FanNation

Who Is The Father Of Football?

     While doing research on a different topic I came across this question, who is the father of football? The more I searched, the clearer it became to me that football had a father and an uncle.

     The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, Inc lists Walter Camp as the father of football. In fact, they list his name as Walter "The Father of Football" Camp. Here is a little of his story.

     Born in 1859 Walter enrolled in Yale 16 years later. Colleges at that time only offered two team sports--rugby or soccer. He chose rugby and I for one am glad he did. (sorry soccer fans)

     After playing from '75 to '80, he saw areas that could be improved upon so, after graduating in 1880, he enrolled in Yale's medical school and remained a member of the team where he could then make innovative changes to the game of rugby and see the impact those changes had on the players.

     Those changes were:  changing rugby's scrummage--where the two teams fight over possession of the ball while in a circle--to a scrimmage line where the two teams face each other in two parallel lines.This change required the establishment of a quarterback and signal calling. It also reduced the number of men on the field from 13 in rugby to an 11-man squad in football.

     One problem that cropped up as a result of this change was the fact that whoever gained first possession kept it guaranteeing they would score. Camp fixed this by creating a series of downs where the team possessing the ball had to turn it over to the opposition unless they had advanced it a specified amount of distance within a set number of chances.

     Of all his innovative changes, the scoring is what I would call "wacky"; enough to make me wonder if he had two hats and said, "Okay, in this hat is the way to score points and in this hat is the number of points assigned to a scoring action." See if you agree.

     Safety..........................:  1 point

     Touchdown....................: 2 points

     After touchdown field goal: 4 points

     Field goal.......................: 5 points

     Weird, huh?

     Camp got married in 1888 and went on to coach the Yale team from '88 to '92 and at Stanford in '92, '94 and '95. What I find extraordinary about the '92 season is that he coached both Yale and Stanford that year since Stanford's season began on December 17th when Yale's season ended.

     In Camp's first year as coach of the 1888 Yale Bulldogs the team not only went undefeated at 13 - 0 they also won every game by a shutout leading to a scoring record of 698 - 0.

     Walter Camp remained a part of football by serving on many committees, in fact, he died of a heart attack in 1925 while attending the rules committee's annual meeting.

     One member of the historic 1888 Yale Bulldogs team was Amos Alonzo Stagg whom I believe was the Uncle of American Football.

     Born in 1862, Mr. Stagg became the very first football coach to be paid to coach. He was hired by the Williston Seminary in 1890. He also coached there in 1891 but only once a week. He coached football full time at the Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA which became Springfield College. One of his players was a man named James Naismith whom many of you know invented basketball while a student at that college.

     When Amos Stagg's divinity professor at Yale became the first president of the University of Chicago, he named Stagg head football coach and director of the Department of Physical Culture in 1892, a post Stagg would retain for 41 years.

     He served as head football coach at the University of Chicago from 1892 to 1932 and was credited with the ideas of the tackling dummy, the huddle, the reverse and man - in - motion plays, the lateral pass, the Statue of Liberty play, uniform numbers, the use of drawings and illustrations as coaching aids and awarding varsity letters.

     He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 as a player and as a coach. In recognition of Amos Stagg's contributions to college football, the NCAA designated the Division lll championship game as "The Stagg Bowl".

     As the legendary coach of Notre Dame, Knute Rochne, once said, "All football comes from Stagg." Amos Alonzo Stagg died in 1965 at age 102.

     It is my belief that while Walter Chauncey Camp is the Father of Football, Amos Alonzo Stagg is Football's Uncle.

A Little History of My Time At FanNation

    In the not so distant past I had a stroke and let me tell you it was not fun, except for the part where I thought I was speaking English but everyone else said it was Klingon.  Once I recovered I found myself in a self-imposed isolation that lasted for about six or seven years.

    Concerned as my doctor was he suggested that I join the local Senior Center.  Senior Center?!  Why would I want to join something that was full of the people I went to high school with?  I didn't like them then, why would I like them now?  So I went hunting for something else.

WHAT I DON'T KNOW

     What I don't know about soccer would fill a....well....soccer stadium.  Here's what I know, or at least, think I know.

     A soccer field is huge and is called "a pitch".  At each end of the pitch are very large nets held up by two upright posts connected by one long horizontal pole.

     The player guarding/defending this territory is called the "goalie" and is the only one on the field allowed to touch the ball with his hands during the game. The object of the game is to get the ball past the goalie and score one point. If the goalie is successful in stopping the ball before it makes its way into the net, he will either throw a long pass to one of his teammates or kick the ball as far down the field as  possible for the same reason.

   Should the ball during play cross the sideline it is considered "out of play" and must be brought back in. This is usually accomplished by throwing it to a teammate . (The player on the "outside" is allowed to use his hands  to get the ball back into play).

    Sometimes a player will trip and fall on his own (you try running at top speed not really watching where you're going) and sometimes an opposing player  will try to "help" you trip.  In this case, the tripped player  hits the ground and acts like he's injured.  In some cases he really is injured and  in others  well,  let's just  say "And the Oscar goes to..."  and leave it at that.

    This is all done in an attempt to cause the offending fellow to get a "color card" from the referee.  If however, the ref doesn't believe an infraction occurred the player on the ground gets the card. Too many cards on the same player means that player is off the field for the rest of the game.

    Sometimes a penalty is  SO severe the other team is allowed a "penalty kick." The defensive players line up in front of the goal and try to help the goalie stop the ball or at least deflect it away from the goal. There is also something called a "corner kick" but I have no idea what it's for.

    In the case of a tie score, each team is allowed to kick the ball at the goal one player at a time.If the first kicker doesn't score then the other team tries. They also alternate the goalies so a player is always facing the opposition goalie. This continues until a player scores.

    I think soccer is the only sport where the timeclock starts at zero and counts time by addition instead of subtraction, I don't know why. Once the clock reaches the total required time for the game the referee tells the teams how much more time is left to play due to injuries and the like, because the clock never stops during play.

   I also think I know that two of the greatest players of this game were Pele and Beckham.

   So, now you know what I know. Please correct my information or fill in any gaps (even the BIG ones)

so I can learn why soccer fans are so passionate about this game and so fiercely loyal to their teams.