American football has multiple influences and shares similarities with older sporting games. The history of American football has its roots in European rugby. The development of the game started at Princeton University and Harvard University in the early 1800s. Each school had a local game it played that eventually increased in popularity. Princeton played a game called "ballown," and Harvard had a brutal game between the sophomore and freshman classes on the first Monday of the school year, called "Bloody Monday." Eventually these games influenced a sports club in Boston.
Rugby
The biggest organized sporting influence on American football was rugby. Rugby rules and game play also composed parts of the other games that influenced American football as well. Rugby is a rough sport played with 15 players on each side, and the aim is to move the ball down the field to score by downing the ball across the goal line. The play is fluid; you can be on offense one second and on defense the next.
Boston Game
The Boston game was developed back in 1855, and combined kicking and running with the ball, much like rugby. It was influenced by two prior games that were played at universities until they were banned due to the intense violence. The Boston game was played on Boston Common by a club team. Eventually the game caught the eye of reporters and its popularity spread.
Ballown
Ballown was a mob-style ball game played at Princeton University in which an unlimited amount of players on each team had to force an inflatable ball to an opposing goal. Ballown was a violent game that only permitted the ball to be moved via kicking and closed-fist punching.
Bloody Monday
Another game that is said to influence today's American football was a game played by Harvard sophomore and freshman students. This game pitted the two classes against one another, and the aim was to push a ball toward the opposing team's goal by any means necessary. It was also a mob-style game that induced many injuries; hence "Bloody Monday."
References
- "America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation"; Michael Maccambridge; 2004
- Hornet Football: A Brief History of the Game
