The historical past regarding football can be traced back to the early days of rugby. Rugby was also inviting in England as well as soccer in the early 1800's. Since the mid 1800's college campuses of Ivy League schools all enjoyed identical versions of football. Around 1860's following the end of the Civil War educational facilities began enjoying structured football. The University of Princeton designed a few of the rules that we know today in football. After the rules were established Princeton University got the game patented and the game known as football was born. The very first football game in history was played in 1869 with Princeton taking on Rutgers. Rutgers won the game making it the first team to ever win in football history.
College football's historical past had taken another huge step in 1873 when a large amount of colleges decided that they wanted all of the United States schools to meet together to officially form the rules that will take away the rugby aspect of the newly formed game of football. The coach of Yale, Walter Camp put the final touch in designing the game by limiting the number of players to 11 on each team. Walter Camp also resized the football field to 110 yards. In 1882 he created the down system. The original down system consisted of three downs and just only 5 yards to gain a first down, yet it was changed years later.
Without having appropriate safety gear the sport turned out to be incredibly brutal as well as dangerous to the players. Certainly, there were some deaths that occurred due to the lack of safety within the new sport. This turned out to be a major issue. Teddy Roosevelt, who was the President at the time, ordered a change be made to help the safety of young college football players. President Roosevelt formed a committee that became the NCAA or National Athletic Association.
The NCAA incorporated the concept of offense and defense as well as shortening the game to sixty minutes. Professional football was formed around 1895 and in 1920 the American Professional Football Association was created. APFA change its name to the National Football League in 1922 and in the mid forties the NFL had just 10 football teams. A huge merger took place in 1970 when the NFL took its 16 football teams and merged it with the AFL's 10 teams to form the 2 division league that we know today. Football continues to grow and now is arguably the most popular sport in the United States.
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