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[[File:682px-President_Theodore_Roosevelt,_1904.jpg|thumbnail|250px|President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904]]
In 1905, American football faced an crisis. Far to many young men were being killed while playing football and no one was taking any serious actions to reduce the risks. The headline at the top of the right hand column in ''The Chicago Sunday Tribune'' on November 26, 1905 screamed, "Football Year's Death Harvest - Record Shows That Nineteen Players Have Been Killed; One Hundred Thirty-seven Hurt - Two Are Slain Saturday." <ref>”Football Year's Death Harvest,” The Chicago Sunday Tribune, November 26, 1905, page 1</ref> Contemporary numbers differ on the exact number of football fatalities suffered on the playing field in 1905, but young men were dying playing football.
At the time that meant college football. The National Football League was fifteen years away from forming in a Canton, Ohio Hupmobile dealership. There were semi-professional and club football in the first decade of the 20th century but those were local games played by grown men and that was a different matter. College football, however, was drawing tens of thousands of spectators to games, joining baseball and horse racing as the biggest sports of their day.
