From the Playing Fields of Rugby and Eton: The Transnational Origins of American Rugby and the Making of American Football

Some studies date the origins of US intercollegiate football—and, by extension, the modern game of American football—back to a soccer-style game played between Princeton and Rutgers universities in 1869. This article joins with others to argue that such a narrative is misleading and goes further to clarify the significance of two “international” fixtures in 1873 and 1874, which had a formative and lasting impact on football in the United States. These games, contested between alumni from England’s Eton College and students at Yale University, and between students at Canada’s McGill University and Harvard University, combined to revolutionize the American football code. Between 1875 and 1880, previous soccer-style versions of US intercollegiate football were replaced with an imported, if somewhat modified, version of rugby football. It was the “American rugby” that arose as a result of these transnational exchanges that is the true ancestor of the gridiron game of today.

“Having Waited in Vain”

Camp is employed in 1884 by the New Haven Clock Company (NHCC) and begins work that fall in the company’s New York City store. In 1885 Harvard’s faculty athletic committee bans football at Harvard as too brutal. Continuing to be involved in football and its management and promotion, Camp responds to the Harvard ban in the Yale News, contending that the Harvard faculty committee members have not sufficiently informed themselves about the game to make sound decisions. He gives an impassioned description of players’ love for football. Harvard resigns from, and Pennsylvania and Wesleyan join, the Intercollegiate Football Association. Later in the year, the Harvard athletic committee is reconstituted to include two students, a graduate interested in sports, a physician, and only one faculty member. The reconstituted committee reinstates football after a year’s absence, but Harvard remains out of the IFA.

“What Does Walter Think?”

Over a two- or three-year period, sports equipment manufacturer and retailer A. G. Spalding & Bros. replaces Wright and Ditson as publisher of American football’s rules and in 1891 begins a new publication called Spalding’s Official Football Guide, with Camp as editor and writer. Though possibly wanting to stay above the fray, Camp becomes embroiled in a conflict over the eligibility of graduate players, especially at Pennsylvania, which uses a high percentage of graduate school players. With Penn’s increasing success, students and alumni from Yale and other schools in 1892 and 1893 press the Intercollegiate Football Association to ban graduate school players. As president of the IFA, Yale’s captain, McCormick, leads passage of such a ban. Camp supports McCormick’s action but also suggests a one-year-residency requirement as another way to limit transfer of students just to play football. Pennsylvania and Wesleyan resign from the IFA in November 1893, leaving only Princeton and Yale as members.

The Main Invention

At an emergency April 1882 rule-making convention, Camp introduces a “downs-and-distance” rule under which ball possession is made contingent: the team on offense must advance the ball five yards in three downs to maintain possession. Other rule makers strongly protest—how can the referee carry out such a rule? However, Harvard’s William Manning, president of the Intercollegiate Football Association, eventually comes to Camp’s aid, and the “five-yard rule” is tentatively passed on a trial basis. The rule is quickly seen to be effective during play and without question will remain in use. In the medical school exams at the end of his second year, Camp fails five of ten exams. Working with Yale’s 1883 football captain and team leaders, Camp helps develop a system of word signals to inform the team of a play to be run.

Rivalry Demands Rules

Harvard alleges Princeton’s 1889 football team includes professional players, paid for playing baseball in the summer. Camp proposes the first eligibility provision in the Intercollegiate Football Association constitution, barring professionals (paid for any sport, not only football) from IFA teams, and the Graduate Advisory Committee approves the provision. Later, by a 3–2 vote, the GAC refuses to apply the provision against Princeton because Harvard’s action was filed too late for Princeton to prepare a defense. Harvard leaves the IFA, and some supporters of both Harvard and Yale promote a “dual league” limited to those two schools; negotiations proceed but do not result in an agreement, and Camp says it was never contemplated that the schools would limit their contests to only one another.

An “American” Game of Football

In 1887, following a badly managed game between Princeton and Yale, the constitution of the Intercollegiate Football Association is amended by a diverse committee under Camp’s leadership comprising faculty, graduates, and students from multiple colleges. The revised constitution essentially transfers rule making to a committee of five alumni called the Graduate Advisory Committee (GAC). Camp is a member. The new GAC immediately moves American football to a new stage by expanding the allowable range of tackling on a runner’s body (moving the lower limit from the waist to the knees) and instituting interference whereby players on offense can block ahead of the runner. Camp says that about this time, American players begin to realize the game they are playing is a distinctive new American game for which they need to take responsibility. Camp writes introductory articles for this new game in Outing and Harper’s Weekly, which is soon followed by important new opportunities for him in newspaper and magazine writing.

Writer, Teacher … Director?

Camp develops new football booklets in 1883: a referee’s book with rule interpretations to aid referee decision making, approved and published under the auspices of the Intercollegiate Football Association, and a historical statistical record of American football since intercollegiate competition began, with lists of players, referees, current captains, and the like. He coaches Yale’s baseball and football teams and is praised for his coaching results. Apparently at Camp’s initiative, a Yale professor investigates hiring of Camp by Yale as the school’s athletic supervisor, but Camp is not hired.

The End of Student Rule Making

With the Intercollegiate Football Association disrupted by the resignation of Pennsylvania and Wesleyan, a new category of rules committee is created under the auspices of the University Athletic Club in New York City. The new rules committee comprises five older, more experienced men representing Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Yale, and the U.S. Navy with Paul Dashiell; all are graduates with responsible jobs. The IFA is left inactive, thus effectively ending student rule making. Rules are passed to limit momentum plays by allowing only three players to be in motion forward before the ball is snapped. A “linesman” is added as a third game official.