British Influence on the Ancient Games

Pigskin Dispatch’s Part 3  in the Series on American Football History

Need to catch up? Here is a path to part 2.

http://pigskindispatch.com/2025/10/23/roman-roots-of-the-gridiron-game

English Kicks in some ideas for football

Whatever the inspiration or origin of the game, people believe that most modern versions of soccer originated in England in the twelfth century. It became so popular in England that the kings of that time (Henry II and Henry IV) actually banned the game of football. The royals believed that this football was taking away interest from the traditional sports of England, such as fencing, archery, and jousting.

The game didn’t establish consistent rules and boundaries until it was adopted as a sport in the seven primary public schools of England in the early 1800s.  Six of the seven schools were essentially playing the same game, while the seventh, Rugby School (founded in 1567), was playing a very different version of what was called football at the time. The other schools moved ahead, refining their rules, and eventually their game became known as “association football“ – or soccer, and played back then much like it is today.

The Rugby School

The Rugby School went in a different direction.  At Rugby School, their version of the rule differed by allowing players to hold and carry the ball in their arms. Legend has it that one player in 1823 disregarded the established rules, tucked the ball under his arm, and dashed across the opponents’ goal. By the 1830s, running with the ball at Rugby School was in everyday use, and 18-foot goal posts with a cross-bar at 10 feet above the ground had been added. The innovation of the cross-bar resulted from a rule that a goal could only be scored by the ball passing over the bar from a place kick or drop kick. Apparently, the intention was to make scoring easier from further out and also to avoid the horde of defenders standing in and blocking the goal. 

Modern-day American football terms have origins in this version of rugby football. Players who were able to “touch down” the ball behind the opponent’s goal line, awarding a “try-at-goal” – the player would make a mark on the goal line and then walk back onto the field of play to a point where a place kick at the goal was possible (a conversion). There was also an “off-your-side” rule used to keep the teams apart.  Passing the ball forward was not allowed. By the mid-1860s, British schools and universities had adopted Rugby’s game and honored the school by naming the “new football” Rugby in recognition of its founding school.

This form of football was imported to the New World by 17th- and 18th-century colonists. In 1840, a reporter wrote of a Yale University game: “If the truth were told, the game would make the same impression on the public mind as a bullfight. Boys and young men knocked each other down and tore off each other’s clothing. Eyes were bunged, faces blackened, much blood was spilled, and shirts and coats were torn to rags.”

American ingenuity would soon evolve this European game further from its ancient roots. Check back soon for the following excerpt on the game’s evolution, part 4,  “The History of Football Timeline Continues in the New World.” Right here on PigskinDispatch.com, your place for the good football news.