Former capacity :
125-589: Harvard Stadium is a U-shaped college football stadium in the Allston neighborhood of Boston , Massachusetts. The stadium is owned and operated by Harvard University and is home to the Harvard Crimson football program. In its current form, Harvard Stadium seats just over 25,000 spectators. Built in 1903, it was a pioneering execution of reinforced concrete in the construction of large structures. Because of its early importance in these areas, and its influence on
250-454: A Native American , taught Reiter to throw an underhand spiral pass, but Reiter had short arms and was unable to throw for distance from an underhand delivery. Accordingly, Reiter began working on an overhand spiral pass. Reiter recalled trying to imitate the motion of a baseball catcher throwing to second base. After practice and experimentation, Reiter "discovered he could get greater distance and accuracy throwing that way". In 1906, Reiter
375-552: A 0–0 tie. The Army–Navy game of 1893 saw the first documented use of a football helmet by a player in a game. Joseph M. Reeves had a crude leather helmet made by a shoemaker in Annapolis and wore it in the game after being warned by his doctor that he risked death if he continued to play football after suffering an earlier kick to the head. In 1879, the University of Michigan became the first school west of Pennsylvania to establish
500-459: A 20-yard touchdown pass to Jack Schneider . The 1906 Saint Louis University team, coached by Eddie Cochems , was undefeated at 11–0 and featured the most potent offense in the country, outscoring their opponents 407–11. Football authority and College Football Hall of Fame coach David M. Nelson wrote that "E. B. Cochems is to forward passing what the Wright brothers are to aviation and Thomas Edison
625-456: A 56-game undefeated streak that included a 1902 trip to play in the first college football bowl game , which later became the Rose Bowl Game . During this streak, Michigan scored 2,831 points while allowing only 40. Organized intercollegiate football was first played in the state of Minnesota on September 30, 1882, when Hamline was convinced to play Minnesota . Minnesota won 2 to 0. It
750-442: A Dartmouth record which still stands. The 1925 Michigan team was coach Fielding H. Yost 's favorite and featured the passing tandem of Benny Friedman and Bennie Oosterbaan . Yost disciple Dan McGugin coached Vanderbilt and was one of the first emphasize the forward pass. His 1907 team beat Sewanee on a double pass play Grantland Rice cited as his biggest thrill in his years of watching sports. McGugin's 1927 team
875-503: A college football team. On May 30, 1879, Michigan beat Racine College 1–0 in a game played in Chicago. The Chicago Daily Tribune called it "the first rugby-football game to be played west of the Alleghenies ." Other Midwestern schools soon followed suit, including the University of Chicago , Northwestern University , and the University of Minnesota . The first western team to travel east
1000-447: A great deal to Harvard's rugby. They decided to play with 15 players on each team. On November 13, 1875, Yale and Harvard played each other for the first time ever, where Harvard won 4–0. At the first The Game (as the annual contest between Harvard and Yale came to be named) the future "father of American football" Walter Camp was among the 2000 spectators in attendance. Walter, a native of New Britain, Connecticut , would enroll at Yale
1125-536: A liking to the rugby game, and its use of the try which, until that time, was not used in American football. The try would later evolve into the score known as the touchdown . On June 4, 1875, Harvard faced Tufts University in the first game between two American colleges played under rules similar to the McGill/Harvard contest, which was won by Tufts 1–0. The rules included each side fielding 11 men at any given time,
1250-568: A memorial to Harvard men who had died in the Civil War (1861–1865). The structure, similar in shape to the Panathenaic Stadium , was completed in just 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 months, costing $ 310,000. Much of the funds raised came from a 25th reunion gift by Harvard's Class of 1879. It is the home of Harvard's football team. The stadium also hosted the Crimson track and field teams until 1984 and
1375-487: A new code of rules based on the rugby game first introduced to Harvard by McGill University in 1874. Three of the schools—Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton—formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, as a result of the meeting. Yale initially refused to join this association because of a disagreement over the number of players to be allowed per team (relenting in 1879) and Rutgers were not invited to
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#17328515601501500-406: A passer to intentionally throw an incomplete forward pass to save loss of yardage or conserve time, except for a spike to conserve time after a hand-to-hand snap. If he throws the ball away while still in the pocket then a foul called "intentional grounding" is assessed. In Canadian football the passer must simply throw the ball across the line of scrimmage – whether he is inside or outside of
1625-399: A penalty of varying degrees, depending upon the particular league's rules. The moment that a forward pass begins is important to the game. The pass begins the moment the passer's arm begins to move forward. If the passer drops the ball before this moment it is a fumble and therefore a loose ball . In this case anybody can gain possession of the ball before or after it touches the ground. If
1750-499: A player to pick up the ball and run with it whenever he wished. Another rule, unique to McGill, was to count tries (the act of grounding the football past the opposing team's goal line; there was no end zone during this time), as well as goals, in the scoring. In the Rugby rules of the time, a try only provided the attempt to kick a free goal from the field. If the kick was missed, the try did not score any points itself. Harvard quickly took
1875-621: A professional football game may have been thrown in an Ohio League game played on October 25, 1906. The Ohio League, which traced its history to the 1890s, was a direct predecessor of the NFL . According to Robert W. Peterson in his book Pigskin The Early Years of Pro Football , the "passer was George W. (Peggy) Parratt , probably the best quarterback of the era", who played for the Massillon, Ohio Tigers , one of pro football's first franchises. Citing
2000-462: A professional roster spot as an undrafted free agent . Despite these opportunities, only around 1.6% of NCAA college football players end up playing professionally in the NFL. Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League (NFL), college football has remained extremely popular throughout the U.S. Although the college game has a much larger margin for talent than its pro counterpart,
2125-504: A rougher version of football called "the Boston Game" in which the kicking of a round ball was the most prominent feature though a player could run with the ball, pass it, or dribble it (known as "babying"). The man with the ball could be tackled, although hitting, tripping, "hacking" and other unnecessary roughness was prohibited. There was no limit to the number of players, but there were typically ten to fifteen per side. A player could carry
2250-524: A round ball instead of a rugby-style oblong ball. This series of games represents an important milestone in the development of the modern game of American football. In October 1874, the Harvard team once again traveled to Montreal to play McGill in rugby, where they won by three tries. In as much as Rugby football had been transplanted to Canada from England, the McGill team played under a set of rules which allowed
2375-537: A team be required to advance the ball a minimum of five yards within three downs. These down-and-distance rules, combined with the establishment of the line of scrimmage, transformed the game from a variation of rugby football into the distinct sport of American football. Camp was central to several more significant rule changes that came to define American football. In 1881, the field was reduced in size to its modern dimensions of 120 by 53 1 ⁄ 3 yards (109.7 by 48.8 meters). Several times in 1883, Camp tinkered with
2500-551: A touchdown. In a 1905 experimental game at Wichita, Kansas , Washburn University and Fairmount College (what would become Wichita State ) used the pass before new rules allowing the play were approved in early 1906. Credit for the first pass goes to Fairmount's Bill Davis, who completed a pass to Art Solter. 1905 had been a bloody year on the gridiron; the Chicago Tribune reported 19 players had been killed and 159 seriously injured that season. There were moves to outlaw
2625-505: A youth, he excelled in sports like track , baseball, and association football, and after enrolling at Yale in 1876, he earned varsity honors in every sport the school offered. Following the introduction of rugby-style rules to American football, Camp became a fixture at the Massasoit House conventions where rules were debated and changed. Dissatisfied with what seemed to him to be a disorganized mob, he proposed his first rule change at
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#17328515601502750-462: Is also the host of music festivals like the Amandla Festival , where Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley performed a historic concert in 1979. Janis Joplin performed her last show at the stadium in 1970, shortly before her death. Other concerts included those by Miles Davis , Ray Charles , Van Morrison , The Band , B.B. King , Ike & Tina Turner , James Taylor , Joan Baez , Sly and
2875-581: Is generally considered to be the second tier of American and Canadian football; ahead of high school competition , but below professional competition . In some parts of the United States, especially the South and Midwest , college football is more popular than professional football. For much of the 20th century, college football was generally considered to be more prestigious than professional football. The overwhelming majority of professional football players in
3000-839: Is most popular in the United States and Canada. While no single governing body exists for college football in the United States, most schools, especially those at the highest levels of play, are members of the NCAA . In Canada, collegiate football competition is governed by U Sports for universities. The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (for colleges) governs soccer and other sports but not gridiron football. Other countries, such as Mexico , Japan and South Korea , also host college football leagues with modest levels of support. Unlike most other major sports in North America , no official minor league farm organizations exist for American football or Canadian football . Therefore, college football
3125-620: Is to the electric light." While Saint Louis University completed the first legal forward pass in the first half of September, this accomplishment was in part because most schools did not begin their football schedule until early October. In 1952, football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg discounted accounts crediting any particular coach with being the innovator of the forward pass. Stagg noted that he had Walter Eckersall working on pass plays and saw Pomeroy Sinnock of Illinois throw many passes in 1906. Stagg summed up his view as follows: "I have seen statements giving credit to certain people originating
3250-425: Is used to determine a quarterback's success rate at passing in various situations, as well as a team's overall success at the passing game. In gridiron football , a forward pass is usually referred to simply as a pass, and consists of a player throwing the football towards the opponent's goal line. This is permitted only once during a scrimmage down by the offensive team before team possession has changed, provided
3375-658: Is widely regarded as having originated with a game played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, the first recorded non-university football club in Canada. Early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional " mob football " played in Great Britain. The games remained largely unorganized until
3500-588: The Heisman Trophy , wrote 30 years later that, indeed, the Tar Heels had given birth to the forward pass against the Bulldogs (UGA). It was conceived to break a scoreless deadlock and give UNC a 6–0 win. The Carolinians were in a punting situation and a Georgia rush seemed destined to block the ball. The punter, with an impromptu dash to his right, tossed the ball and it was caught by George Stephens , who ran 70 yards for
3625-465: The NFL and other leagues previously played college football. The NFL draft each spring sees 224 players selected and offered a contract to play in the league, with the vast majority coming from the NCAA . Other professional leagues, such as the CFL and UFL , additionally hold their own drafts each year which also see primarily college players selected. Players who are not selected can still attempt to obtain
3750-662: The Old Main lawn on campus in State College, Pennsylvania . They compiled a 12–8–1 record in these seasons, playing as an independent from 1887 to 1890. In 1891, the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Football Association (PIFA) was formed. It consisted of Bucknell University , Dickinson College , Franklin & Marshall College , Haverford College , Penn State, and Swarthmore College . Lafayette College , and Lehigh University were excluded because it
3875-609: The Professional Football Researchers Association as his source, Peterson writes that "Parratt completed a short pass to end Dan Riley (real name, Dan Policowski )" in a game played at Massillon against a team from West Virginia. Since the Tigers "ran up a 61 to 0 score on the hapless Mountain Staters, the pass played no important part in the result". According to National Football League history, it legalized
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4000-448: The Times also reflected widespread skepticism as to whether the forward pass could be effectively integrated into the game: "There has been no team that has proved that the forward pass is anything but a doubtful, dangerous play to be used only in the last extremity." John Heisman was instrumental in the rules' acceptance. In Canadian football, the first exhibition game using a forward pass
4125-482: The United Press : I was the right halfback, and on this formation played one yard back of our right tackle. The quarterback, Sam Moore, took the ball from center and faded eight or 10 yards back of our line. Our two ends angled down the field toward the sidelines as a decoy, and I slipped through the strong side of our line straight down the center and past the secondary defense. The pass worked perfectly. However,
4250-401: The "pocket"—to avoid the foul of "intentionally grounding". If a forward pass is caught near a sideline or endline it is a complete pass (or an interception) only if a receiver catches the ball "in bounds". For a pass to be ruled complete in-bounds, either one or two feet must touch the ground within the field boundaries after the ball is first grasped, depending on the league rules. In the NFL
4375-401: The 19th century, when intramural games of football began to be played on college campuses. Each school played its own variety of football. Princeton University students played a game called "ballown" as early as 1820. In 1827, a Harvard tradition known as "Bloody Monday" began, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes. In 1860, both the town police and
4500-625: The Alleghanies ..." Once the 1906 season got underway, many programs began experimenting with the forward pass. On September 26, 1906, Villanova's game against the Carlisle Indians was billed as "the first real game of football under the new rules". In the first play from scrimmage after the opening kicks, Villanova completed a pass that "succeeded in gaining ten yards". Following the Villanova-Carlisle game, The New York Times described
4625-515: The College of New Jersey, in the first collegiate football game . The game more closely resembled soccer than football as it is played in the 21st century. It was played with a round ball , and used a set of rules suggested by Rutgers captain William J. Leggett , based on The Football Association 's first set of rules , which were an early attempt by the former pupils of England's public schools, to unify
4750-727: The Family Stone , Rahsaan Roland Kirk , The Supremes , Mountain , Ten Years After and Johnny Mathis . During the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, the stadium hosted several soccer preliminaries. In 2007, the Boston Cannons , a professional lacrosse team for Major League Lacrosse , moved their home site to the stadium. They previously played at Boston University 's Nickerson Field . They have since moved to Quincy, Massachusetts. Harvard installed FieldTurf and lights in 2006. Beginning on April 11, 2009, Harvard Stadium became
4875-746: The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to codify the first set of intercollegiate football rules. Before this meeting, each school had its own set of rules and games were usually played using the home team's own particular code. At this meeting, a list of rules, based more on the Football Association's rules than the rules of the recently founded Rugby Football Union , was drawn up for intercollegiate football games. Old "Football Fightum" had been resurrected at Harvard in 1872, when Harvard resumed playing football. Harvard, however, preferred to play
5000-578: The Midwest did not pick it up. Arthur Schabinger , quarterback for the College of Emporia in Kansas , was reported to have regularly used the forward pass in 1910. Coach H. W. "Bill" Hargiss' "Presbies" are said to have featured the play in a 17–0 victory over Washburn University and in a 107–0 destruction of Pittsburg State University . Coach Pop Warner at Carlisle had quarterback Frank Mount Pleasant , one of
5125-557: The NFL, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries. Colleges are only allowed to provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. With new bylaws made by the NCAA, college athletes can now receive "name, image, and likeness" (NIL) deals, a way to get sponsorships and money before their pro debut. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as "football", played at public schools in Great Britain in
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5250-730: The North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina . On November 13, 1887, the Virginia Cavaliers and Pantops Academy fought to a scoreless tie in the first organized football game in the state of Virginia . Students at UVA were playing pickup games of the kicking-style of football as early as 1870, and some accounts even claim that some industrious ones organized a game against Washington and Lee College in 1871, just two years after Rutgers and Princeton's historic first game in 1869. But no record has been found of
5375-626: The Rules Committee tasked with reshaping the game was held on April 6, 1906, at which time the forward pass officially became a legal play. The New York Times reported in September 1906 on the rationale for the changes: "The main efforts of the football reformers have been to 'open up the game'—that is to provide for the natural elimination of the so-called mass plays and bring about a game in which speed and real skill shall supersede so far as possible mere brute strength and force of weight." However,
5500-471: The St. Louis coach in the development of the pass. Hackett was an official in games involving both teams. As Wray recalled almost 40 years later: "Hackett told this writer that in no other game that he handled had he seen the forward pass as used by St. Louis U. nor such bewildering variations of it." "Cochems said that the poor Iowa showing resulted from its use of the old style play and its failure to effectively use
5625-408: The ball and he may attempt to advance the ball toward his opponent's goal. If no player is able to legally catch the ball it is an incomplete pass and the ball becomes dead the moment it touches the ground. It will then be returned to the original line of scrimmage for the next down . If any player interferes with an eligible receiver's ability to catch the ball it is pass interference which draws
5750-425: The ball is snapped. This places him in an area called the "pocket", which is a specific protective region formed by the offensive blockers up front and between the tackles on each side. A quarterback who runs out of this pocket is said to be scrambling. Under NFL and NCAA rules, once the quarterback moves out of the pocket the ball may be legally thrown away to prevent a sack. NFHS (high school) rules do not allow for
5875-428: The ball only when being pursued. As a result of this, Harvard refused to attend the rules conference organized by Rutgers, Princeton and Columbia at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City on October 20, 1873, to agree on a set of rules and regulations that would allow them to play a form of football that was essentially Association football; and continued to play under its own code. While Harvard's voluntary absence from
6000-406: The ball to within a foot or two of any given space" and noted that the 1921 team was the first at Notre Dame "to build its attack around a forward passing game, rather than use a forward passing game as a mere aid to the running game." Mohardt had both Eddie Anderson and Roger Kiley at end to receive his passes. From 1915 to 1916, Pudge Wyman and end Bert Baston of Minnesota were "one of
6125-425: The ball was advanced by kicking or carrying it, and tackles of the ball carrier stopped play – actions of which have carried over to the modern version of football played today Harvard later challenged its closest rival, Yale, to which the Bulldogs accepted. The two teams agreed to play under a set of rules called the "Concessionary Rules", which involved Harvard conceding something to Yale's soccer and Yale conceding
6250-449: The banks of the Charles. The stadium's horseshoe opens to the northeast, towards the river, and the press box is at the top of the northwest sideline's grandstand. The running track has been removed; it was non-standard, with long straights and tight turns, and the outside lanes were very near the stadium walls. †= Team's stadium under construction or refurbishment at time 1 = A team used
6375-473: The bench seating). This allows them to seat more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium, which tends to have more features and comforts for fans. Only three stadiums owned by U.S. colleges or universities, L&N Stadium at the University of Louisville , Center Parc Stadium at Georgia State University , and FAU Stadium at Florida Atlantic University , consist entirely of chair back seating. College athletes, unlike players in
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#17328515601506500-474: The center. Later changes made it possible to snap the ball with the hands, either through the air or by a direct hand-to-hand pass. Rugby league followed Camp's example, and in 1906 introduced the play-the-ball rule, which greatly resembled Camp's early scrimmage and center-snap rules. In 1966, rugby league introduced a four-tackle rule (changed in 1972 to a six-tackle rule) based on Camp's early down-and-distance rules. Camp's new scrimmage rules revolutionized
6625-546: The city of New Haven , banned the play of all forms of football in 1860. American football historian Parke H. Davis described the period between 1869 and 1875 as the 'Pioneer Period'; the years 1876–93 he called the 'Period of the American Intercollegiate Football Association'; and the years 1894–1933 he dubbed the "Period of Rules Committees and Conferences". On November 6, 1869, Rutgers University faced Princeton University , then known as
6750-482: The college authorities agreed the Bloody Monday had to go. Harvard students responded by going into mourning for a mock figure called "Football Fightum", for whom they conducted funeral rites. The authorities held firm, and it was another dozen years before football was once again played at Harvard. Dartmouth played its own version called " Old division football ", the rules of which were first published in 1871, though
6875-482: The concept into the vertical structure of the stadium design. There is a plaque dedicating the stadium to his honor on the east end wall outside the stadium. Harvard installed both FieldTurf and lights in 2006. In 2007 , Harvard played its first night game at the stadium, winning 24–17 over Brown University on September 22. In the early 20th century, American football was an extremely violent sport; 18 players died and 159 were seriously injured in 1905 alone. There
7000-502: The dark." Because St. Louis was geographically isolated from both the dominant teams and the major sports media (newspapers) of the era, all centered in and focused on the East, Cochems' groundbreaking offensive strategy was not picked up by the major teams. Pass-oriented offenses would not be adopted by the Eastern football powers until the next decade. But that does not mean that other teams in
7125-495: The design of later stadiums, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. The stadium is the nation's oldest permanent concrete structure dedicated to intercollegiate athletics. It seated up to 57,166 in the past, as permanent steel stands (completing a stadium shape ) were installed in the stadium's northeast end zone in 1929. They were torn down after the 1951 season, due to deterioration and reduced attendance. Afterward, there were smaller temporary steel bleachers across
7250-400: The east. ... The St. Louis university players shoot the ball hard and accurately to the man who is to receive it ... The fast throw by St. Louis enables the receiving player to dodge the opposing players, and it struck me as being all but perfect." Hackett is the only known expert witness to the passing offenses of both Cochems' 1906 squads and that of Stagg, who dismissed any special role for
7375-481: The end of the play, then the pass will be ruled incomplete. Similarly, if the receiver fails to continue to control the ball after falling to the ground, the pass may be ruled incomplete. The forward pass had been attempted at least 30 years before the play was actually made legal. Passes "had been carried out successfully but illegally several times, including the 1876 Yale – Princeton game in which Yale's Walter Camp threw forward to teammate Oliver Thompson as he
7500-634: The first game in Virginia. On April 9, 1880, at Stoll Field , Transylvania University (then called Kentucky University) beat Centre College by the score of 13 + 3 ⁄ 4 –0 in what is often considered the first recorded game played in the South . The first game of "scientific football" in the South was the first instance of the Victory Bell rivalry between North Carolina and Duke (then known as Trinity College) held on Thanksgiving Day , 1888, at
7625-404: The first meeting he attended in 1878: a reduction from fifteen players to eleven. The motion was rejected at that time but passed in 1880. The effect was to open up the game and emphasize speed over strength. Camp's most famous change, the establishment of the line of scrimmage and the snap from center to quarterback , was also passed in 1880. Originally, the snap was executed with the foot of
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#17328515601507750-452: The first regular spiral pass quarterbacks in football. Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais worked on the pass while lifeguarding on a Lake Erie beach at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio , during the summer of 1913. That year, Jesse Harper , Notre Dame head coach, also showed how the pass could be used by a smaller team to beat a bigger one, first utilizing it to defeat rival Army . After it
7875-404: The first time. The Yale team was coached and captained by David Schley Schaff, who had learned to play football while attending Rugby School . Schaff himself was injured and unable to play the game, but Yale won the game 3–0 nonetheless. Later in 1872, Stevens Tech became the fifth school to field a team. Stevens lost to Columbia, but beat both New York University and City College of New York during
8000-454: The following year. By 1873, the college students playing football had made significant efforts to standardize their fledgling game. Teams had been scaled down from 25 players to 20. The only way to score was still to bat or kick the ball through the opposing team's goal, and the game was played in two 45-minute halves on fields 140 yards long and 70 yards wide. On October 20, 1873, representatives from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at
8125-405: The forward pass encouraged adoption of a narrower ball, starting with changes in the 1920s which enhanced rifled throwing and also spiral punting. This had the consequence of all but eliminating the drop kick from the American game. In the two codes of rugby ( union and league ), a forward pass is against the rules. Normally this results in a scrum to the opposing team, but on rare occasions
8250-516: The forward pass from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage on February 25, 1933. Before that rule change, a forward pass had to be made from 5 or more yards behind the line of scrimmage. Forward passes were first permitted in Canadian football in 1929, but the tactic remained a minor part of the game for several years. Jack Jacobs of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is recognized, not for inventing
8375-454: The forward pass", Nelson writes. "Iowa did attempt two basketball-style forward passes." "During the 1906 season [Robinson] threw a sixty-seven yard pass ... and ... Schneider tossed a sixty-five yarder. Considering the size, shape and weight of the ball, these were extraordinary passes." In 1907, after the first season of the forward pass, one football writer noted that, "with the single exception of Cochems, football teachers were groping in
8500-500: The forward pass, but for popularizing it in the Western Interprovincial Football Union (one of the forerunner leagues to the modern Canadian Football League ) in the early 1950s, thus changing the Canadian game from a more run-dominated game to a more passing-dominant game. Specification of the size of the ball for the American game came in 1912, but it was still essentially a rugby ball . Increased use of
8625-405: The forward pass. The fact is that all coaches were working on it. The first season, 1906, I personally had sixty-four different forward pass patterns." In 1954, Stagg disputed Cochems' claim to have invented the forward pass: Eddie Cochems, who coached at [Saint] Louis University in 1906, also claimed to have invented the pass as we know it today ... It isn't so, because after the forward pass
8750-497: The full credit." Writing in Collier's more than 20 years earlier, Dorais' Notre Dame teammate Knute Rockne acknowledged Cochems as the early leader in the use of the pass, observing, "One would have thought that so effective a play would have been instantly copied and become the vogue. The East, however, had not learned much or cared much about Midwest and Western football. Indeed, the East scarcely realized that football existed beyond
8875-431: The game dates to at least the 1830s. All of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities. They remained largely "mob" style games, with huge numbers of players attempting to advance the ball into a goal area, often by any means necessary. Rules were simple, and violence and injury were common. The violence of these mob-style games led to widespread protests and a decision to abandon them. Yale , under pressure from
9000-413: The game, but United States President Theodore Roosevelt personally intervened and demanded that the rules of the game be reformed. In a meeting of more than 60 schools in late 1905, the commitment was made to make the game safer. This meeting was the first step toward the establishment of what would become the NCAA and was followed by several sessions to work out "the new rules". The final meeting of
9125-404: The game, though not always as intended. Princeton, in particular, used scrimmage play to slow the game, making incremental progress towards the end zone during each down . Rather than increase scoring, which had been Camp's original intent, the rule was exploited to maintain control of the ball for the entire game, resulting in slow, unexciting contests. At the 1882 rules meeting, Camp proposed that
9250-400: The greatest forward-passing combinations in the history of the gridiron". In the 1921 Rose Bowl , California 's Brick Muller completed a touchdown against Washington & Jefferson which went 53 yards in the air, a feat previously thought impossible. In a 1925, 62–13 victory over Cornell , Dartmouth's Andy Oberlander had 477 yards in total offense, including six touchdown passes,
9375-455: The gridiron code evolved, in which the play is illegal. Illegal and experimental forward passes had been attempted as early as 1876, but the first legal forward pass in American football took place in 1906, after a change in the rules. Another rule change on January 18, 1951, established that no center or guard could receive a forward pass, and a tackle may only do so if he announces his intent to
9500-626: The home field of the Boston Breakers of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league when they beat Saint Louis Athletica 2–0. Soccer games played at Harvard Stadium during the 1984 Summer Olympics Although most of Harvard's campus is in Cambridge , the stadium and most other intercollegiate athletic facilities, along with Harvard Business School , lie to the south, across the Charles River , in
9625-468: The last two decades of the 19th century. Several major rivalries date from this time period. November 1890 was an active time in the sport. In Baldwin City, Kansas , on November 22, 1890, college football was first played in the state of Kansas . Baker beat Kansas 22–9. On the 27th, Vanderbilt played Nashville (Peabody) at Athletic Park and won 40–0. It was the first time organized football played in
9750-417: The loss of a down, although it may be legally intercepted by the opponents and advanced. If an eligible receiver on the passing team legally catches the ball, the pass is completed and the receiver may attempt to advance the ball. If an opposing player legally catches the ball – all defensive players are eligible receivers – it is an interception . That player's team immediately gains possession of
9875-442: The meeting made it hard for them to schedule games against other American universities, it agreed to a challenge to play the rugby team of McGill University , from Montreal , in a two-game series. It was agreed that two games would be played on Harvard's Jarvis baseball field in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 14 and 15, 1874: one to be played under Harvard rules, another under the stricter rugby regulations of McGill. Jarvis Field
10000-415: The meeting. The rules that they agreed upon were essentially those of rugby union at the time with the exception that points be awarded for scoring a try , not just the conversion afterwards ( extra point ). Incidentally, rugby was to make a similar change to its scoring system 10 years later. Walter Camp is widely considered to be the most important figure in the development of American football. As
10125-452: The mid-19th century. By the 1840s, students at Rugby School were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as rugby football . The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges. The first documented gridiron football game was played at University College , a college of the University of Toronto , on November 9, 1861. One of
10250-430: The most fundamental aspects of modern American football: standard field dimensions and the legal forward pass. Early in its existence two ice rinks were built on the stadium during the winter months for the men's ice hockey team . The Stadium served as the home for the hockey team until World War I . Harvard Stadium was the site of the U.S. Olympic Trials for men's track and field in 1912, 1920, 1924, and 1928 . It
10375-580: The nearby Allston neighborhood of Boston. The stadium is the most iconic piece of the Soldiers Field athletic complex, which also includes the baseball stadium, outdoor track, an artificial turf field hockey/lacrosse field, two soccer stadiums, pools, Beren Tennis Center (outdoor), the Gordon Indoor Track, Dillon Fieldhouse, Lavietes Pavilion , and Bright Hockey Center . Newell Boathouse, home of Harvard's men's crew, lies across Soldiers Field Road on
10500-710: The nearest college to play football. It took place at Hamilton Park in New Haven and was the first game in New England. The game was essentially soccer with 20-man sides, played on a field 400 by 250 feet. Yale wins 3–0, Tommy Sherman scoring the first goal and Lew Irwin the other two. After the first game against Harvard, Tufts took its squad to Bates College in Lewiston, Maine for the first football game played in Maine . This occurred on November 6, 1875. Penn 's Athletic Association
10625-496: The new passing game this way: The passing was more of the character of that familiar in basket ball than that which has hitherto characterized football. Apparently it is the intention of football coaches to try repeatedly these frequent long and risky passes. Well executed they are undoubtedly highly spectacular, but the risk of dropping the ball is so great as to make the practice extremely hazardous and its desirability doubtful. Another coach sometimes credited with popularizing
10750-603: The next year. He was torn between an admiration for Harvard's style of play and the misery of the Yale defeat, and became determined to avenge Yale's defeat. Spectators from Princeton also carried the game back home, where it quickly became the most popular version of football. On November 23, 1876, representatives from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia met at the Massasoit House hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts to standardize
10875-546: The overhead spiral pass in 1906 is former Princeton All-American "Bosey" Reiter . Reiter claimed to have invented the overhead spiral pass while playing professional football as a player-coach for Connie Mack 's Philadelphia Athletics of the original National Football League (1902) . While playing for the Athletics, Reiter was a teammate of Hawley Pierce , a former star for the Carlisle Indian School . Pierce,
11000-472: The participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was William Mulock , later chancellor of the school. A football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play then are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College , also a college of the University of Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland and Frederick A. Bethune devised rules based on rugby football. Modern Canadian football
11125-402: The pass is thrown from behind the line of scrimmage ; a pass is legal as long as some part of the passer's body is behind the line of scrimmage. The person passing the ball must be a member of the offensive team , and the recipient of the forward pass must be an eligible receiver and must touch the passed ball before any ineligible player. An illegal forward pass can incur a yardage penalty and
11250-399: The passer drops the ball while his arm is moving forward it is a forward pass, regardless of where the ball lands or is first touched. At some levels of play, a video replay may be required for the game's officials to conclusively determine if a play is a fumble or a forward pass. The quarterback generally either starts a few paces behind the line of scrimmage or drops back a few steps after
11375-415: The passes was twenty yards." Nelson continues, "the last play demonstrated the dramatic effect that the forward pass was having on football. St. Louis was on Iowa's thirty-five-yard line with a few seconds to play. Timekeeper Walter McCormack walked onto the field to end the game when the ball was thrown twenty-five yards and caught on the dead run for a touchdown." The 1906 Iowa game was refereed by one of
11500-538: The quarterback coming up fast nailed me as I caught it. This brought the ball well into Yale territory, about the 20-yard line. The football season opened for most schools during the first week of October, and the impact of the forward pass was immediate: Some publications credit Yale All-American Paul Veeder with the "first forward pass in a major game". Veeder threw a 20- to 30-yard completion in leading Yale past Harvard 6–0 before 32,000 fans in New Haven on November 24, 1906. However, that Yale/Harvard game
11625-431: The receiver must touch the ground with both feet, but in most other codes – CFL , NCAA and high school – one foot in bounds is sufficient. Common to all gridiron codes is the notion of control: a receiver must demonstrate control of the ball in order to be ruled in "possession" of it, while still in bounds. If the receiver handles the ball but the official determines that he was still "bobbling" it prior to
11750-440: The referee beforehand that he will be an eligible receiver, called a tackle-eligible play . The only linemen who can receive a forward pass are the ends ( tight ends and wide receivers ). The rules regulate who may throw and who may receive a forward pass, and under what circumstances, as well as how the defensive team may try to prevent a pass from being completed. The primary passer is the quarterback , and statistical analysis
11875-482: The rules of their various public schools. The game was played at a Rutgers Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey . Two teams of 25 players attempted to score by kicking the ball into the opposing team's goal. Throwing or carrying the ball was not allowed, but there was plenty of physical contact between players. The first team to reach six goals was declared the winner. Rutgers won by a score of six to four. A rematch
12000-615: The rules were changed to allow tackling below the waist, and in 1889, the officials were given whistles and stopwatches. After leaving Yale in 1882, Camp was employed by the New Haven Clock Company until his death in 1925. Though no longer a player, he remained a fixture at annual rules meetings for most of his life, and he personally selected an annual All-American team every year from 1889 through 1924. The Walter Camp Football Foundation continues to select All-American teams in his honor. College football expanded greatly during
12125-436: The rules were formulated before the game. Forward pass In several forms of football , a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The legal and widespread use of the forward pass distinguishes gridiron football ( American football and Canadian football ) from rugby football ( union and league ) from which
12250-570: The score of this contest. Washington and Lee also claims a 4 to 2 win over VMI in 1873. On October 18, 1888, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 6 to 4 in the first intercollegiate game in the state of North Carolina . On December 14, 1889, Wofford defeated Furman 5 to 1 in the first intercollegiate game in the state of South Carolina . The game featured no uniforms, no positions, and
12375-431: The scoring rules, finally arriving at four points for a touchdown, two points for kicks after touchdowns , two points for safeties, and five for field goals . Camp's innovations in the area of point scoring influenced rugby union's move to point scoring in 1890. In 1887, game time was set at two-halves of 45 minutes each. Also in 1887, two paid officials—a referee and an umpire —were mandated for each game. A year later,
12500-427: The sheer number of fans following major colleges provides a financial equalizer for the game, with Division I programs – the highest level – playing in huge stadiums, six of which have seating capacity exceeding 100,000 people. In many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests (although many stadiums do have a small number of chair back seats in addition to
12625-465: The stadium when their permanent stadium was unable to be used as a result of damage. College football NAIA : NJCAA : College football ( French : football universitaire ) is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football first gained popularity in the United States . Like gridiron football generally, college football
12750-749: The stadium's open end until the building of the Murr Center (which is topped by the new scoreboard) in 1998. Harvard Stadium hosted one Boston Patriots season in 1970 . It was their first season in the NFL after the AFL–NFL merger and their last before becoming the New England Patriots . The team moved to Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough the following season . Harvard Stadium was constructed on 31 acres (13 ha) of land known as Soldiers Field, donated to Harvard University by Henry Lee Higginson in 1890 as
12875-487: The state of Tennessee . The 29th also saw the first instance of the Army–Navy Game . Navy won 24–0. Rutgers was first to extend the reach of the game. An intercollegiate game was first played in the state of New York when Rutgers played Columbia on November 2, 1872. It was also the first scoreless tie in the history of the fledgling sport. Yale football starts the same year and has its first match against Columbia,
13000-453: The time, was widening the field to allow more running room and reduce serious collisions. While it was popular among committee members, Harvard objected. Their recently completed stadium could not accommodate a larger field. Because of the permanent nature of Harvard Stadium, the proposal was rejected and the forward pass was legalized in April 1906. Harvard Stadium led to the creation of two of
13125-650: The top football officials in the country, West Point 's Lt. Horatio B. "Stuffy" Hackett . He had officiated games involving the top Eastern powers that year. Hackett, who would become a member of the football rules committee in December 1907 and officiated games into the 1930s, was quoted the next day in Ed Wray's Globe-Democrat article: "It was the most perfect exhibition ... of the new rules ... that I have seen all season and much better than that of Yale and Harvard. St. Louis' style of pass differs entirely from that in use in
13250-466: The two schools organized a game for October 23, 1869, but it was rained out. Students of the University of Virginia were playing pickup games of the kicking-style of football as early as 1870, and some accounts even claim it organized a game against Washington and Lee College in 1871; but no record has been found of the score of this contest. Due to scantiness of records of the prior matches some will claim Virginia v. Pantops Academy November 13, 1887, as
13375-404: Was a consultant to the design team for the stadium. It is historically significant that this stadium represents the first vertical concrete structure to employ reinforced structural concrete. Prior to the erection of the stadium in 1902, reinforced structural concrete was used in horizontal, that is flooring, sidewalks, etc., design only. Johnson was the engineer of note responsible for incorporating
13500-509: Was a widespread movement to outlaw the game but U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt intervened and demanded the rules of the game be reformed. In 1906, Roosevelt met with representatives from 62 colleges and universities and formed the Intercollegiate Football Conference, the predecessor of the NCAA . The committee's purpose was to develop a uniform set of rules and regulations to make the game safer. A leading proposal, at
13625-473: Was also the first time one team scored over 100 points and the opposing team was shut out. The next week, Princeton outscored Lafayette 140 to 0. The first intercollegiate game in the state of Vermont happened on November 6, 1886, between Dartmouth and Vermont at Burlington, Vermont . Dartmouth won 91 to 0. Penn State played its first season in 1887, but had no head coach for their first five years, from 1887 to 1891. The teams played its home games on
13750-503: Was at the time a patch of land at the northern point of the Harvard campus, bordered by Everett and Jarvis Streets to the north and south, and Oxford Street and Massachusetts Avenue to the east and west. Harvard beat McGill in the "Boston Game" on the Thursday and held McGill to a 0–0 tie on the Friday. The Harvard students took to the rugby rules and adopted them as their own, The games featured
13875-509: Was being tackled. Princeton's protest, one account said, went for naught when the referee 'tossed a coin to make his decision and allowed the touchdown to stand' ". The University of North Carolina used the forward pass in an 1895 game against the University of Georgia . However, the play was still illegal at the time. Bob Quincy stakes Carolina's claim in his 1973 book They Made the Bell Tower Chime : John Heisman , namesake of
14000-527: Was felt they would dominate the Association. Penn State won the championship with a 4–1–0 record. Bucknell's record was 3–1–1 (losing to Franklin & Marshall and tying Dickinson). The Association was dissolved prior to the 1892 season. The first nighttime football game was played in Mansfield, Pennsylvania on September 28, 1892, between Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary and ended at halftime in
14125-598: Was held on November 5, 1921, at McGill University in Montreal , Quebec, Canada, between the McGill Redmen football team and visiting American college football team the Syracuse Orangemen from Syracuse University . The game was organized by Frank Shaughnessy , the head coach of McGill. McGill player Robert "Boo" Anderson is credited with the first forward pass attempt in Canadian football history. The forward pass
14250-430: Was legalized in 1906, most of the schools commenced experimenting with it and nearly all used. Stagg asserted that, as far back as 1894, before the rules committee even considered the forward pass, one of his players used to throw the ball "like a baseball pitcher". On the other hand, Hall of Fame coach Gus Dorais told the United Press that "Eddie Cochems of the [Saint] Louis University team of 1906–07–08 deserves
14375-556: Was looking to pick "a twenty" to play a game of football against Columbia. This "twenty" never played Columbia, but did play twice against Princeton. Princeton won both games 6 to 0. The first of these happened on November 11, 1876, in Philadelphia and was the first intercollegiate game in the state of Pennsylvania . Brown entered the intercollegiate game in 1878. The first game where one team scored over 100 points happened on October 25, 1884, when Yale routed Dartmouth 113–0. It
14500-406: Was not officially allowed in Canadian football until 1929. Most sources credit Saint Louis University's Bradbury Robinson from Bellevue, Ohio with throwing the first legal forward pass. On September 5, 1906, in a game against Carroll College , Robinson's first attempt at a forward pass fell incomplete and resulted in a turnover under the 1906 rules. In the same game, Robinson later completed
14625-451: Was piloted by Bill Spears , who threw for over a thousand yards. According to one writer, Vanderbilt produced "almost certainly the legit top Heisman candidate in Spears, if there had been a Heisman Trophy to award in 1927". McGugin disciple and former quarterback Ray Morrison brought the pass to the southwest when he coached Gerald Mann at Southern Methodist . The first forward pass in
14750-542: Was played at Princeton a week later under Princeton's own set of rules (one notable difference was the awarding of a "free kick" to any player that caught the ball on the fly, which was a feature adopted from The Football Association's rules; the fair catch kick rule has survived through to modern American game). Princeton won that game by a score of 8 – 0. Columbia joined the series in 1870 and by 1872 several schools were fielding intercollegiate teams, including Yale and Stevens Institute of Technology . Columbia University
14875-534: Was played three weeks after St. Louis completed 45- and 48-yard passes against Kansas before a crowd of 7,000 at Sportsman's Park . The forward pass was a central feature of Cochems' offensive scheme in 1906 as his St. Louis University team compiled an undefeated 11–0 season in which they outscored opponents by a combined score 407 to 11. The highlight of the campaign was St. Louis' 39–0 win over Iowa . Cochems' team reportedly completed eight passes in ten attempts for four touchdowns. "The average flight distance of
15000-590: Was the 1881 Michigan team , which played at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. The nation's first college football league, the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (also known as the Western Conference), a precursor to the Big Ten Conference , was founded in 1895. Led by coach Fielding H. Yost , Michigan became the first "western" national power. From 1901 to 1905, Michigan had
15125-638: Was the first game west of the Mississippi River . November 30, 1905, saw Chicago defeat Michigan 2 to 0. Dubbed "The First Greatest Game of the Century", it broke Michigan's 56-game unbeaten streak and marked the end of the "Point-a-Minute" years. Organized collegiate football was first played in the state of Virginia and the south on November 2, 1873, in Lexington between Washington and Lee and VMI . Washington and Lee won 4–2. Some industrious students of
15250-418: Was the head coach at Wesleyan University . In the opening game of the 1906 season against Yale , Reiter's quarterback Sammy Moore completed a forward pass to Irvin van Tassell for a thirty-yard gain. The New York Times called it "the prettiest play of the day", as Wesleyan's quarterback "deftly passed the ball past the whole Yale team to his mate Van Tassel". Van Tassel later described the historic play to
15375-471: Was the home of the Boston Patriots during the 1970 season, until Schaefer Stadium opened the following year to fulfill post- AFL–NFL merger minimum seating requirements requiring a 50,000+ seat venue. Harvard Stadium was the largest concrete stadium in the nation until the construction of Syracuse University 's Archbold Stadium in 1907. Lewis Jerome Johnson, professor of civil engineering at Harvard,
15500-488: Was the third school to field a team. The Lions traveled from New York City to New Brunswick on November 12, 1870, and were defeated by Rutgers 6 to 3. The game suffered from disorganization and the players kicked and battled each other as much as the ball. Later in 1870, Princeton and Rutgers played again with Princeton defeating Rutgers 6–0. This game's violence caused such an outcry that no games at all were played in 1871. Football came back in 1872, when Columbia played Yale for
15625-448: Was used against a major school on a national stage in this game, the forward pass rapidly gained popularity. The 1919 and 1920 Notre Dame teams had George Gipp , an ideal handler of the forward pass, who threw for 1,789 yards. John Mohardt led the 1921 Notre Dame team to a 10–1 record with 781 rushing yards, 995 passing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, and nine passing touchdowns. Grantland Rice wrote that "Mohardt could throw
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