Changes

Jump to: navigation, search

Did Theodore Roosevelt really save Football

5 bytes added, 16:04, 18 December 2016
no edit summary
==College Football in the Early 1900s==
[[File:1905footballteamyale.png|thumbnail|345px|left|Yale's 1905 undefeated football team]]
Immediately upon learning of the news, New York University Chancellor H.M. McCracken wired Charles W. Eliot, the President of Harvard University, and called for a "meeting of heads of universities, with the object of reforming or abolishing the game." <ref>”Union College Man Dies of Football Injuries,” ''Los Angeles Herald'', November 26, 1905, page 1</ref> The "game" in 1905 would be scarcely recognized as football today. There was no forward passing and so the ball itself looked more like a watermelon. Only five yards was required to make a first down and the typical strategy was to bludgeon the opposition in an attempt to gain that precious fifteen feet of territory. The most popular technique was to lead the ball carrier into the line with a flying wedge, where players would interlock arms and form a battering ram. Players sported no padding, no helmets, no protection of any sort.

Navigation menu