Thank you Mr President

In this edition of the Football History Rewind, we discuss the intervention of President Theodore Roosevelt to save football from its brutal self and some background on Walter Chauncey Camp. 

Walter Camp develops football

Pigskin Dispatch's Part 22 in the Series on American Football History

Influences for Camp’s transformation of a game

As discussed in the last episode of PigskinDispatch.com’s blog series on football history, “A New Authoritative Organizational Body and Leader for Football”, Walter Chauncey Camp entered the football scene as a great player and winning leader of Yale.

The allure of the McGill versus Harvard match-up of May 1874 had a profound influence upon Walter Camp even though there appears to be no evidence that ties him directly to these games. Nevertheless Camp promoted rules changes in the IFA that would institute certain characteristics that occurred in that two game series to the games played under IFA rules. The first was that the number of players per side would be reduced from fifteen to eleven (remember McGill only had 11 available to play Harvard in 1874.) A second development Camp and the rules committee proposed in 1882 was to institute a system of downs. The original rules on downs allowed an offense three attempts to advance the ball five yards; in 1906 the distance was changed to ten yards. The fourth down was added in 1912.

Walter Camp also introduced a standard size playing field to the game in his early years on the IFA rules committee. All fields were to be 110 yards long under the new rules, up until this the yardage was different for almost every event. In 1888 tackling below the waist had been made legal by the recommendation of Camp. The IFA was disbanded in 1894 and replaced by an unnamed rules committee headed by Walter Camp and other representatives of the predominant Eastern schools including John C Bell.

Brutality Threatens to Outlaw the Game

The game of that time was very rough and brutal. The 1890’s era saw many schools decide to ban the game from their campuses. There had been 18 deaths and another 180 players who had suffered very serious injuries due to the “brutal mass plays” that were common under the rules. The game was in jeopardy of being killed off by concerned citizens and college presidents. Their concern was a real worry too, as statistics at the time showed that football was among the top most dangerous recreational activities going on that day. 

 President Teddy Roosevelt became involved in the campaign to help preserve football. The POTUS knew that the game needed safety reform and a champion to make it happen. In 1905 before the game erased itself from existence, the country’s Commander and Chief called for rules reform. Again Walter Camp was the man that stepped up to save the day. 

You can read all about the most major face lift of football in part 23 of this series, Football is Saved for Future Generations.” 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.

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikimedia Commons collection and was contributed by an unknown photographer. It is of Mr. Roosevelt at Gibraltar - Mr. Roosevelt at the center of the picture - Kermit Roosevelt in the light suit at the right. April 24, 1909.