"American Football" came from . . . . Canada?

American Football Came from . . . Canada?

The Origins of American Football in the 

Harvard-McGill Game of 1874

When I was about eight years old, I received a book for Christmas on the history of American Football.  OK! My brother received the book; but I liked it, and read it A LOT.

I loved that book.  It introduced me to characters like Jim Thorpe, the “Galloping Ghost” and the “Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.”  I read about historic games like the “Sneakers Game,” the 1953 Cotton Bowl (in which Rice was awarded a touchdown when an Alabama player jumped onto the field from the bench to tackle Dickie Maegle at the 40 yard line) and the “Ice Bowl.” 

The book is also where I learned that the first game of “American Football” was played in 1869 between Rutgers University and Princeton University.  Over the years, I often heard this ‘fact’ recited as dogma without questioning whether it was true.  But although the Princeton-Rutgers game was, apparently, the first recorded game of inter-collegiate “football,” in the United States, it was probably not the first game of what we now think of as, “American Football.” 

In 1869, the players were not permitted to carry the ball and run.

Football, or foosball or fotbol, as the rest of the world calls soccer, is a game played with the feet.  The ball, for the most part, may not be carried or thrown.  “American football,” which was derived from the Rugby rules of football, involves moving the ball while carrying it, throwing the ball, and scoring by crossing the end-line with the football or kicking the ball over the goal.

So if the Princeton-Rutgers game is not the origin of, “American Football,” where did it come from?

“American Football” came to the United States from . . . (drum roll please) . . .   

Canada! 

Early Football

Ball kicking games have been around for centuries.  Kicking games were even known in American universities since at least the late 1700s.  The tradition of intramural football games, of various kinds, existed at several American colleges throughout the early 1800s.  

But those early games were generally played without official rules, with large numbers of players, and were, on occasion, dangerous.  Harvard and Yale even banned football games in the mid-nineteenth century, long before the Princeton-Rutgers game in 1869. 

Advancements in rubber manufacturing technology in the early 19^th probably helped promote the game by making the ball cheaper and more consistent in size and shape, thereby making the game more accessible and more reliably fun. 

In England, a variety of different football games, each played under their own set of rules, developed separately at a number of schools.  Eton, Winchester, Rugby, Harrow and Cheltenham all had their own, distinctive set of rules. 

In 1863, the London Football Association adopted its first formal set of rules, based on rules drawn from the best aspects of the various sets of school-specific rules.  These “Association rules” form the basis of the modern game of soccer (‘soccer’ being a play on the word as-SOC-iation).  

The first intramural collegiate game of soccer under Association rules took place at Oxford, England on November 2, 1869, a mere week before the Rutgers played Princeton in the first intercollegiate game of “football.”  There would not be an intercollegiate match in England until the Cambridge-Oxford match of 1872.

By 1871, two years after the Rutgers-Princeton match, there was sufficient interest in the rules of football, then spelled as two words – “foot  ball’ – that  the American publishing firm, Peck and Snyder published, “Book of Rules of the Game of Foot Ball, as adopted and played by the English Football Associations” (Peck and Snyder are known to baseball card collectors as the publishers of the first baseball card).

The Peck and Snyder rule book was compiled and edited by Charles Alcock, the Honorary Secretary of the football Association of London, and was dedicated, “Expressly for the Benefit of the American Colleges, Etc.”  The book included seven distinct sets of rules; the Association rules and the rules of six different schools, including the Rugby School.   The back of the book included advertisements for the sale of footballs (“association balls” and “rugby balls”) and football uniforms (“same price as baseball”).  The stage was set for the development of a distinctly American brand of football.

Princeton-Rutgers

On November 6, 1869, Princeton played Rutgers in the first intercollegiate game of ‘football.’  The game was played under Rutgers’ rules, which were more or less like what we know as soccer, although batting the ball in the air with ones hands was permitted.  The ball was kicked and passed up and down the field by kicking; and goals were scored by kicking the ball between two posts.  Rutgers won the day by a score of six goals to four.

Although the rules of the game were not similar to modern "American Football," one feature of the game still has a familiar ring; Princeton students cheered on their team with their "rocket cheer" - the original Sis-Boom-Bah.

(See my earlier post, Skyrockets, the Transatlantic Cable and Pre-Civil War Militia - the Explosive History of Sis! Boom! Bah!)

The teams played a second game two weeks later, under Princeton’s rules.  Princeton’s rules permitted catching the ball, but not running with the ball; the person catching the ball could make a free kick from the spot of the catch.  Ball movement was still primarily accomplished by kicking and goals were scored by kicking the ball through a goal, as in soccer.  Princeton won the game eight goals to zero.

Over the next few years, intercollegiate football progressed; teams from Princeton, Yale, Columbia and Penn played each other on a number of occasions under rules more like soccer than what we know as American football. 

At Harvard, football clubs played intramural football under a unique set of rules that involved mostly kicking the ball, but which permitted catching and running with the ball; but only if pursued by a defender.  Again, scoring was done, as in soccer, by kicking the ball into a goal.

A group of Canadians changed things up.

McGill - Harvard

The first intercollegiate game of football that included many of the now-familiar elements of “American Football” (kick-offs, punting, carrying the ball, touchdowns, field goal kicking and kicking goals after touchdown over a cross-bar) took place May 15, 1874 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when Harvard University hosted McGill University, of Montreal, Canada, for a weekend of football.  

McGill University had initiated the challenge; proposing a home and away series of two ‘football’ games; each game to be played under the host team’s rules.  McGill played football under the All-Canada Code, which were designed along the lines of the Rugby School rules.  Harvard, however, would not permit its players to travel, so McGill travelled to Cambridge where both games were played.

The Harvard foot-ball club has received from McGill college, Montreal, an offer to play two games in Cambridge, between the 1^st and 15^th of May, and the challenge has been accepted.  One of the matches will be played according to the Rugby rules, which are adopted by the McGill university, and the other according to the rules of the game as played at Harvard.

The Rutland Daily Globe (Vermont), April 10, 1874.

On May 14, the teams played their first game, under Harvard’s rules.  Harvard defeated McGill by a score of three goals to zero.  

On May 15, Harvard battled McGill, under the All-Canada Code’s rugby-style rules, using a rugby-style ball provided by the visitors.  The game ended in a scoreless tie. 

Despite the lack of scoring, the game was considered a great success by the players and the fans.  The rugby-style of football had taken a firm foothold in America.  An article published in the Harvard Advocate, shortly after the game, presciently predicted that: 

Football will be a popular game in the future.  The Rugby game is in much better favor than the somewhat sleepy game now played by our men. 

The accuracy of that prediction stands in stark contrast to the long-running joke that, in America, "soccer is the sport of the future - and always will be."

(See my earlier post, Soccer - America's Future - and Past)

For whatever reason, the physical play engendered by running, tackling and the scrums, or scrummages (predecessor of today’s line of scrimmage) was more attractive to the American psyche than the kicking of the soccer ball. 

Development of the American Game

Less than three years later, the football clubs of Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia met to form the Intercollegiate Football Association (a forerunner to the NCAA), and to codify the rules.

At various times since then, the rules have been changed or modified in efforts to make the game more exciting, interesting or fair.  In 1880, the number of men on the field per team was fixed at eleven (a number borrowed from the Eton School via Yale).  The rugby ‘scrum’ was abolished in 1880, in favor of the “American Football” scrimmage, in which a team retains the ball after each “down,” without engaging in a scrum with the other team.  This rule change set the stage for the development of the set formations and strategy that characterize American football.

1882 ushered in the rule limiting a team to three downs on each possession, unless the ball is advanced by five yards.  They felt the need to introduce an incentive to advance the ball down the field in the wake of the so-called “block game” of 1881, when Yale and Princeton played to a scoreless tie, each team holding the ball for an entire half.  Without overtime and without a playoff system, the game also resulted in the first disputed “National Champion.” 

Some things never change. 

The game reached its modern form in 1906 with the introduction of the forward pass and the extension of first down yardage from five yards to ten. 

Thank You Canada

So, the next time you see any news coverage of the CFL, or read about the newly-crowned Gray Cup champions, don’t just shake your head dismissively at the big field, the funny motion plays and three down limit; take a moment to acknowledge their role in creating our own form of football, and give thanks to Canada for introducing us to our national sport.

Partial List of References:

1.      Parke H. Davis, Football, The American Intercollegiate Game, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911.

2.      Professional Football Researchers Association, No Christian End! The Beginnings of Football in America.

3.      Walter Camp, Football Facts and Figures, A Symposium of Expert Opinion on the Game’s Place in American Athletics, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1894.

A Stone-Cold "Lead Pipe" Update

A "Lead Pipe" Update

In a recent post, Horseracing andSuicide – the Heavy History and Etymology of “Lead-Pipe Cinch,”  I looked at the origins of the idiom, “lead pipe cinch.”  The phrase, which dates to at least 1888, came from the world of horserace gambling.  The word “cinch,” derived from the Spanish word for a type of rope used to secure saddles to horses, had developed a secondary meaning, “to get a grip on, metaphorically,” by as early as 1880. 

(See my post - Lead Pipe III - the Final Chapter - for new insight into the origin of "lead pipe cinch".)

By 1888, the words, “lead pipe,” were appended to “cinch” as a means of intensifying the strength of the metaphorical grip.  If a “cinch” has a grip on something, a “lead pipe cinch” has a very strong grip on it.

In 1890, an article purporting to explain the origin of the idiom, suggested that the idiom referred to a “plumber who, while traveling on the East River ferry, fell overboard with a coil of lead pipe around his body.  The ‘lead pipe cinch’ was too much for him, and he never came up again.”  Although the origin story smacks of a folk-etymology, or urban legend, it does not seem to have been cut from whole cloth.  It agreed in several details with a drowning incident that had occurred seven years earlier.

In 1883, a destitute feather merchant jumped from a ferry in the East River and drowned.  Witness statements (to the effect that he had jumped), his mounting debts, his recently acquired insurance policies, and several pounds of lead strapped to his body, suggested that he had committed suicide; the insurance companies demanded a coroner’s inquest.  But when jury failed to make a finding of suicide, the way was cleared for his family to receive the insurance payments.  It was a lead pipe cinch.

Similarities between the 1890 origin story and the 1883 suicide, suggested that the origin story, if not the idiom, had been based on the actual, apparent suicide.  It is also possible, that 1883 drowning could have inspired the original idiom, or may have become associated with an existing idiom, based on the literal and figurative lead pipe cinches inherent to the story. 

Yet Another Story

Since posting my earlier piece, I have identified an earlier purported origin story, from 1888.  The earlier story also involves a man with lead strapped to his body falling to his death from a ferry boat, but switches the location from the East River to the New Jersey side of the Hudson.  The story involves a gambler, a thief, an aborted crime, and the gambler’s first-ever sure thing.  When the thief, whom the gambler knew to be burdened with lead pipe cinched to his body, fell into the water, the gambler gave odds on whether the man would surface – it was a “lead pipe cinch”:

Origin of the “Lead Pipe Cinch” – a Few Wanted Just Now.

If any man has made a corner in “cinches” he should in all conscience let up this week and throw a few on the market for the benefit of the old guard of racegoers who are striving to get even before the season closes.  Only six days of grace remain for squaring accounts with the ring.  Oh, for three or four real, old-fashioned “lead pipes,” such as the gambler had on the thief.  The gambler had been looking for “cinches” all his life, but none had ever come his way.  The thief persuaded him on a certain occasion to join a quiet expedition to Jersey City which promised to be highly profitable.  The undertaking failed, however, and the pair set out on their return to New-York.

“I never give up a job without takin’ along a little reminder of it,” the thief remarked, and finding a piece of lead pipe he proceeded to coil it around his waist.  When his coat was buttoned over it he looked a little lumpy, to be sure, but aroused no suspicion.  The two reached the ferry as the boat started out of the slip.  Both ran to catch it and jumped.  The gambler got safely aboard, but, alas, the poor thief, loaded with lead pipe, fell short and with a yell of agony disappeared beneath the yellow foam.  Deck-hands and passengers rushed to the stern of the boat and looked at the seething waters. 

“He’ll come up in a second,” shouted one, getting ready to cast a line.

“Ten to one he don’t!” screamed the gambler, shaking a wad of bank-notes over the heads of the crowd.

“I tell you he will,” yelled the other, furious over the contradiction.

“Fifty to one he don’t! A hundred to one he don’t! A thousand to one he don’t come up!”

The gambler raved and waved his money, but found no takers.

“Ten thousand to one he don’t come up!” he bawled.” I’ve been looking all my life for a dead sure thing, and now I’ve got it.  Who wants to back ‘em?  Fifty thousand to one he don’t come up!”

And he was right.  The dead sure thing had come at last, for the thief never rose again.

Such is the origin of the “lead pipe cinch.”  Perhaps there is one in the programme to-day.  The fields are small, but they are made up of good horses, and promise exciting sport.  The dry wind yesterday and last night, improved the track so much that there will be little mud to complain of this afternoon.

New York Tribune, October 8, 1888, page 12. 

The existence of this origin story from 1888, raises the question of whether the origin story from 1890 was based on the original drowning, or was a mangled retelling of the 1888 story.  It is also possible that the notoriety of the feather merchant’s drowning in 1883 may have spawned a number of jokes, stories or anecdotes, based on the then-novel idiom, “lead pipe cinch.”

Or perhaps the 1888 origin story is the iron-clad, copper-riveted, stone-cold truth.

I’m not takin’ that bet – it’s no “Lead Pipe Cinch.”

UPDATE: Please read my follow-up to this article, Lead Pipe III - the Final Chapter, for additional insight into why a "lead pipe" might be used to intensify "cinch."

UPDATE - UPDATE: Please read my further update, Lead Pipe IV - A Lead Pipe could be a "Sure Thing" even before it was a "Cinch".  An alternate version of the story discussed above appeared in 1886, before the idiom, "lead pipe cinch," even existed. That story may well have helped inspire the development of the idiom.

"Speakeasy" Update - Antedating "Speak Easy Shop"

“Speakeasy” Update - Speak Easy, Mate - 

An Antipodal Antedating of “Speak Easy Shop”

In a recent post, I surveyed the history and etymology of the word “speakeasy,” denoting an unlicensed seller of liquor.  Speakeasies are most familiar in pop-culture, as places where flappers danced and mobsters sold booze during Prohibition in the United States, in the 1920s and into the 1930s.

The word was first popularized in the United States after a widely reported crackdown on unlicensed alcohol sellers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1889.  The term, “speak easy shop,” in the sense of an unlicensed alcohol vendor, appeared in print in England as early as 1844.  The term, “speak softly shop,” appeared in England in 1823, but not necessarily as an unlicensed seller of alcohol.  A slang dictionary defined the term as, “the house of a smuggler.” 

“Speak easy,” seems to have been an Irish expression, equivalent to the more English, “speak softly;” both meaning to speak quietly.  The suggestion is that an unlicensed shop is the sort of place you do not want to be heard talking about, or that the types of people who frequent them are they types of people who have things to say that they do not want others to hear.

Since posting my earlier piece, Liquor Licenses, Steelworkers and the British Navy – an Unlicensed History and Etymology of “Speakeasies,” I have identified one earlier example of the term, “speak easy shop,” from 1829.  This earlier reference suggests that “speak easy shop” was an expression used by “fancy” people, in place of the more mundane, descriptive term, “private grog seller”:

Illicit Vending of Spirits. 

To the Editor of the Sydney Gazette.

Sir,

I am a publican residing a considerable distance in the interior, and notwithstanding the many and numberless difficulties I have to surmount in bringing spirits from Sydney, payment of license, subject to fines, Colonial regulations as to Government servants, bushrangers, &c.  I feel myself most seriously annoyed in my business by what are termed private grog sellers, or, as the fancy style them, speak easy shops, who set at defiance all attempts of the Magistracy to put them down. 

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, September 15, 1829 page 3 (the same letter was reprinted in the Sydney Monitor twice, October 3, 1829 (page 4) and October 5, 1829 (page 4)).  

 

These sorts of "sly grog-shops" were even known as "speakeasy's" in parts of Australia at least as early as 1837.

 

The fact is, there are so many sly grog-shops, called in slang terms "speakeasy's" in this part - Boro Creek, and the road from Bungonia to Braidwood, - which are receptacles for thieves, bushrangers, and stolen property, that unless they are immediately put down by the local authorities, it will be impossible to live in the neighbourhood; sheep-stealing too, has of late been very prevalent in this quarter.

 

The Sydney Herald, November 20, 1837, page 3.

 

But despite this single, early appearance of the word in print, the next reference to "speakeasies" (by that name) found in Australia's Trove newspaper archive online search engine is in a report on the "Pennsylvania Liquor Trade." 

Another system (according to the report of the British Consul in Philadelphia) has arisen, called "Speak-easies," for the illegal traffic in spirits.  In the course of time, the liquor traffic, either by additinoal legislation or by prosecutions under the public nuisances law, will be brought to a satisfactory basis, and the "Speak-easies," "bottle shops," "bucket shops," and other nefarious means of spreading intoxication.

The Sydney Morning Herald, August 28, 1890, page 9.

The terms, “speak easy shop” and “speakeasies,” to denote unlicensed pubs or saloons, are both much older than had previously been known. 

If the term "speakeasy" is from Australia, and not from Prohibition-era New York, perhaps it is only fitting that the first boxing kangaroo may have come from Philadelphia, and not from Australia.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: This post updated  April 28, 2021 to add the references to "speakeasy's" in the Sydney Herald in 1837 and 1890.