History of Football

HISTORY OF FOOTBALL The history of football is interesting as well as exciting, from the first forms of the game ever played, to the multi million dollar organizations of today. The game continues to evolve and change with the times. Football is a sport that evolved from many different games. Football is mainly known as a different form of rugby or soccer, but there is more to the origin of the game than just those two sports. Football games were played around the world before the game was actually called football. " Football is believed to have descended from a Greek game called Harpaston " (Source C). The rules in Harpaston were not very strict. Running, kicking, or passing the ball across the goal line could earn points. " It is believed that the Chinese played some form of soccer around 500 A.D" (Source M). The earliest soccer games in England consisted of people running around on a field kicking a skull. This skull kicking game continued until someone had the idea to use an inflated cow bladder, which allowed for the ball to be kicked greater distances and was much easier on the foot of the participants. In the twelfth century, the king of England outlawed the game of "futeball" because it took away from the English tradition of archery. The game was considered illegal for four hundred years. Once it was allowed to resume, it was called soccer. Another ancestor of football is the Irish game of Gaelic rugby. This game basically consisted of teams trying to advance the ball across the goal line, much like Greek Harpaston. Once the game made it across the Atlantic to America it started to take on characteristics of the game we now call football today.

When football crossed the Atlantic Ocean and came to America it would undergo a major change. There were many different forms of the game in America, Princeton University students played a game called ‘Ballown' in the 1920s, which was the earliest attempt at modern football.