the creation of “modern” football in 1912. ua-cam.com/play/PLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7.html Note that playlist is on a different channel, focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. If you liked this history video, please like and subscribe on the new channnel! youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Before the neutral zone, only foot position determined whether one was onside. Thus it was legal for opponents to be in contact at the shoulders, as in the front row of a rugby scrummage, before the ball was put in play. The neutral zone established restraining planes that could not be penetrated, rather than lines that could not be stepped over. 1906 was also not the first time a minimum number on the offensive line (or maximum in the backfield) was required for scrimmage. The year previous it was at least 6 on the line, up to 5 in the backfield. I don't remember which year the minimum of 6 on the line was established, but it succeeded one where the minimum had been 5; these rules were all cycled thru in about a decade.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory Also - there is a playlist for the early history of football: ua-cam.com/video/VOpVrtAzSs8/v-deo.html
Just found your channel. You do stellar work - your videos are outstanding. Learning about the history of football is fascinating. Thank you for sharing
Note that I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory There is an entire playlist on the base history of college football. studio.ua-cam.com/users/playlistPLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7/edit
You have done an excellent job with your history of football videos! They are obviously popular. I’m having fun with your discussions. Could you talk about CTE; I see this as the “death of football”?
I have really enjoyed your videos on the history of football. Thankyou. I listened to another football history years ago. In it the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was mentioned. The coach was Pop Warner. Could you do a video on that? I'm looking forward to more of your videos
I will probably do a series on Carlisle because they deserve it. So you know.... I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
One thing you haven't mentioned so far is the drop kick. I'm assuming that the drop kick disappears when the ball is changed to be pointy on the ends, thus making it bounce unpredictably off the ground. Also, you never addressed the reason for the grid iron markings on the field. I had assumed that the grid iron was part of the 1906 rules, but you mentioned that this happened in the 1880's. I don't understand the purpose. I really enjoyed these videos so far and am looking forward to the rest of the story.
"Gridiron" = yard lines every 5 yards, beginning 1882 to determine first down distance, still on the field today. *Crosshatched* field came later in the effort to discourage mass plays by requiring the ball to go 5 yards laterally on a keeper run or pass. The crosshatching was later limited to the area between the 25 yard lines as certain rules applied only there.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Playing college rugby one afternoon I found myself with the ball surrounded by many opponents, knowing I was about to get mauled I stopped and chucked the ball straight up in the air as high as I could and stepped aside. We all had a big laugh riot about the ensuing cluster fuck during and after the two team 15 keg party. Nobody really said I did the wrong thing, and I was only on the "B" team. I didn't have room to drop kick it.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
The onside kick rule you talked about was also incorporated into the candain rules and stayed there. It's become more notrious lately, because teams are starting to use the dropkick (also still legal anywhere on the field) weakly for a few feet, then picking it up for a first down. Some things never change!
No. *That* type of onside kick -- the one requiring the kick to touch the ground -- was sui generis to American rules. American and Canadian football also allowed players who were onside by other means -- being the kicker or behind the kicker -- to recover the ball even in the air, and Canadian football still does.
I have not, but I have moved newer history videos to another channel: There is a playlist that covers the years 1869 to the creation of “modern” football in 1912. ua-cam.com/play/PLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7.html Note that playlist is on a different channel, focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. If you liked this history video, please like and subscribe on the new channnel! youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
The confusing thing is that there were several types of onside kick: (1) recovery by the team of its own kickoff; (2) the version brought in by the rule change of 1906, which persisted about 2 decades, as described by you; (3) the previously-existing version, by which an onside player during general play could recover his side's kick. This was frequently done as a chip by the quarterback or a halfback. Discussions at the time of "the onside kick" are confusing as a result. Not your fault. Version #1 still exists in American and Canadian football. #3 still exists in Canadian football but was abolished in 1923 in American rules. #2 was revived by the XFL in 2000, and also existed in Arena Football. Version #2 led to a later rule change because it made the quick kick such a great threat. The later change was to make kicking within 5 yards behind the line illegal, and it persisted for a few years after onside kick #2 was abolished.
I hope so too! I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
I loved this video. My wife and I enjoyed it while having a couple beers. I'm so fascinated by the evolution of football here in the States. Thank goodness for the forward pass. I couldn't imagine the game without it. Especially in Green Bay 😊
Well! You have to watch the entire playlist then! ua-cam.com/video/VOpVrtAzSs8/v-deo.html I cover the evolution of the game from 1869 to 1912, with each segment on how the rules changed throughout! I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory All the new history videos I do will be over there!
The first forward pass in the history of professional football was recorded in 1906 by a Massillon, OH, Tigers quarterback named George “Peggy” Parratt against a “combined Benwood-Moundsville team,” according to the my home town and that is where Paul Brown came from
Note that I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory There is an entire playlist on the base history of college football. studio.ua-cam.com/users/playlistPLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7/edit
Wow. Very good and interesting video. Went to the pro football hall of fame in 2019 and, perhaps understandably give its for the nfl specifically, felt it kinda just takes the game as given and doesn't show how it got from its origins as rugby to its distinctiveness that I love. Will definitely recommend to friends and family and will watch this whole series when I get the time
Two things: I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory and the NFL likes to pretend they invented everything themselves. If the NFL wrote the Bible, Genesis would begin in the 1920s.
Might as well bring up here the main alternative that was proposed to the forward pass: widening the field. Supposedly this proposal had a chance but for the fact that the cement had been poured for Soldiers' Field (Harvard's stadium), which could not accommodate significant extra width. It's fun to think about how development might've proceeded by widening the field by, say, 20-40 feet instead of legalizing the forward pass, let alone introducing the ball-hits-the-ground-and-everybody's-onside kick. I think another alternative was limiting the number of first downs a team could get in one continuous possession. That is, instead of a long series of 5 yard advances being strung together to keep a drive going, they'd be forced to give up the ball after a certain number of downs or series regardless of whether they were "moving".
Big difference between football and baseball is that, the pitch clock is the first major change in the rules since the foul strike rule in 1902. Football adjusts the rules almost yearly. I could explain baseball to a foreign sports fan in a half hour. Football would take a season. Baseball is more natural, but you can’t argue with football’s popularity.
Oh, no, baseball is much *less* natural. What other team sport can you think of where you have 2 teams occupying the same ground but doing completely different things? One team running bases, the other team passing a ball in the same space, and they're not allowed to interfere with each other? And the team that can score is the one *without* the ball? Football is relatively simple conceptually -- so much so that there are many varieties of it that differ only in parameters and things players are allowed or disallowed to do.
Love you video's and I'm a Rugby League fan but love the history of not only my sport but Rugby Union, American and Canadian Football as well as Aussie Rules.....as side from Soccer in the perfect world we all be playing the same Oval Ball game.
I played a little rugby at school in the 70s. My clearest memory is ending a game so cold and muddy I couldn't undo the laces on my boots, and having to clomp a mile to my grandmother's house in my studded boots with my tracksuit loosely wrapped round me for warmth, as I couldn't put the trousers on over my boots, nor do up the jacket zip with my frozen fingers.
23:22 No remark on the intercollegiate game being played April 29? One of the aims of what became the NCAA was to reduce football schedules. Games were not limited then to what we think of as football season, and some teams had very full schedules!
@@mramisuzuki6962Actually the first night football game was played the previous decade, but night games were rare. And it's not like teams were traveling a long way to play most games, so the lack of air travel was an insignificant factor on most schedules. Rather, it was wild compared to what you see today because of the large number of games some teams played per year, and how much of the calendar they might extend over. On the other hand, some crammed a lot of games into a short stretch of calendar by not having them spaced out weekly.
Note that I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory There is an entire playlist on the base history of college football. studio.ua-cam.com/users/playlistPLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7/edit
Thanks Jon. Love that you take the time to do the research. The world needs more of that. That cartoon had the guy with a bottle of vichey water. Ha ha ha
At 21:50 ish mark the diagram has the "tight end" labeled "E" and "LE"...why is the "LE" labeled with the "L" and the other end not labeled "RE"? I've not finished watching if the answer is later in this video I do apologize.
Because an End can move off the line in motion and now catch a pass. The LE can only catch passes and is a mirrored platoon position. In reality both would call in as eligible passes catchers and eligible pass rushers anyway so the designated was merely for starting point on play cards. An End = Tight End, LE = Eligible Lineman for modern equivalents.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
I wonder how much modern safety equipment would have made the 1905 rules safer, though obviously taking slapping, throwing, etc. out was a no-brainer. I can't help thinking about rugby, played to this day with minimal safety equipment and you see those mass dives in scrums.
As an Iowa football fan, the idea of punting, having your quarterback punt (see Nate Stanley's pooch kicks on 4th down) and trying your hardest to "out physical" (aka hurt) the opponent's best players still seems very normal to me. Am I living in a 100 year time loop? Probably. Oh, and did I mention the lack of forward pass and the idea that only "tight ends" can catch the ball? Kirk would love these videos.
That was misstated by our narrator. Players on the O line who were not on its ends -- they didn't have to play tight -- were forbidden to catch forward passes. But notice there was no restriction on backs catching them. The rule is the same as it still is today.
In addition to rules changes, can you imagine what those in 1906 would think of the safety precautions and equipment used today? As a Texas boy I remember the arguments made regarding artificial turf and enclosed spaces aka Astro turf in the Astro Dome. The next thing you know they will be selling overpriced food at games. Sorry, I just imagined a college grad of 1905 -- suffered five compound fractures playing old football rules -- reading about the new changes to be made.
Interesting to see how American football evolved. In those early photos and films you can still see a resemblence to rugby that it originally came from. A pity in a way that they didn't follow the English form of the game.
They wanted to, but the Rugby Football Union snubbed the Intercollegiate Football Association when the latter wrote to ask for some clarifying rulings on the laws they'd published that didn't make sense.
Well, then! I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Honestly given the state of health care at the time - who in their right mind would ever play this game? And for almost no money lol. Must have been a lot of suppressed aggression back in the day lol.
Interesting how people in football have generally been open minded about making changes for the better. Whereas baseball people are mostly dead-set against any changes at all, even when it's obvious that something would be better. Question: When did football team colors come into fashion?
I think team colors was very early on because the teams on the field needed to tell their players apart, but ALSO - the fans wanted to know who was rooting for who.
In baseball it's never obvious that a particular change would be better. For instance, to me it's obvious the game would be better if you played with a Spaldeen than with a hardball, but go find others to agree. The safety improvement alone would be vast, and the ball is even cheaper. It's also clear to me the game would be fairer and faster if the home and away teams alternated batting first and second by the inning -- home team batting in the bottom of the odd-numbered innings and the top of even-numbered innings.
14 deaths a year from football? Wow, it really was a brutal game! It sounds like colleges would have dumped football altogether if the rules *hadn't* been changed.
@@goodmaro Well, if you look at it by ratio, I think you'd get a better idea. How many people played football in 1905 compared to how many died? Versus how many people rode bikes or swam in 1905 compared to how many died then. I suspect that there were more swimmers and bikers in 1905 than there were football players. Of course you could look at current numbers, but that's like comparing apples to oranges. You'd have to properly adjust for the variables to get a good comparison.
Hey I love your videos of college football history/origins. It’s a total shame that the destruction of conferences and NIL and the transfer portal. I know you are a Nebraska Fan and I’m a Sooner Fan. I wish we still played every year. I would love to play Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas and LSU every year. The Big 10 and ACC adding West Coast schools is not a good idea. Just like these changes to the rules in the late 1800s the game will survive, but it will punish the other college sports, which is never watch, other than Basketball, occasionally which will be find as well.
Did the onside kick rule in 1906 require that the ball touch the ground like a dropkick, or was a simple punt a "free kick" available to he possessed by everyone? If so, when did the rule change hack to the modern rules? Thanks!
If you mean specifically the type of onside kick adopted in 1906, like on a punt or other kick from scrimmage, then that rule was abolished before 1930. The XFL of 2000 did revive the old rule, though. The rule required that the ball touch the ground beyond the neutral zone, and the kicker, alone of all his team, was ineligible to recover. After two years, they modified it to require the ball touch the ground at least 20 yards downfield; similarly the XFL after a few weeks of its season modified it to require the ball touch 25 yards downfield. Arena football allowed kicking team recovery of all kicks in the air or on the ground, but required that it touch the floor if within 5 yards of the opposing goal line (or in their end zone). Usually that involved rebounds off the rebounding screen.
There is an entire channel now for these history videos called hardcore college football history. Search for that. I moved all the history content to another channel.
Wow... with the first rules on the forward pass, its amazing anyone continued using it. I have no idea how I ended up here, but Im glad I did. Great video. From a Wolverines fan.
1906 was not the earliest rules by which a player could be penalized and disqualified for unnecessary roughness. It's just the first time the list of acts (as examples; it was left open-ended, i.e. "other such acts") you brought out were deemed unnecessary roughness rather than its being left to an official's discretion.
I don't think there's ever been a movie about the early days of football other than the silly George Clooney "Leatherheads". I think you could come up with an interesting script.
I have started a new UA-cam channel solely about college football history called Hardcore College Football History.
Here:
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Really love how you did these college football history videos. You genuinely have a really good way of storytelling and relaying information based off your research. First time watcher but once I started the first one I binged the whole series. Thank you for your time and dedication to providing these gems on the history of football. Alot of my knowledge came from around the super bowl Era and later. Nice to dive a little deeper
I just watched all of your videos in order! These were great. The above link doesn't exist however...I hope I can find your new channel
@@extragoogleaccount6061 Well... what the heck.
The channel is called "Hardcore College Football History"
sorry about the link.
@@extragoogleaccount6061 oh, and thank you for watching!
The pass did not truly become sexy until 1913, when a small Catholic college in Indiana sent its' squad to NYC to face Army. An end by the name of Knute Rockne caught a pair of TDs in a stunning 35-13 win that put Notre Dame on the map.
He knows he did a video on this already.
That’s really cool
I think it became sexy at Yale like everything else in football pre-1930's
@@Sean-zr7vs I didn't know and I imagine many others didn't also.
Good but it was Pat O’Brian not Knute. 🙂
Finally the algorithm gives me something new that’s worth watching.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
I can’t believe your videos don’t have hundreds of thousands of views. I’m not even a huge football fan, but I’m a history buff, and after searching for football history your videos are the only ones that go in depth into the full history of the sport. Nuances and all.
You also do a great job speaking and editing, balancing the visuals with video of you narrating. Make more of these videos!
I have moved this to a channel called Hardcore College Football History. I would like to keep doing them, but time is very challenging.
But yeah, nobody else are doing these and I would like to continue.
Agreed 💯 Great info in these vids. I know quite a bit about football but this history is new knowledge. It's great!
Once he adds Taylor Swift, he views will pick up dramatically.
As a community coach bringing the game to kids who have often never even seen a game in the UK, Ive found this series fascinating and has filled in so many of the holes in my knowledge of the history of the games development. I will be using your excellent history to answer all those questions about 'why do they call it football, if you never kick?'...
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Nice little production here. Deserves more views.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
There is a 1908 juvenile prep-school novel (set in 1907), 'Forward Pass' (Barbour) where figuring out how to execute and defend against this new-fangled forward pass play is a major plot point. There are play diagrams. It's quite interesting as a kind of snapshot of the game of the time.
Thank you for your content. I've learned a lot from listening to you.
I'm an Australian NRL fan. Do I understand what you mean by 'mass plays' as what the rugby codes (rugby union and rugby league) call rucks and mauls? If so, then those 'set plays' still exist in rugby union. They were scrapped from rugby league shortly after 1895 by the former Northern Rugby Football Union, the forerunner of The Rugby League. By the time rugby league began in Australia in 1908 there were no rucks, mauls or line-outs and there were 13 players instead of 15. The scrum is no longer a contested set play in the NRL or the English Super League. These changes made the old rugby game a better spectacle as rugby league was professional from 1895 and needed ticket sales to survive. Union stayed amateur until 1995.
American Football seems to have developed in isolation from rugby union, the 'mother game' of both league and NFL. The start of forward passing in 1905 made your American game very one-dimensional in my opinion as it became easier to throw the ball up-field than to develop other skills.
Rugby League borrowed the 'limited tackle rule' from NFL, a version of the 'down'. Limited tackles began in the 1967 Sydney season and was a huge success; it stopped teams from hogging the ball, similar to the historical college game you described.
Now that mma is so popular maybe a start up league should adopt the old rules (plus forward passing)
This is the most I’ve learned about anything since I graduated from college 35 years ago.
When I was a kid, we just tackled. It never occured for us to knee, strike, etc. I guess because we watched football and also wore helmets.
Interesting on several levels. Good job.
Head over to youtube.com/@CollegeFootballHistory
for more!
My grandmother was old enough to remember WW1 ending... she said she saw one football game as a kid and she was turned off from football after seeing guy after guy after guy get carried off the field. I soon realized she saw a game before passing was a thing (though probably legal st the time).
Wonderful series! Learning about the evolution of the game of football has been fascinating. I am mostly interested in professional football and loved discovering where the rules and concepts came from. Thank you so much for these great presentations.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Great video. Really helpful when trying to understand the evolution from rugby.
Onside kick in the 1906 sense is similar to a rule still in existence in Canadian football, the kicker and anyone behind them can recover. Sometimes this is used similarly to a fake punt
Thank you for presenting this. The thing I found interesting was the diagram of the defense in response to the forward pass. It listed the pass defenders as the left halfback and right halfback. When I started following football about 1958, that terminology was still being used. They became known as cornerbacks later, but I was surprised that the basic position names lasted so long.
Around that time Howard "Hopalong" Cassidy play "defensive halfback" for Ohio State and in 4 years he never allowed a forward pass completion on him.
You didn't address the new 1906 4th down rule that promoted the punt.
Three fair downs to make 10 yards and 4th try in which the offense can only advance the ball, but lose possession with no possibility of making a "first down." This made punting on fourth down make sense.
Very thorough. Great work.
Peace.
I've been waiting for this!
was it worth the wait?
@@CornNationIt was worth it. Ready for the next episode. Now that we are seeing, the first major evolutions. That's bringing it to be more recognizable.
Walter Camp created the T-formation in 1882 and in 1905 Fielding Yost said the T-formation was the "regular formation". 1906 passing was legal. 1907 Pop Warner created the single-wing formation specifically for Jim Thorpe as the tailback.
No, Walter Camp did not create that.
Just came across this. Thanks for your work here. Enjoy viewing it.
I really appreciate your videos and content. Keep them coming!
I have moved history!
There is a playlist that covers the years 1869 to the creation of “modern” football in 1912.
ua-cam.com/play/PLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7.html
Note that playlist is on a different channel, focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. If you liked this history video, please like and subscribe on the new channnel!
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
One of the fatalities of early college football was Richard Von Albade Gammon, a University of Georgia player. His mom asked the Governor *not* to sign a law outlawing football in Georgia. All the bill needed was his signature. She wrote a letter to the governor, and thus convinced him to veto it.
That is on the docket on the other channel where I have continued my history videos.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Thanks again for another great video
There is a playlist that covers the years 1869 to the creation of “modern” football in 1912.
ua-cam.com/play/PLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7.html
Note that playlist is on a different channel, focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. If you liked this history video, please like and subscribe on the new channnel!
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
After the Harvard and Yale annual football game was suspended for two years after 1894, Theodore Roosevelt, an avid supporter of the sport, sought to “revive the annual Harvard-Yale football series,” while acknowledging that the sport needed to change, according to History
Old stories to me, but I always love hearing them again. 20yrs ago I started a deep dive into college football history, deveoping a ranking and handicapping system, and I went ALL the way back to Rutgers. The first 40yrs of the records were fascinating, like messages in a bottle from another world. 1906 WAS a sea change, but it had to happen, the game had to be matured and cleaned up, as the backlash had reached all the was to the White House!
Wow! Early football was a prison yard brawl with the addition of a ball!
Great series. Thanks for putting this together.
There is a playlist that covers the years 1869 to the creation of “modern” football in 1912.
ua-cam.com/play/PLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7.html
Note that playlist is on a different channel, focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. If you liked this history video, please like and subscribe on the new channnel!
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Nice job researching old articles and bringing this to us. Thanks
Thank you!
Nice video, thanks!
Before the neutral zone, only foot position determined whether one was onside. Thus it was legal for opponents to be in contact at the shoulders, as in the front row of a rugby scrummage, before the ball was put in play. The neutral zone established restraining planes that could not be penetrated, rather than lines that could not be stepped over.
1906 was also not the first time a minimum number on the offensive line (or maximum in the backfield) was required for scrimmage. The year previous it was at least 6 on the line, up to 5 in the backfield. I don't remember which year the minimum of 6 on the line was established, but it succeeded one where the minimum had been 5; these rules were all cycled thru in about a decade.
History + Football? Hell yes
Happy to have stumbled upon this gem.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history.
There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Also - there is a playlist for the early history of football:
ua-cam.com/video/VOpVrtAzSs8/v-deo.html
Just found your channel. You do stellar work - your videos are outstanding. Learning about the history of football is fascinating. Thank you for sharing
Note that I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
There is an entire playlist on the base history of college football.
studio.ua-cam.com/users/playlistPLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7/edit
6:35 talking about Hurdling and basically confirms why I believe the Tush Push is an illegal play
You have done an excellent job with your history of football videos! They are obviously popular. I’m having fun with your discussions. Could you talk about CTE; I see this as the “death of football”?
I have really enjoyed your videos on the history of football. Thankyou. I listened to another football history years ago. In it the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was mentioned. The coach was Pop Warner. Could you do a video on that? I'm looking forward to more of your videos
I will probably do a series on Carlisle because they deserve it.
So you know.... I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
One thing you haven't mentioned so far is the drop kick. I'm assuming that the drop kick disappears when the ball is changed to be pointy on the ends, thus making it bounce unpredictably off the ground.
Also, you never addressed the reason for the grid iron markings on the field. I had assumed that the grid iron was part of the 1906 rules, but you mentioned that this happened in the 1880's. I don't understand the purpose.
I really enjoyed these videos so far and am looking forward to the rest of the story.
He points out the grid with an explanation in a previous video
He describes the development and purpose of the gridiron in one of his previous football history videos. He made many
"Gridiron" = yard lines every 5 yards, beginning 1882 to determine first down distance, still on the field today. *Crosshatched* field came later in the effort to discourage mass plays by requiring the ball to go 5 yards laterally on a keeper run or pass. The crosshatching was later limited to the area between the 25 yard lines as certain rules applied only there.
This is a really good series about the beginning of football. Thanks for your work.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Playing college rugby one afternoon I found myself with the ball surrounded by many opponents, knowing I was about to get mauled I stopped and chucked the ball straight up in the air as high as I could and stepped aside.
We all had a big laugh riot about the ensuing cluster fuck during and after the two team 15 keg party.
Nobody really said I did the wrong thing, and I was only on the "B" team.
I didn't have room to drop kick it.
Man I love these kind of videos. Sports & History are my two things im hugely into. Even though im a Mizzou fan, Subscribed!
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
The onside kick rule you talked about was also incorporated into the candain rules and stayed there. It's become more notrious lately, because teams are starting to use the dropkick (also still legal anywhere on the field) weakly for a few feet, then picking it up for a first down. Some things never change!
No. *That* type of onside kick -- the one requiring the kick to touch the ground -- was sui generis to American rules. American and Canadian football also allowed players who were onside by other means -- being the kicker or behind the kicker -- to recover the ball even in the air, and Canadian football still does.
Have you done the story between Georgia Tech/Harvard home/home in consecutive years with the elbows of Georgia Tech and the footballs at Harvard?
I have not, but I have moved newer history videos to another channel:
There is a playlist that covers the years 1869 to the creation of “modern” football in 1912.
ua-cam.com/play/PLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7.html
Note that playlist is on a different channel, focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there. If you liked this history video, please like and subscribe on the new channnel!
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
The confusing thing is that there were several types of onside kick:
(1) recovery by the team of its own kickoff;
(2) the version brought in by the rule change of 1906, which persisted about 2 decades, as described by you;
(3) the previously-existing version, by which an onside player during general play could recover his side's kick. This was frequently done as a chip by the quarterback or a halfback.
Discussions at the time of "the onside kick" are confusing as a result. Not your fault.
Version #1 still exists in American and Canadian football. #3 still exists in Canadian football but was abolished in 1923 in American rules. #2 was revived by the XFL in 2000, and also existed in Arena Football.
Version #2 led to a later rule change because it made the quick kick such a great threat. The later change was to make kicking within 5 yards behind the line illegal, and it persisted for a few years after onside kick #2 was abolished.
Excellent episode.
Hey John, great job and thanks for doing this labor of love. Very informative. I hope it eventually turns into a labor of piles of money. God bless.
I hope so too!
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Just found your channel ,John. Really informative and enjoyable. I'm subscribed now. Thanks.
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Jon great video. I can tell you put a lot of time and effort into makes these history videos. Great job. See you tonight
Thank you!
THANKS BRUH
GOOD STUFF
I loved this video. My wife and I enjoyed it while having a couple beers. I'm so fascinated by the evolution of football here in the States. Thank goodness for the forward pass. I couldn't imagine the game without it. Especially in Green Bay 😊
Well! You have to watch the entire playlist then!
ua-cam.com/video/VOpVrtAzSs8/v-deo.html
I cover the evolution of the game from 1869 to 1912, with each segment on how the rules changed throughout!
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
All the new history videos I do will be over there!
This is a really cool series. Interesting how Unnecessary Roughness has evolved.
Best invention of the 20th century
Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge!
The onside kick, as described in this video, is still a thing in the CFL.
This was great. Definitely do more!
Thank you!
Props for the use of proper attribution!
The first forward pass in the history of professional football was recorded in 1906 by a Massillon, OH, Tigers quarterback named George “Peggy” Parratt against a “combined Benwood-Moundsville team,” according to the my home town and that is where Paul Brown came from
My cousin played for Yale in the last four seasons before these rule changes, but sometimes coached Yale for the next decade. He died in 1915.
Absolutely amazing channel❤
Note that I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
There is an entire playlist on the base history of college football.
studio.ua-cam.com/users/playlistPLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7/edit
As a dedicated...constantly sorrowful Arkansas fanatic...i LOVE me some CornNation...keep growin' ...and keep on keepin' on..!👍
Wow. Very good and interesting video. Went to the pro football hall of fame in 2019 and, perhaps understandably give its for the nfl specifically, felt it kinda just takes the game as given and doesn't show how it got from its origins as rugby to its distinctiveness that I love. Will definitely recommend to friends and family and will watch this whole series when I get the time
Two things:
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
and the NFL likes to pretend they invented everything themselves. If the NFL wrote the Bible, Genesis would begin in the 1920s.
Great video Jon!!! Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
I think the rest will be shorter than this one...
@@CornNation I definitely don't mind the length as it was great content! Thank you!
Might as well bring up here the main alternative that was proposed to the forward pass: widening the field. Supposedly this proposal had a chance but for the fact that the cement had been poured for Soldiers' Field (Harvard's stadium), which could not accommodate significant extra width. It's fun to think about how development might've proceeded by widening the field by, say, 20-40 feet instead of legalizing the forward pass, let alone introducing the ball-hits-the-ground-and-everybody's-onside kick.
I think another alternative was limiting the number of first downs a team could get in one continuous possession. That is, instead of a long series of 5 yard advances being strung together to keep a drive going, they'd be forced to give up the ball after a certain number of downs or series regardless of whether they were "moving".
Big difference between football and baseball is that, the pitch clock is the first major change in the rules since the foul strike rule in 1902. Football adjusts the rules almost yearly. I could explain baseball to a foreign sports fan in a half hour. Football would take a season. Baseball is more natural, but you can’t argue with football’s popularity.
Oh, no, baseball is much *less* natural. What other team sport can you think of where you have 2 teams occupying the same ground but doing completely different things? One team running bases, the other team passing a ball in the same space, and they're not allowed to interfere with each other? And the team that can score is the one *without* the ball? Football is relatively simple conceptually -- so much so that there are many varieties of it that differ only in parameters and things players are allowed or disallowed to do.
Love you video's and I'm a Rugby League fan but love the history of not only my sport but Rugby Union, American and Canadian Football as well as Aussie Rules.....as side from Soccer in the perfect world we all be playing the same Oval Ball game.
I played a little rugby at school in the 70s. My clearest memory is ending a game so cold and muddy I couldn't undo the laces on my boots, and having to clomp a mile to my grandmother's house in my studded boots with my tracksuit loosely wrapped round me for warmth, as I couldn't put the trousers on over my boots, nor do up the jacket zip with my frozen fingers.
If they had the forward pass when Pudge Heffelfinger played he would have had 25 sacks/season! Pudge Heffelfinger!
23:22 No remark on the intercollegiate game being played April 29? One of the aims of what became the NCAA was to reduce football schedules. Games were not limited then to what we think of as football season, and some teams had very full schedules!
The football schedule was wild because of no lights and no planes.
@@mramisuzuki6962Actually the first night football game was played the previous decade, but night games were rare. And it's not like teams were traveling a long way to play most games, so the lack of air travel was an insignificant factor on most schedules. Rather, it was wild compared to what you see today because of the large number of games some teams played per year, and how much of the calendar they might extend over. On the other hand, some crammed a lot of games into a short stretch of calendar by not having them spaced out weekly.
Love your channel and your personality is great. More wronger than me, I really liked that, very informative, thankyou.
Note that I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
There is an entire playlist on the base history of college football.
studio.ua-cam.com/users/playlistPLAti6r2hzjA0txdecWJeMou5YvFMS24T7/edit
I think that in the original pass rules, the backs, who were not on the line of scrimmage, are also eligible receivers, not just the ends.
Thanks Jon. Love that you take the time to do the research. The world needs more of that. That cartoon had the guy with a bottle of vichey water. Ha ha ha
We should start a football league pre 1906 rules
At 21:50 ish mark the diagram has the "tight end" labeled "E" and "LE"...why is the "LE" labeled with the "L" and the other end not labeled "RE"? I've not finished watching if the answer is later in this video I do apologize.
Because an End can move off the line in motion and now catch a pass. The LE can only catch passes and is a mirrored platoon position. In reality both would call in as eligible passes catchers and eligible pass rushers anyway so the designated was merely for starting point on play cards. An End = Tight End, LE = Eligible Lineman for modern equivalents.
great video, thanks for sharing. +1 sub
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
The original onside-kick is still used in Aussie rules football, and in rugby.
I think you meant Canadian, not Aussie.
I wonder how much modern safety equipment would have made the 1905 rules safer, though obviously taking slapping, throwing, etc. out was a no-brainer. I can't help thinking about rugby, played to this day with minimal safety equipment and you see those mass dives in scrums.
As an Iowa football fan, the idea of punting, having your quarterback punt (see Nate Stanley's pooch kicks on 4th down) and trying your hardest to "out physical" (aka hurt) the opponent's best players still seems very normal to me. Am I living in a 100 year time loop? Probably.
Oh, and did I mention the lack of forward pass and the idea that only "tight ends" can catch the ball?
Kirk would love these videos.
That was misstated by our narrator. Players on the O line who were not on its ends -- they didn't have to play tight -- were forbidden to catch forward passes. But notice there was no restriction on backs catching them. The rule is the same as it still is today.
In addition to rules changes, can you imagine what those in 1906 would think of the safety precautions and equipment used today? As a Texas boy I remember the arguments made regarding artificial turf and enclosed spaces aka Astro turf in the Astro Dome. The next thing you know they will be selling overpriced food at games. Sorry, I just imagined a college grad of 1905 -- suffered five compound fractures playing old football rules -- reading about the new changes to be made.
Interesting to see how American football evolved. In those early photos and films you can still see a resemblence to rugby that it originally came from. A pity in a way that they didn't follow the English form of the game.
They wanted to, but the Rugby Football Union snubbed the Intercollegiate Football Association when the latter wrote to ask for some clarifying rulings on the laws they'd published that didn't make sense.
Excellent stuff.
Thanks.
I don’t even watch football.
Well, then!
I have created a new channel focused on college football history. There are more history videos available over there.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
Honestly given the state of health care at the time - who in their right mind would ever play this game? And for almost no money lol. Must have been a lot of suppressed aggression back in the day lol.
Interesting how people in football have generally been open minded about making changes for the better. Whereas baseball people are mostly dead-set against any changes at all, even when it's obvious that something would be better.
Question: When did football team colors come into fashion?
I think team colors was very early on because the teams on the field needed to tell their players apart, but ALSO - the fans wanted to know who was rooting for who.
In baseball it's never obvious that a particular change would be better. For instance, to me it's obvious the game would be better if you played with a Spaldeen than with a hardball, but go find others to agree. The safety improvement alone would be vast, and the ball is even cheaper. It's also clear to me the game would be fairer and faster if the home and away teams alternated batting first and second by the inning -- home team batting in the bottom of the odd-numbered innings and the top of even-numbered innings.
you should do a video on yale, harvard, and princeton, and penn
I have moved most of this over to a channel focused on college football history.
youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory
14 deaths a year from football? Wow, it really was a brutal game! It sounds like colleges would have dumped football altogether if the rules *hadn't* been changed.
Compare with the number of deaths a year from bicycling or swimming, and you'll see it's not so out of line.
@@goodmaro Well, if you look at it by ratio, I think you'd get a better idea. How many people played football in 1905 compared to how many died? Versus how many people rode bikes or swam in 1905 compared to how many died then. I suspect that there were more swimmers and bikers in 1905 than there were football players. Of course you could look at current numbers, but that's like comparing apples to oranges. You'd have to properly adjust for the variables to get a good comparison.
The Chicago Bears still rue the day the forward pass was introduced (and play accordingly).
This was awesome
St Louis Post Dispatch has a few good articles on passing history.
Looking for the Oklahoma vs Oklahoma A&M Bedlam game November 6, 1904
Hey I love your videos of college football history/origins. It’s a total shame that the destruction of conferences and NIL and the transfer portal. I know you are a Nebraska Fan and I’m a Sooner Fan. I wish we still played every year. I would love to play Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas and LSU every year. The Big 10 and ACC adding West Coast schools is not a good idea. Just like these changes to the rules in the late 1800s the game will survive, but it will punish the other college sports, which is never watch, other than Basketball, occasionally which will be find as well.
is hurdling or a mass play a tush push?
I'm not a Nebraska fan (I'm an LSU and Alabama guy) but I enjoy your passion. Love this football history video! Keep it up!
Typical SEC fan. Make a choice.
I didn't know you could be both.
Did the onside kick rule in 1906 require that the ball touch the ground like a dropkick, or was a simple punt a "free kick" available to he possessed by everyone? If so, when did the rule change hack to the modern rules? Thanks!
If you mean specifically the type of onside kick adopted in 1906, like on a punt or other kick from scrimmage, then that rule was abolished before 1930. The XFL of 2000 did revive the old rule, though. The rule required that the ball touch the ground beyond the neutral zone, and the kicker, alone of all his team, was ineligible to recover. After two years, they modified it to require the ball touch the ground at least 20 yards downfield; similarly the XFL after a few weeks of its season modified it to require the ball touch 25 yards downfield.
Arena football allowed kicking team recovery of all kicks in the air or on the ground, but required that it touch the floor if within 5 yards of the opposing goal line (or in their end zone). Usually that involved rebounds off the rebounding screen.
How many rules were there to give the ball to other team if the play didn't go as planned??
Was there a video for between 1880 and 1905?
There is an entire channel now for these history videos called hardcore college football history.
Search for that. I moved all the history content to another channel.
What is the earliest filmed forward pass?
That is an excellent question. I don't know. I will put that in my list of topics!
Wow... with the first rules on the forward pass, its amazing anyone continued using it. I have no idea how I ended up here, but Im glad I did. Great video. From a Wolverines fan.
1906 was not the earliest rules by which a player could be penalized and disqualified for unnecessary roughness. It's just the first time the list of acts (as examples; it was left open-ended, i.e. "other such acts") you brought out were deemed unnecessary roughness rather than its being left to an official's discretion.
I think he covered this in a previous video?
Jon, have you heard the rumors of jordy Bahl leaving Ou and coming back home and playing at Nebraska?
Well, I hadn't, but it's now on the front page of ESPN, so... wow. That's pretty incredible.
@@CornNation she’s amazing. Wish her the best. You’ll have to keep tabs on the softball team now.
It was literally blood bowl
Watching this and thinking "I watch MMA every weekend and the throw elbows and knees all day".
Is there a movie about this?
I don't think there's ever been a movie about the early days of football other than the silly George Clooney "Leatherheads". I think you could come up with an interesting script.