Football" before the 19th century referred to any bunch of ball games played on foot. The regulations of these games differed from one another, some allowing the application of hands "running games", others not allowing it "kicking games". One myths has it that the football game rugby, American football's ancestor, was invented when an Englishman grew tired of the no hands restraint, picked the ball up, and ran. Out of an curiosity to fulfill the rules of the game the other players tackled the player. So much amusement was this change that running football games were born. Whether this is authentic or not is unknown, but what is known is that football does have its beginnings in the games played by pre-colonial European peasants.
The first vestiges of what would become American football are found in the 19th century in the games played by students at the upper-class schools and universities of the United States. A markedly brutal running game was played at Princeton University in1820, and around this time a kicking game was additionally being played by students of Dartmouth College. Rules for the Dartmouth game, known as "Old Division Football", were published in 1871. The first running game to codify its rules was the well-known English sport, rugby, and it did so in 1845.
While there is some category of argument over what constitutes the first American football team, most sports historians point to the Oneida Football Club, a Boston club founded in 1861. Nobody knows what rules this club used; whether they played a running, kicking, or hybrid version of the game. It is also known that rugby was advancing in Canada about this time. The Montreal Football club formed in 1868 and is said to have played a version of English rugby. This became the nucleus of Canadian football, which is important here for it later had a large impact on American football's development.
It is not prominent what the rules and regulations most of these early football games followed. However, the disgraceful Rutgers v. Princeton game in 1869 opens a window to the history. The game was played by 2 teams of twenty five people each. Each team was composed of eleven "fielders", twelve "bulldogs", and two "peanutters" whose job was to hang out near the opposing team's goal so as to score from unguarded positions. This fact suggests there was no "offside" rule at this time. American football at this spot closely resembled soccer in the sense that a team scored goals instead of touchdowns and throwing or running with the ball was not allowed.
While the NFL states that this early game was indeed established on soccer and not rugby, it did begin intercollegiate football games. Four years later, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers stated the first ever set of intercollegiate rules for football. However, these rules forbade players from throwing the ball or running with it.
It is Harvard we have to thank for American football. Harvard representatives knew in advance that the four schools above planned on codifying rules forbidding assertive physical contact and the carrying of the ball, so they refused to attend. Harvard's stubberness on behalf of rugby led thereafter to the McGill v. Harvard match of 1874 and the Harvard v. Yale game of 1875. Due to the acceptance of these matches other US universities began to field rugby teams. Finally, in 1876 an assembly was held between Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Yale where England's Rugby Union rules were adopted by all four schools, but with 2 key changes. No longer would the scoring of a touch down be voided if the rival team kicked a field goal
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