Touchdown: The Power and Precision of Football's Perfect Play
One DISTANT REPLAY THE HISTORY OF THE TOUCHDOWN ho scored the first touchdown The history books tell the story of a young man named William Webb Ellis He was a student at the Rugby School in Great Britain in 1823 A favorite of the Rugby boys was a game called football It was a rough game that had been played in England for many centuries Foot ball was similar to soccer with two important differences First a player was allowed to catch a long kick set it down and then boot it the other way A point was awarded to a team that kicked the ball over the goal line Second there was not a fixed goal with posts a crossbar and a net as there is in modern soccer All games at the Rugby School ended precisely at five in the evening One day as young William prepared to catch a long kick the school's bell began chiming out five gongs He knew he didn't have enough time to score a goal in the traditional way So William plucked the ball out of the air put his head down and ran right through his stunned opponents He crossed the goal line and touched the ball to the ground before the final gong had sounded William s classmates argued whether his play should count Some said yes and others said no Almost all agreed however that William s unexpected play might
TOUCHDOWN make for a fine new game If a player was allowed to carry the ball then it only seemed fair that his opponents should be allowed to pull him to the ground And since the ballcarrier had little chance of outrunning an entire team shouldn t his teammates be allowed to protect him These rules formed the foundation of tackling and blocking The old game of foot ball soon became two new sports The kicking game turned into what we know as soccer Outside of the United States and Canada it is still called football The carrying game was called rugby after the school where it started In North America a third game developed that was a little bit of both Some called it American football American football was played mostly in boarding schools and universities During the 1800s travel could be very difficult and expensive School teams did not play against one another as they do now As a result each school made up its own rules for football At some schools it was a very violent sport At others penalties were given for rough play Two schools in New Jersey played by very similar rules Princeton University and Rutgers University were only a few miles apart For many years their students had competed over an enormous cannon left over from the American Revolution 1775 1783 The strongest boys from Princeton would sneak onto the Rutgers campus and steal the cannon The strongest boys from Rutgers would then steal it back Many injuries occurred during these pranks Princeton stopped this dangerous game by sinking the cannon into concrete Looking for a new way to compete the boys decided to hold a football contest On November 6 1869 the first football game took place between two colleges A modern football fan would barely recognize the Princeton Rutgers game There were twenty five players to a side on the field at the same time A point could be scored only by kicking the ball which was round between two posts at either end of the field A team moved the ball forward by dribbling it with the feet A player was
not allowed to carry the ball However a wall of blockers was able to protect the dribbler When a team could no longer move the ball forward it had to kick to the other team Rutgers beat Princeton in that first game 6 4 Two weeks later the schools played again Princeton won this time 8 0 There were no touchdowns only one point goals Other North American colleges soon began playing football The sport grew in popularity In 1874 the football teams from McGill University in Montreal Canada and Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts squared off for two games The games were played with an egg shaped rugby ball The first game was played by McGill s rules The second was played by Harvard's rules Harvard was known for its slow rugged playing style McGill favored a faster game that was very close to British rugby This made sense because Canada was part of the British Empire at the time The Harvard players liked McGill s style They enjoyed running with the football They were also amazed how straight the oddly shaped ball flew when it was kicked The play they liked most of all was when a runner crossed the goal line and triumphantly touched the ball down on the ground The McGill players called it a touchdown Thanks to this meeting more than a century later American football and Canadian football are almost identical games Canadian football is played on a slightly larger field and a team has three tries instead of four to make a first down Many football stars from U S high schools and colleges end up playing in the Canadian Football
