Football was changing from its ancestor, rugby in leaps and bounds in the 1880’s as has been mentioned in earlier parts of this series. The year 1883 was busy with two conventions that modified the rules of the game. The Rule book was starting to really take form as sections were added to organize the rules.
Prior to this the rules were listed in no particular order and no particular organization to them. For instance the coin toss or “toss-up of captains” was listed as rule 39 in the original 1876 rules. Rules on kicks were scattered “willy-nilly” through out the list of rules. Rule numbers 1, 2, 3, 29, 30, 36 40, 41, 42 46, 47, 49, 50, 55 and 56 all pertained to kicks and punts. Rules on scoring, tackling etc… were sprinkled in between in the rule list of the 1870’s and early 1880’s.
The following year kept up on the rule organization principles adopted in 1883. The year 1884 was similar to 1883 too as it had multiple rule committee meetings to adopt and modify football rules.
1884 Princeton team photo, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, taken by an unknown photographer
Football developes “Suckers Walk”
The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York received a lot of business from early football as it hosted almost all of the early rules conventions. October 15, 1884 saw another football rules contingent group together in the hotel to discuss and modify more rules of football. The meeting was attended by Walter Camp and E.L. Richards from Yale, G.M. Kimball and A.D. French from Harvard, and C. W. Bird and J. B. Harriman of Princeton. A letter was received from Columbia in which the school withdrew from the association.
Section I of the new rules of 1884 concentrated on the kicking game. Fair catches of kicks and punts seemed to be a major priority of this convention as a few rules were amended to mold fair catch guidelines. Up until that time the word “fair” had a direct relationship in the rules to how a ball would be put in play. A “fair” was the technical name of putting the ball in play from the sideline when out of bounds. Fairs were considered downs even though they didn’t start the same way as other plays. Fair catches were defined in 1876 as “a catch made direct from a kick or a throw forward, or a knock on by one of the opposing side, or from a punt-out or a punt-on.” This original rule went on to request that a player who performed a fair catch to mark the spot by “making a mark with his heel at the spot where he made the fair catch.”
1884 Michigan Wolverines football team, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, taken by an unknown photographer
A “knock” was a deliberate hit of the ball by a player in possession of it almost like a volleyball serve. Knocking and tossing a ball forward towards an opponent’s goal was illegal. If the ball was thrown or knocked forward the opposition could fair catch any interception of the loose ball. A “punt-out was a punt made after a touchdown from behind his opponent’s goal line. The teams swapped sides after every score in a sort of “suckers will walk” way that many sandlot and backyard football games are played now. A “punt-on” was a punt made from in the field of play from another punt. A common scrimmage play was the punt at that time. When the ball was punted it was said to be in “touch” or a ball anyone could gain possession of. When the ball was in touch the first player on his side who touches the ball down must bring it to the spot of the touch or touch-line. In the absence of the forward pass this planned loose ball play was the best chance at times that a team could advance the ball great distances. There was no scoring that could be done with the use of a punt. Drop kicks and place kicks were the only ways that balls directly advanced off of the feet could turn into awarded points.
The 1884 modifications to the fair catch were substantial to the game of that period. One modification stated that a fair catch could now be made behind one’s goal line. Another rule regulated contact by an opponent of a player who fair caught a ball. When a player was interfered with after he fair caught a ball the offended team’s captain would have the option to have a free kick or a down where the interference occurred.
The most played RIVALRY starts
The Lehigh and Lafayette series got its start in 1884 as Lafayette won 50-0 in this inaugural meeting. It is now referred to as "THE RIVALRY" and the two Eastern Pennsylvania teams that are about 12 miles away from each other have played 155 times since then.
1884 Football Season Snapshot
The 1884 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the official title listing Princeton and Yale as having been selected as co-national champions. These two once again met at the end of the season at the Polo Grounds on November 27, 1884. Princeton finished with a 9-0-1 record as Yale completed their slate of games at 8-0-1.
The Eli entered the annual contest with a 25-game winning streak as they arrived in NYC, and needed only to win a 26th game to ensure their place as the first team to win three consecutive undisputed national championships. The Tigers had other plans. The 1884 battle for the title was filled with injuries and contested results. When the time stopped on the game, the scoreboard read 6-4 in favor of Yale. However, the time was stopped early because it got dark. The referee, by the rulebook, was right to assert, “Properly speaking Yale won the game, but on a mere technicality I was forced to call the contest a draw. The rule calls for two full three-quarter-hour innings to be played.”
The game's early closure and declaration of a tie was unpopular on both sides. In the first of what would eventually become many instances of deciding national championships off the field, the Intercollegiate Football Association met right after the game to determine a winner.
So on November 27, 1884 another rules convention was held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. This convention was an appeal by Yale and their coach Walter Camp to alter the decision of referee R.M. Appleton (from Harvard) in the Princeton-Yale game of that year as a “no-contest” and the score officially being recorded as 0-0.
Mr. Hull of Harvard had to make the decision after hearing arguments from both schools in a private meeting. Hull exitted the conference and declared Yale the winner based on the score and the referee's initial decision. Princeton to this day still claims that 1884 was a championship year and the NCAA and Parke H. Davis also agree that the game should have been declared as a tie by rule since not enough of the game was completed to count as a completed contest. Mr. Appleton’s decision was upheld after a long debate.
This appeal conference marked a need for defining the responsibilities of the referee so. The next convention would be the defining moment when officials would become an integral component to our beloved game.
Please look for the results of the 1885 conventions in the next edition of the Dispatch’s walk through football history, in Part 8, “Football Fandom Arises.” Right here on PigskinDispatch.com, your place for the good news about football.
We are able to give this in depth look from so long ago in history by careful research. Using someone who was contemporary to the period is the best source. So a very special shout out to our main source of reference information for this article is from Parke H. Davis in his 1911 book Football-The American Intercollegiate Game.
