Walter Camp: The Real Founder of American Football

Football season has begun and the sport is in full swing. Most sports fans love the ruggedness of American Football. It’s not a sport sought by the weak. Fans follow their teams and root them on at home, at games, and businesses. This is a little history to enhance the appreciation of the cherished American game. Rule changes in rugby football delivered present day American Football. Walter Camp instituted changes helped define the modern game. The rule changes instituted in 1879 gave football its start. College coaches also contributed to changes in action that helped football become a popular sport in the US. The popularity of school football is exactly what pushed the sports dominance within the Twentieth century.
Walter Camp grew up in Connecticut and studied at Yale. In the time of 1888 to 1914, Camp served as the main athletic director and head football coach for Yale University. He played football at Yale and started probably the most notable and renowned rule alterations in the game. Due to these significant rule changes, he is also known as the founder or father of American Football. Rules were revised from the popular games of rugby and soccer to produce a new set of standards for football. William Ebb Ellis also influenced these changes by running the ball in the middle of a rugby game in 1823. This was definitely an immediate breach from the existing rules and paved the way for more changes. A convention held in 1876 formed the first rules today’s football. Once the rules had been defined, Walter Camp continued to edit and change rulebooks until he handed it down in 1925.
Walter Camp contributed significant football adaptations that now make the game what it is today. He reduced the size of the team from fifteen to eleven. He made the line of scrimmage. A team was set to have undisputed possession until their own violations force them to give up the ball. Two new positions were created: quarterback and center. The forward pass also was introduced by Walter Camp. A typical scoring system and numerical scoring were outlined. Other noteworthy changes included safeties, interferences, and penalties. In 1888, above knee tackling was permitted. Then in 1912, touchdown and field goal points were changed to six and three points. All are very important changes that molded American Football into its modern day creation.
The nation’s Football League didn’t actually form until 1920. During this period, many teams dropped from the league and did not play their set schedules. An overall total of four teams played the complete season. One year later twenty-one teams became members of the NFL. Membership continued to grow and also the first playoff game was officially played in 1932. The NFL Players association and additional developments in the fifties helped stabilize the leagues presence over the next several years. Without the rule changes of Walter Camp, several advancements may have never happened . Thus we pay tribute to his dedication to this exciting game that people have all grown familiar with.
Walter Camp’s rugby rule revisions lead him to the most famous contributor to modern football. You’ll find much more of Leo Wells inspiring sport discussions at Leo-wells-on-sports.com.
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