Posted on 09/08/2010 12:27:27 PM PDT by Kaslin
It is ironic that the most boring contest ever played -- the Princeton-Yale game of 1881 -- helped make American football the world's greatest game.
The college men who invented American football in the decades after the Civil War approached the game with the same imaginative spirit that drove American capitalism in that era. When their invention did not work, they simply reinvented it -- until they developed something thrilling to players and fans alike.
Even the dullness of the 1881 Princeton-Yale game was driven by an irrepressible inventiveness.
The rules and precedents of that year gave Princeton an incentive to develop a game plan for a scoreless tie -- and they executed it with mind-numbing brilliance.
How did such an incentive arise?
Games containing the essential elements of football have existed since ancient Greece. But written rules for such games are relatively new in the English-speaking world. It was only in 1871 that the Rugby Football Union drafted its initial rules at a London restaurant.
Two years before that, when Princeton and Rutgers competed in the first-ever home-and-home intercollegiate football series, each game was played by the home school's rules. Both were more like soccer than either rugby or American football.
After watching Harvard play rugby against Canada's McGill in 1874, players at Princeton and Yale decided it was a better game. As recounted by early football historian Parke H. Davis (a former Princeton player and Lafayette and Wisconsin coach), two Princeton players invited counterparts from Harvard, Yale and Columbia to meet in Springfield, Mass., on Nov. 26, 1876, to form an "Intercollegiate Football Association" and adopt a uniform set of rugby-style rules.
Yale objected to two of the rules adopted: one allowing teams to field 15 players (as opposed to the 11 Yale wanted); another that included touchdowns as part of a complicated scoring system (Yale wanted only kicked goals counted).
As related by the late Delaware football coach David Nelson in "Anatomy of a Game," Yale player Walter Camp attended the 1878 IFA meeting, calling for a reduction to 11 players. He was ignored. Princeton defeated Yale that year and took the national title.
Camp attended the IFA meeting in 1879, again calling 11-player teams and also for safeties to count in the scoring. At the time, a team making a safety lost no points and got to retain possession at its own 25 yard line. Camp's proposals were rejected again. That year Yale tied Princeton 0 to 0, while Yale only took two (unscored) safeties to Princeton's five.
The IFA gave Princeton the title -- carrying over its 1878 championship.
Camp again attended the 1880 IFA meeting. This time, he won two rule changes. Teams were restricted to 11 players. More fundamentally, one team at a time would now be given undisputed possession of the ball, which they could put in play be snapping it back -- by foot -- from a scrimmage line. American football left rugby behind.
"This is the device which introduced into our game the principle of an orderly retention of the ball by one side, thereby making possible the use of prearranged strategy, the most distinctive and fascinating characteristic of the American game," wrote Parke Davis.
Yet there was no limit to the number of downs a team could keep the ball, so long as it did not fumble or kick downfield.
In the second half of that year's Princeton-Yale game, with the score tied 0 to 0, Princeton held the ball to run out the clock. In the process, the Tigers took 11 unscored safeties. Princeton then claimed it had retained a national title it had not won on the field for two years. Yale claimed the title for itself.
The 1881 IFA meeting adopted a rule to give negative value to safeties in a game tied after two overtimes: "If the game still remains in a tie, the side which makes four or more safeties less than their opponents shall win the game."
At the 1881 Princeton-Yale game, the lawyerly Tigers unveiled a new stalling tactic: the touch-in-goal. This was achieved by throwing the ball to a player standing in the angle of space behind the goal line but beyond the sideline. As with an old safety, this allowed the offending team to retain possession on it own 25. Princeton held the ball for most of the first half; Yale, replicating Princeton's tactics, held it most of the second. They tied 0 to 0.
Princeton again claimed the title based on 1878. Yale counterclaimed, pointing out it had played a superior game against Harvard that very year -- when Harvard scored four safeties to Yale's none. The title went to Yale.
After the 1881 Princeton-Yale debacle, some argued that the American colleges should give up their unique rules and simply conform to the British rugby game.
American college players would have none of it. As Coach Nelson reported in "Anatomy of a Game," Camp again attended the rules meeting in Springfield, Mass., on Oct/ 12, 1882. This time he proposed the concept now known as a first down -- only as originally approved a team needed to get five yards in three downs to retain possession of the ball. The rule was accepted.
A new game was born -- wholly American and unmatched by any other in the world.
Football is currently designed for maximizing the revenues of the TV networks and owners. It's gone corporate to an almost absurd extent. Who cares if the fans lose out? Soccer, 45 minutes without a single commercial? No wonder our TV networks don't like to broadcast it much.
I didn’t know that, but with all the commercials and all the time outs for each team it does not surprise me. I could never understand that 5 minutes can really be 30 minutes or more when the game is broadcast on TV
I might start watching football again if that happened. That and making more than half my viewing time consist of actual game play. Right now the most thing interesting things about the NFL are the Superbowl advertisements and the legal problems of the players.
That is my problem with the game now. Luckily we have DVR and never watch games live anymore. What really pisses me off is it used to be you got good replays on all the important plays now you only get them if the stupid commentators aren't doing an ingame promo OR talking about something that has nothing to do with the game.
I’d be happy if they wouldn’t reveal their political persuasion one way or the other. NO’s Drew Brees has been rumored to be somewhat of a lib, but he doesn’t throw it in our faces, so I can still respect him for the great player he is.
45 minutes without an exciting play too.
I really like Rush but he is an idiot to pimp for the NFL. F the NFL. They shill for Obama, they smeared Rush and like an idiot he pimps for them. TV is evil. All Saudi and Islamic investment in the 6 networks (#6 is bloomberg).
Americans handed over their liberty for a clicker.
Sorry pal, but GOLF is the world’s greatest game!! Football is just more fun to WATCH.
Oh you also do not miss the “stupid white man” commercials or the NFL loves Obama BS?
I cancelled TV a year ago because ALL of it is BS propaganda supporting him. I saw the Thanksgiving game at a relatives and they had a Obama tribute video for 2 minutes with him throwing the ball. It was Joe Stalin propaganda. Efff the NFL.
When did they make the ball into that funny shape?
No, I didn't photoshop it ... but I did save it to my hard drive to be able to periodically tease my European friends, FWIW.
While I was working the old Neyland Stadium as a pup, I must disagree. It was lunafantastic.
Thank you for your reply.
I am just wondering how much the hotdog vender sells in all those hours in a game that only lasts 11 minutes of play time.
I am in the wrong business.
NOPE! Golf SUCKS! Raquetball is the world’s greatest game!
As for best spectator sports:
Minor League Baseball - IN PERSON
College or HS Football - IN PERSON
Major League Baseball - IN PERSON
College Basketball - IN PERSON
And that is about it - at least for me!
I can’t offer an opinion on Mr. Hewitt, as I’ve never heard him broadcast...I’m not much of a hockey fan, unless I can attend a game. I simply have never heard anybody better than Vin Scully on the radio (or TV for that matter).
In the military (Army) soccer was great because everyone needed to run, we all needed team work training, and the types of injuries we were prone to were less than playing football. And there were always injuries.
Dizzy Dean was great for comic relief. I was sad to see him go...what has it been, 25 years ago? I remember watching the Game of the Week, and the camera kept panning to a young couple making out in the stands. On the third or fourth camera zoom in as many innings, Dizzy said, “I think I’ve figured out what’s going on here. He’s kissing her on the strikes, and she’s kissing him on the balls.” They went straight to commercial. I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants!
Baseball is unique because it is the only ballgame where you score without the ball.
That’s good enough for me ! SOLD
In Soccer, the clock does not run out. The clock continues to go forward. In other words, if there are a few minutes of stops because of X reasons, it will be added to the end. If there are 10 minutes of stops, those minutes will be added to the play in game at the end.
“but with all the commercials and all the time outs for each team it does not surprise me.”
Totally mindboggling is it not?
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