The Lost Century Of American Football

For the first time, hundreds of rare historical articles are teamed with hundreds of vintage illustrations to portray the birth and growth of America's most popular sport. The story is told through fascinating contemporary accounts from over 100 source publications, allowing modern readers to share the 19th century football fan's experience of the game as it was reported by the media at the time. Multiple perspectives bring the era to life as we follow football chronologically from its primitive roots as a mob game in the early 1800s, through the Civil War years and the rise of college rivalries, to the game's technical flourishing in 1900. We see how football was originally played, how it looked from the sidelines, how it felt to the players, how it impacted American culture, and how it evolved into the sport we enjoy today. Many of the stories feel as if they were reported yesterday, not over a century ago. Readers will be surprised by the extent of media coverage devoted not only to the game itself, but also to off-the-field issues of broader social significance that continue to stir debate to this day. We witness the invention of rules we now take for granted, feel the intense team passion and colorful pageantry surrounding the game, and learn the origins of fundamental features of the sport, from the line of scrimmage and the number of players to the scoring system and the development of diagrammed plays. Themes include the role of college athletics in the educational system, eligibility standards for high school recruits, financial disputes, ticket scalpers, public intoxication, unruly fans, gambling, sportsmanship, brutality, and the modern concept of masculinity. This comprehensive illustrated anthology is an absorbing historical discovery that will enrich every modern fan's understanding and appreciation of the gridiron game. Entertaining and educational, this volume is an essential resource for football fans, players, students, scholars, art lovers and history buffs. "The man who receives the ball from the snap-back shall be called quarter-back." Pg. 83 "It used to be a simple matter to seek out the localities in which football is played; nowadays it would be far easier to say where it is not played." Pg. 473 "This half-way manner of settling a championship is only productive of further dissension and gives plenty of ground to the press and the public for ridiculing the association." Pg. 157 "It may be that professional matches would be better attended because the contests would be between rival cities." Pg. 443 "He not only played, but played well, desperately well at times, although he actually knew nothing of his actions and was placed in a physician's care immediately after the game. It was some 12 hours before he recovered ordinary powers of thought, and then he knew nothing whatever of the game or its results after he was hurt." Pg. 387 "Football can be played by electric light and under such a huge roof as that of the Madison Square Garden." Pg. 310 "It is the lack of money which seems to our struggling colleges to be the root of all evil. They stand agape when they learn from the public press that the income from the Thanksgiving game of foot-ball is greater than the total annual expenditure of their trustees for the support of twenty-five professors and the education of 300 boys." Pg. 555 "It is not uncommon today for a father to make matters worse by unconsciously over-encouraging his son, thereby fortifying him in his delusion that the sport is the most important part of college life." Pg. 397 "In every man's pocket there is a generous wad of greenbacks to bet on the great football game tomorrow." Pg. 415 "A mass meeting of the students will be held on Monday night at which steps will be taken towards effective organization for cheering at the big game." Pg. 416 Fully indexed. LostCentury.com

American football injuries and brutality from 1827 to 1898

Includes the original texts: American football / by Walter Camp. Franklin Square, New York : Harper & Brothers, 1891 -- A scientific and practical treatise on American football for schools and colleges / by A. Alonzo Stagg and Henry L. Williams. Hartford, Conn. : Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1893 -- Football / by Walter Camp and Lorin F. Deland. Cambridge ; Boston ; and New York : Houghton, Mifflin and Company : The Riverside Press, 1896.

This book examines the developments in women’s sports history in Britain in the last 10 years, following on from its successful predecessor Women and Sport History (2010). It considers what has changed and what continuities persist drawing on a series of contributions from authors who are active in the field. The chapters included in this book cover a broad time frame and range of topics such as the history of women’s football in Scotland and England; women’s role in rugby leagues; women’s sport during World War II; and female participation in American football, cricket and cycling. Written and edited during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the book also reflects on the possible implications of the pandemic on women’s sport. In doing so, it highlights the diversity of research currently being undertaken in the field and touches on areas which remain overlooked or underdeveloped. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Sport in History.

More than 300 newspaper articles from 25 states, published from 1869 to 1879, describe the first decade of college football, commencing with the first intercollegiate game and continuing through the playing days of Walter Camp. This is how the game began, as reported by the press, while sportswriters were still honing football jargon. Includes a chronological Table of Contents and a complete Index. States include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin. Other football books in The Lost Century of Sports Collection include The Lost Century of American Football, Classic Football Art, Walter Camp in Print, Football Linemen, and The American Football Trilogy.

When the colonies that became the USA were still dominions of the British Empire they began to imagine their sporting pastimes as finer recreations than even those enjoyed in the motherland. From the war of independence and the creation of the republic to the twenty-first century, sporting pastimes have served as essential ingredients in forging nationhood in American history. This collection gathers the work of an all-star team of historians of American sport in order to explore the origins and meanings of the idea of national pastimes—of a nation symbolized by its sports. These wide-ranging essays analyze the claims of particular sports to national pastime status, from horse racing, hunting, and prize fighting in early American history to baseball, basketball, and football more than two centuries later. These essays also investigate the legal, political, economic, and culture patterns and the gender, ethnic, racial, and class dynamics of national pastimes, connecting sport to broader historical themes. American National Pastimes chronicles how and why the USA has used sport to define and debate the contours of nation. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

College football is one of the most popular sports in the United States. Fans follow their favorite team with unfailing loyalty, and nowhere do the colors come out more fervently than when rivals face off. These games bring out the passion, the rituals, and even the rage of football fans across the country. Whether based on history and tradition, or proximity and local pride, college rivalry games have an intensity unmatched by any other sporting event. The Greatest College Football Rivalries of All Time: The Civil War, the Iron Bowl, and Other Memorable Matchups showcases the best of these competitions. Martin Gitlin details game highlights, the history behind the rivalries, and how the fans, players, and coaches have impacted the matchups. The fourteen top rivalries are covered, including the always-intense battles between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines, the great in-state rivalry between the Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide, and the historic contests between the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen. In addition to capturing the action of the games, this book also covers the personal stories that heighten the passion and intensity of the rivalries—including pranks pulled over the years by opposing fans. With stats and series highlights detailed in each entry, and featuring historical and contemporary photographs throughout its pages, The Greatest College Football Rivalries of All Time is a must-read for every fan of college football.

Americans are obsessed with football, yet they know little about the man who shaped the game to make it uniquely technical, physical, and 'man-making' at once. Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football," was the foremost authority on American athletics and arguably the greatest amateur American athlete of his time. In Walter Camp: Football and the Modern Man, Julie Des Jardins chronicles the life of the clock company executive and self-made athlete who remade football and redefined the ideal man. As a student at Yale University, Camp was a varsity letterman who led the earliest efforts to codify the rules and organization of football-including the line of scrimmage and "downs"-to make it distinct from English rugby. He also invented the All-America Football Team and wrote some of the first football fiction, guides, and sports page coverage, making him the foremost popularizer of the game. Within a decade American football was an obsession on college campuses of the Northeast. By the turn of the century, it was a bona fide national pastime. Since the Civil War, college men of good breeding had not a physical skirmish to harden them. They had grown soft, Americans feared, both in body and attitude. Camp saw football as the antidote to the degeneration of these young men. When massive numbers of college football players enlisted to fight in World War I, Camp held them up as proof that football turned men effective and courageous. His influence over the game, however, was not always viewed as beneficial. Under his watch, dozens of college and high school players were killed or maimed on the gridiron. President Theodore Roosevelt urged him to reform football to prevent administrators from banning it, but Camp was ambivalent about removing the very physicality that made the game man-making in his eyes. The criticism targeted at him over the aggressiveness of football still haunts the game today. In this fast-paced biography, Julie Des Jardins shows how the "gentleman athlete" was as much the arbiter of football as he was the arbiter of modern manhood. Though eventually football took on meanings that Camp never intended, his impact on the professional and college game is simply unsurpassed.