1884-1894 - Mass Momentum Plays And Brutality Bring Football to Edge of Extinction -Football History
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the formative years of American football, highlighting early plays like the V trick and the Flying Wedge, which emerged between 1884 and 1894. It discusses the evolution of the game, influenced by rule changes that distinguished it from rugby, such as the introduction of possession and the concept of downs. The script also touches on the brutality of these early plays, which led to significant injuries and public outcry, resulting in rule amendments aimed at reducing violence. The narrative captures the struggle to preserve and reform the sport amidst growing concerns over player safety and the game's future.
Takeaways
- 🏈 The script discusses the evolution of early football plays, focusing on the period from 1884 to 1894, which included the introduction of mass momentum plays like the V trick, Turtleback, and the Flying Wedge.
- 📚 It highlights the rule changes of American football in the 1890s to differentiate it from rugby, such as the establishment of possession and the concept of downs, as well as allowing tackling below the waist and blocking in front of the ball carrier.
- 🔍 The V trick, created by Princeton quarterback Richard Hodge in 1884, was a significant early play that utilized a V-shaped formation to gain yardage and became widely adopted by other teams.
- 🎖️ The Flying Wedge, introduced by Harvard in 1892, was a spectacular and dangerous mass momentum play that involved players running at full speed into a defense, causing public concern over the violence in the game.
- 👨🏫 The script credits Lauren F. DeLand, a chess player and war strategy enthusiast, as the inventor of the Flying Wedge, demonstrating the influence of military tactics on early football strategies.
- 📉 The public and some educational institutions, like Harvard's President Charles Elliot, began to criticize the brutality of football, leading to a crisis in the sport's reputation and the temporary cessation of the Harvard-Yale rivalry.
- ⚖️ In response to the violence and controversy, the Intercollegiate Football Association was replaced by the Intercollegiate Rules Committee, which made significant rule changes to reduce the violence in the game.
- 🚫 The 1893 rule changes included the outlawing of momentum mass plays, reducing the game length, prohibiting players from laying hands on opponents unless they had the ball, and introducing a modern kickoff rule.
- 👮♂️ An additional official, the linesman, was added to improve the enforcement of rules and reduce the occurrence of slugging and piling up on players.
- 📉 The script mentions the Hampton Park bloodbath, an 1894 game between Yale and Harvard that resulted in severe injuries and further highlighted the need for rule changes to protect players.
- 📚 Walter Camp, known as the father of American football, conducted a survey to support the continuation of the sport amidst the controversy, illustrating the efforts to save football from being abolished.
Q & A
What were some of the earliest football plays mentioned in the script?
-The earliest football plays mentioned in the script include the V trick, the Princeton V, the Turtleback, and the Flying Wedge.
How did the establishment of possession and the system of downs differentiate American football from rugby in the 1890s?
-The establishment of possession and the system of downs, where teams had four downs to gain five yards, made American football distinct from rugby, which did not have these concepts at the time.
What rule changes in 1890 made American football more distinctly American?
-In 1890, two rule changes made American football more distinctly American: allowing tackling below the waist, which is not allowed in rugby, and allowing blocking in front of a ball carrier, which was originally called interference.
What was the significance of the V trick in the evolution of football plays?
-The V trick, introduced in 1884, was the original wedge play and served as the forerunner of all mass plays that would come later, changing the offensive system for football.
How did the Flying Wedge play differ from the V trick and why was it significant?
-The Flying Wedge play differed from the V trick in that it involved two groups of players running and converging on the ball carrier, creating tremendous momentum. It was significant because it was considered the most spectacular play in the history of football and led to further rule changes due to its dangerous nature.
Who introduced the Flying Wedge play and what was its origin?
-The Flying Wedge play was introduced by Lauren F. DeLand, who was known for being a good chess player and had a background in studying the art and strategy of war.
What were the concerns about the mass momentum plays in the early days of football?
-The concerns about mass momentum plays included their violent and dangerous nature, which often led to serious injuries, and the fact that they were seen as boring by the spectators due to the lack of open field play and constant collisions.
What rule changes occurred at the end of the 1893 season to address the issues with football?
-The rule changes at the end of the 1893 season included outlawing momentum mass plays, reducing the game length from 90 to 70 minutes, prohibiting players from laying their hands on an opponent unless they had the ball, specifying that the ball must travel 10 yards on a kickoff, adding a linesman as a third official, and prohibiting piling up on the runner after he has cried down.
What was the impact of the 1894 game between Yale and Harvard on the perception of football?
-The 1894 game between Yale and Harvard, known as the Hampton Park bloodbath, resulted in eight players being injured and brought significant public attention to the brutality of football, leading to calls for the sport to be abolished.
What was Walter Camp's role in the controversy surrounding football in the 1890s?
-Walter Camp, known as the father of American football, issued a book called 'Football Facts and Figures' to survey football players about the game and its brutality, effectively acting as a propaganda piece to support the continuation of football amidst calls for its abolition.
Outlines
🏈 Early Football Plays and Formations
This paragraph discusses the evolution of early football plays and formations between 1884 and 1894. It highlights the introduction of the V trick, Princeton V, and the Flying Wedge, which were innovative mass momentum plays. The paragraph also covers the state of American football in 1890, emphasizing rule changes to differentiate it from rugby, such as the establishment of possession and the system of downs. The allowance of tackling below the waist and the introduction of blocking (originally called interference) are noted as significant changes that shaped the game.
💥 The V Trick and Its Impact on Football
The V trick, invented by Princeton quarterback Richard Hodge, is described as the original wedge play and a precursor to all mass plays. It was a spontaneous formation used against Pennsylvania Penn, which involved players arranging in a V-shape with the ball carrier at the apex. Despite its initial success, it was forgotten for a time before being reintroduced and practiced, eventually becoming a standard opening play across all football teams. The paragraph also describes the physicality and brutality of breaking the V trick formation, as well as its influence on the eventual acceptance of blocking in football.
🚀 The Introduction of the Flying Wedge
The flying wedge is introduced as the most spectacular play in football history, first used by Harvard against Yale in 1892. The play involved two groups of players running towards each other and converging on the ball carrier, creating a powerful and dangerous momentum. The paragraph explains the lack of rules at the time regarding the number of men in motion before the ball was put in play, which allowed for the development of such plays. The flying wedge's inventor, Lauren F. DeLand, is highlighted for his application of military strategy to football, despite never having played the game himself.
🤕 The Dangers of Momentum Plays and Public Reaction
This paragraph discusses the public's reaction to the violent nature of football during this period, particularly the mass momentum plays like the flying wedge. It mentions the creation of other plays such as the Turtleback and the Push Play, which further exemplified the brutality of the sport. The paragraph also draws comparisons between the style of play at the time and the modern game, noting how the violence and sameness of plays led to a decline in public interest. The paragraph concludes with the mention of the University Athletic Club of New York's efforts to address the violence in football.
🛑 Rule Changes and the Future of Football
The paragraph details the significant rule changes made at the end of the 1893 season to address the violence in football. These included the outlawing of momentum mass plays, reduction of game length, prohibition of players laying hands on opponents unless they had the ball, and the introduction of a modern kickoff rule. The establishment of the Intercollegiate Rules Committee and the addition of a third official to reduce violence are also mentioned. The paragraph concludes with the cancellation of the Army-Navy game in 1894 due to the violence in football and the subsequent rule changes aimed at making the sport safer.
🏟️ The Hampton Park Bloodbath and Football's Crisis
This paragraph recounts the infamous 1894 game between Yale and Harvard, known as the Hampton Park bloodbath, which resulted in numerous injuries and ejections due to excessive violence. It discusses the public outcry and the subsequent three-year hiatus between Yale and Harvard games. The paragraph also touches on the broader crisis facing football, with critics like Charles Elliot calling for the sport's abolition. The efforts of Walter Camp to save football through a survey and the publication of 'Football Fact and Figures' are highlighted, setting the stage for further controversies and changes in the sport.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡V trick
💡Turtleback
💡Flying Wedge
💡Blocking
💡Off-sides
💡Momentum Plays
💡Intercollegiate Football Association
💡Walter Camp
💡Hampton Park bloodbath
💡Mass Plays
💡Slugging
Highlights
Introduction of the earliest football plays such as the V trick, Turtleback, and Flying Wedge from 1884 to 1894.
The establishment of possession and the concept of downs in American football to differentiate it from rugby.
Tackling below the waist and blocking in front of a ball carrier were allowed, introducing new dynamics to the game.
The V trick, created by Princeton quarterback Richard Hodge, revolutionized offensive strategies in football.
The Flying Wedge, introduced in 1892 by Harvard, was a high-impact play that garnered significant attention and controversy.
Lauren F. DeLand, the inventor of the Flying Wedge, applied military strategy to football, marking a strategic evolution in the game.
The public and critics began to express concerns over the violence in football, leading to a call for rule changes.
The Intercollegiate Football Association faced disagreements, leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Rules Committee.
Major rule changes in 1893 included the outlawing of momentum mass plays and reducing the game length to address safety concerns.
The 1894 game between Yale and Harvard, known as the Hampton Park bloodbath, highlighted the brutality of football and led to increased scrutiny.
President of Harvard, Charles Elliot, criticized football, contributing to the debate on its legitimacy as a sport.
Walter Camp's 'Football Fact and Figures' aimed to counteract the negative perception of football through a survey of players.
The controversy surrounding football in the 1890s raised questions about its future and led to significant rule reforms.
The early days of football saw a variety of issues, including the use of 'Tramp' players who were not students.
The video promises to explore further controversies in the next segment, indicating that the situation worsened before improvements were made.
Transcripts
Have you ever heard of the V trick? The Princeton V?
The Turtleback? No. Then you probably heard of the Flying Wedge. The names I've just mentioned
were amongst the earliest plays in football. They came about in the years 1884 to 1894. And
that's what we're going to talk about in this video. The earliest formation football plays,
mass momentum plays, and the rule changes and the concerns they all brought about.
(upbeat music)
First, let's talk about the state of American football in 1890.
Rules changes have come about to make sure that the American game is different than
rugby. Specifically, I'm talking about the establishment of possession or the
concept of possession in the American game, where there is none in rugby,
and the system of downs, the idea that we have four downs at that time to gain five yards.
Both of these made the games distinct from rugby and made it a truly American game.
By 1890, two more rules were established to make the game even more American.
Tackling below the waist was allowed, which is not allowed in rugby,
and blocking in front of a ball carrier was allowed.
Blocking was originally called interference, and it has kind of an odd history.
There was never a formal rule that stated a blocker could be in front of the ball carrier,
but there were rules against offsides. And when I say offsides, you're probably thinking of American
football where a defensive player comes across the line of scrimmage, and therefore they're offsides.
When they're talking about early American football and they mention offsides, that's not what they
mean. What they mean is the offsides in like the concept of soccer or in rugby,
an offensive player cannot be in front of the player with the ball. In other words,
the ball has to proceed everybody else down the field.
Obviously, that's not how it works with blocking.
So what happened was for a while, they just kind of,
they called it in some games illegal, being offsides illegal, in some games they didn't.
It was up to whatever the official or the teams at the time the games decided or perhaps where
they were playing. Like for example, if they were playing at Cornell and Cornell didn't like
offsides, then they didn't call it. And then when they finally passed the rule, they said,
yes, we can have blocking or interference in front of a ball carrier, it changed the entire
offensive system for football. So in 1884, a play called the V trick was introduced.
The V trick was the original wedge play and it was the forerunner of all the mass plays
to come. That's a play that was made up on the fly by Princeton quarterback Richard Hodge. His team
wasn't making any headway or gaining any artage against Pennsylvania Penn, which is one of the
big teams at the time, with seven men running a breast, on the words all on a line. So he decides
to put them in a V, in the form of a V with the ball carrier inside the V and the apex forward.
And it has amazing success gaining yardage from midfield to the five yard line. And since it was
made up on the fly, they just kind of forgot about it and it's abandoned for a year or so.
And then in 1886, it's used again by Princeton after they practiced it. And by 1888,
it is so well known that is used by every football team in the country.
It was the standard opening play for everyone. Much like we started game with a kickoff,
they would start a game with the V trick.
Now keep in mind, there were no rules at that time that required you to kick the ball on a kickoff 10
years. So teams typically just kicked the ball to themselves or put it in play to themselves,
much like putting a ball in play in soccer. You kicked the ball to yourself and your
own teammate gets it and then you start playing. By the time everyone is using it,
it's become perfect in form. Park Davis, a historian, describes it like this. "The V as
finally perfected was formed by the 11 players taking positions in a solid V-shaped mass,
apex forward, the arms of the players encircling the bodies of one another. The play formed 10
yards back from the opponent's rush line," I was the line of scrimmage. "The player with
the ball stood at the apex of the V. When all were ready, the ball was technically kicked
off by being touched to the toe and ground simultaneously, but without being released.
The mass then started heavily forward,
the player with the ball disappeared within it and the opponents charged.
Breaking one of these ponderous machines was not gentle play,
since this could only be accomplished by throwing oneself directly in front
of the mass and upsetting its apex while the other players crushed in its flanks."
This sounds insane.
Alice and Dan Zigg in the history of American football describes how teams would take on the
V trick, the play. Walter Heffelfinger was a really known large guy that played for Yale,
and Dan Zigg describes his play against the V like this. "Heffelfinger rushed at the mighty
human engine, leapt high in the air, completely clearing its forward ramparts and came down on top
of the men inside the wedge, whom he flattened to the ground, among them the ball carrier."
That gives you an idea what football was like at that time,
which is, well, it's kind of insane compared to the football we watch.
And you can go through newspaper accounts and find references to the V trick on both kickoffs
and from normal scrimmage plays. And it was used quite a bit, and it was obviously a recognized
formation by everybody because there are so many references to it in the newspaper accounts.
And like I said earlier, it was the forerunner of all the mass play that would come later.
And it's because of the V trick that everybody starts slowly kind
of disregarding off-sides play as it pertains to rugby. And since everybody is using it,
then they come up with the blocking rule. They pass the rule that formally allows blocking.
So onto the flying wedge.
1892 brings about the introduction to the most spectacular play in the
history of football. That's not an exaggeration.
Park Davis, who wrote the book, Football, The American Collegiate Game, talks about how the
play was introduced by Harvard against Yale. Keep in mind, 1892. To the surprise of players
and spectators, the Crimson, Harvard, did not form a V, which again was the standard kickoff play.
Instead, B.W. Trafford, holding the ball, took a position at the center of Harvard's 45-yard line.
The remaining 10 men divided into two sections and fell back to the 25-yard line, each section
grouping near the sideline, but at opposite sides of the field. Without putting the ball in play,
Trafford waved his hand and the two sections came swiftly forward in lockstep, converging towards
Trafford and gathering tremendous momentum as they ran. Just as they reached Trafford,
the latter put the ball in play and disappeared within the mass of men,
then thus launching against the Yale men, standing in their tracks, the famous flying wedge. So when
you go out on the internet and you look up flying wedge, you're likely gonna run into
this photo. And when you look at it, it doesn't really look that imposing. I mean, it honestly
looks goofy. It just looks like a bunch of guys kind of stuck together in a football formation,
a really illegal and weird football formation. But this is a still photo, and that's not what the
flying wedge was. The flying wedge was men moving in motion toward a point of attack on the defense.
And those men are moving before the ball is put in play or snapped because there are no
rules that state you have to be set on the line before the ball is sapped. There are no rules
that state how many men can be in the backfield. And there are no rules that say how many men can
be in motion at any one time before the ball is put in play. So those rules would all come much,
much later after mass momentum plays proved to be incredibly dangerous.
And you look at the flying wedge and think about it in motion. I
wish I could animate this so that it would actually show what it would have been like.
But I don't know how to do that. So if anybody watches this and says, "Hey,
I could animate a flying wedge play for you." Please leave me a comment or a way to contact you.
And we'll see what it did because I think this play would be awesome for people to understand
what momentum plays were really about. So keep in mind what we're talking about here. We're talking
about two groups. This is on a kickoff. Two groups of men back away from the ball
and then they start running and they converge basically on the ball carrier
where he's going to pick the ball up. And by the time they hit the defense,
they're running at full speed into a defense that's standing there.
And they didn't just run these plays at kickoff. They ran these plays during
scrimmage plays where basically the offense would be in motion
and the defense would have to stand. So if you're a guy that's like a defensive tackle
or basically what we would consider a defensive tackle, you're standing there and a whole mass of
guys are running right at you. And the only thing you can do is throw yourself at their feet and
hope to knock the first of them down. That's pretty much how it worked. The flying wedge
becomes not just a play in the Harvard Yale game in 1992,
but it consumes public interest, at least the people that were interested in football. And it
remains the subject of football for a few years. And it introduces the term flying wedge, which I'm
sure had never been used before that, except maybe in warfare with the concept of a flanks formation.
But sooner or later, everybody is using the flying wedge, much like they're using the V trick.
So the flying wedge was invented by a guy named Lauren F. DeLand.
And he never played football himself. He was known for being a good chess player.
But here's an article about DeLand from the Kansas City Star on November 30th,
1892 that I thought you would find interesting. I certainly did. Mr. DeLand's entrance into the
football world is going to throw the old heroes, camp, stag, heffelfinger,
and the other famous coaches into the shade. It marks an era in the evolution of the game,
a step forward in strategic progress. Mr. DeLand's principle is the application of the
art of war to football. For years, it had been his hobby to study the art and strategy of war.
He made himself thoroughly familiar with all the details of the great battles recorded in history,
and had worked out on maps and drawings, the decisive battles of the world.
Then one day a friend took him to a football game. He was immediately interested. It was
war. Two armies in miniature were being hurled at each other and he
saw the ideal scientific combats of his imagination wage and reality.
Struck by the similarities between a scientifically played game of football and the
art of war, he began a long study of strategy as seen in war and applied to the game of football.
He constructed a miniature football field five feet long and drawn to a scale with mathematical
nicety. On this he studied out his momentum play as he calls the flying wedge and several other
moves which had yet to be tried. According to him, it is nothing more or less than the application of
football of one of Napoleon's favorite methods for turning the enemy's flank. The two advantageous
points in the play are the tremendous momentum gained by the 11, starting a way back of the
line and being on a dead run when the ball is put into play. And secondly, the confusion it
creates of the minds of the players on the other side. What an article. It's wonderful.
If you go back and look through history, you realize that you need articles like this written
about yourselves to become legend or myth. They have to have a certain level of embellishment.
And I was Billie Kidd really the fastest gun in the West. Well,
it sold a lot of dime store novels. So yes, he was.
But what you find is a lot of bovine scatatology being used in these articles. And it's fun to read
some of them. Delann's invention goes on to create all sorts of new offensive schemes in plays.
So let's look at some of the other plays that came out of the Flying Wedge and the
concept of momentum plays, which is when you're running when you hit the line. The
story in Park Davis describes for us a play called the Turtleback.
And it was a play executed by forming 11 men in the shape of a solid oval against a selected
point in the rush line. In other words, the line of scrimmage, usually the tackle and at
the snap of the ball into the interior of the oval, rolling the mass of around the end, thus
unwinding the runner into a clear field. And he also described for us another play that was called
the Push Play, which basically a formation similar to the Turtleback. But the runner was
lifted on top of the mast and pushed over the opposing rush line. In other words,
they all got back and they basically lifted this guy up, I don't know, like a dancer,
and just pushed him over the top of everybody. These people are insane,
they really are. This is nuts, looking at some of these plays. But the Turtleback sounds like a play
diagrammed in a book by Imo Salonzo Stagg called "A Scientific and Practical Treatise on American
Football for Schools and Colleges" published in 1894. The play is number 40. Stagg calls it
"Revolving Wedge from a Down." And he describes it. Here's the key to the description. The ball
is put in play immediately and the entire wedge plunges straight forward into a closely compacted
body. After a few seconds when the opposing sides have massed themselves in front of the wedge so
that its forward progress is nearly blocked, the entire formation throws its weight to one side,
each man turning slightly in order to face the direction in which he is to proceed,
and attempts to revolve around the opposing team turning upon the center as a pivot. The
very fact that the opponents are pushing with the utmost force any direction exactly contrary
to the original line of advancing the wedge is a great assistance in performing the evolution,
in other words, turning. When this wedge has swung sufficiently around, the rear men may
break away and dash down the field with the ball. This is actual football people watched.
Play 47 from Stagg's book is called "Running Mass Wedge through the Center." The play description
includes, "The vital point in the play is that all strike the line as nearly as possible at the
same instant and form a tightly massed wedge which is driven directly through the line." It's pretty
clear from reading old newspaper accounts that people are not really thrilled with the momentum
plays. They're thrilled that their team wins, but the violence and the viciousness of the games are
taking their toll on people. Previously to these rule changes, you had a wide open game where
people were completely across the field, like in rugby, where they were spread out, and these plays
are just, you know, they're condensed, and they're just basically bodies smashing into each other,
and the crowds don't like them. The one comparison I thought about this was,
think about the Big Ten's old motto, or what they used to say about the Big Ten,
three yards and a cloud of dust. Another comparison would be the
NFL, what we're seeing right now compared to the NFL probably 10 to 15 years ago.
And I'm using the NFL as a comparison because the NFL is uniform across. Everybody has
the same rules, everybody plays with the same amount of money, they get a draft, everything's
consistent across the board. College, you have some schools that have massive amounts of money,
you have small schools, you have three divisions, four divisions really, and you have, I don't know
how many hundreds of schools there are across those four divisions. You have every offense
imaginable. But if you look at the NFL like 10 to 15 years ago, everybody ran the same off. It
was the same statuesque quarterback standing in a pocket, everybody ran the same formations. I wanna
say everything was like a variety of the West Coast offense, that's probably not really true,
but it was boring. I mean, it was really boring compared to now. And you look at the NFL now,
and you have quarterbacks like Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes, and they can
do so many different things. They're mobile and they're part of the offense. They don't just stand
in the pocket and throw the ball to somebody or hand it off. They're actually an active
participant in the offense. And that is so much more fun to watch than the NFL was 10 to 15 years
ago. And I'd like to think that that's kind of the comparison of what the crowds were used to seeing,
what the rugby style play where the teams were stretched across the field and now they're just
mass momentum. They're just masses packing, smashing into each other. And I think the
other thing they get frustrated with is, like I said earlier, you have these mass plays,
they start forward. The only way for the defense to stop them is to throw themselves at them.
And it just, it becomes boring. Another problem at the time is the rules bodies. The Intercollegiate
Football Association is breaking up because of disagreements between the schools on how the
game should be played. So the University Athletic Club of New York decided they'd do something about
it. And they invite Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Penn, which were the big four at the time.
They also invited the leading official of football from the US Navy to join them. So it was the Army
Navy game was not played in 1894 because of the level of violence in the sport. Now you can go
out on the internet and find articles that state it was because of the feud between officers. I
didn't really find that when I looked through the history of it. What I found was that the service
academies basically said, we're not going to allow this kind of football. And therefore they really,
they didn't abolish the game, but they stated that their teams would only play home games,
which meant the Army and Navy couldn't play each other. So the Intercollegiate
Football Association is replaced by the Intercollegiate Rules Committee.
And note that the whole idea of an NCAA is still like a decade away. So
it's way out there. So at the end of the 1893 seasons, there's major changes to the rules.
First of all, they outlawed the momentum mass play.
And a momentum mass play is one more than three men start before the ball is put in play.
In the rule states, North Shell, more than three men group for that purpose,
more than five yards back at the point where the ball is put in play. In other words, they get rid
of the momentum part of the plays, but they don't get rid of the mass part of the plays.
Another rule change, they reduced the length of the game from 90 to 70 minutes,
divided into two halves of 35 minutes each.
If you can imagine being run over for 90 minutes by mass plays and momentum plays,
just the reduction of the game to 70 minutes has to at least mean something. And number three, they
prohibited their players from laying their hands on an opponent unless the opponent had the ball.
Players of the side in possession with the ball may be obstructed with the body only.
So basically what this did was stop blocking by grabbing somebody with their hands. The
other way this can be translated is as the no slugging rule. And we'll get to that in a minute.
And here's a big one. Number four, specifying that the ball must travel 10 yards on a kickoff
to be put in play unless touched by an opponent. So it brings into existence our modern kickoff
rules. Basically can't just kick the ball to yourself or touch it and keep it. You have to
actually kick it to the other opponent. And then number five, adding a linesman to the referee and
umpire as a third official. There's three officials now. And then number six, there should
be no piling up upon the runner after he has cried down, and keep that mind in mind, cried down.
In other words, he's yelled down, called himself down. Or the referee has blown his whistle.
Infraction of this rule should be penalized by advancing the ball 10 yards for the
offended side. So rule number one, like I said, it outlaws the momentum plays
but not the mass plays. You bring into existence the modern kickoff.
And then there's this idea of adding another official. Well, why do we need another official?
And the idea is that it's going to cut down on the amount of slugging, quote,
slugging on the field. Players would regularly slug each other and then the officials would not
do anything about it. And they're reluctant, according to one newspaper account I'd read,
they're reluctant to take action because if they do, the team they took action against,
for example, kicking a player out of the game, will be angry with them and
then won't let them be an official anymore. So there is tons of looking the other way by the
umpires and the referees. And mostly they're like, oh, I didn't see it. You know, that kind of stuff.
You have a lot of stuff going on with football. And around the same time that the rules changes
come out, the president of Harvard, Charles Elliot, releases a scathing report about football.
And all of this comes to a head in 1894 game between Yale and Harvard, in which eight players
are injured, four for each side out of the 22 on the field. It's so bad that it becomes known as
the Hampton Park bloodbath because of the level of viciousness and injuries that occur on the field.
And I looked around for some description of the injuries and actually what I found was a
post from the Yale News on November 18th, 2011, which detailed the injuries. Yale tackle Fred
Murphy hit Harvard tackle Bob Halliwell during an officials conference and broke the Crimson
players nose. Murphy would later take a hard hit to the head, which left him unconscious
for five hours in a Springfield hospital as rumors of his death circulated,
but he recovered from the concussion. Al Gerams and Frank Butterworth also received
head injuries. Yale captain and four time all American Frank Hinky broke Harvard's
Edgar writing tons collarbone following a fair catch and Charles Brewer's broken leg
only added to the list of Harvard casualties. Harvard's Johnny Hayes and yields Richard
Armstrong were ejected from the competition for excessive violence. Following Yale's 12
to four victory, rivaling fans took the pattern of violence into the street. The biggest thing about
this is there's a huge uproar about writing tons broken collarbone. The idea is that he's down on
the field and Hinky comes across the field and hits and basically jumps on him with his knees
when he's down. There's a big dispute about that. There's an investigation in the newspaper accounts
and testimonies from official and some players that say this never happened the way people
think it did. And one player says, I was on the field and Hinky was a far like 10 yards away from
the play when this supposedly happened. Hinky gets attacked in the papers and he subsequently
defended. And all of this, what the result is, is that all of this brings more attention to
the brutality of the sport of football. And it presents football as a vicious, brutal sport,
which is exactly what many of its critics are saying, like Charles Elliot. The result of the
1894 game is that Yale and Harvard don't play each other for another three years.
And this would be like the equivalent of Ohio State and Michigan not playing because that's
the level of rivalry this is, not just for Yale Harvard, but for college football fans across the
nation. Football is clearly under attack and it's in danger of being abolished completely.
So what happens is Walter Camp, the father of American football,
issues a book called "Football Fact and Figures" in which he surveys like 1200 football players
from across the nation about what they think about the game of football, about the game,
if it's too vicious, is it too brutal? And it's like asking people who like M&Ms if they like
M&Ms. The book is clearly a propaganda piece for the sport of football. Heading into 1895,
college football is under heavy attack. You've got Charles Elliot, the biggest
critic in football and his influence amongst all the people that agree with him. And then you've
got Walter Camp at the other side who's doing the propaganda pieces for football and people that are
on his side. And the public is outraged at all the violence and they don't care for the mass
plays. They got rid of the momentum plays, but then they still don't care for the mass plays.
And Walter Camp is doing his best to save football. There is no central
rules authority because the University Athletic Club became the Intercollegiate Rules Committee
and they've kind of fallen apart. So at the end of the year, going into 1895,
it's complete chaos for football. And there's doubts that the game is gonna persist. I mean,
obviously we know that the game persists because it's the game that we all love today.
But what happens next? Maybe I should title this, you won't believe what happens next.
Be a nice click bait title. But that's where I'm gonna stop for this video because there's
just so much that went on. Honestly, I had a hard time keeping track of all of it. There's
actually issues in here that I didn't touch in this segment, such as the use of Tramp players,
which are players that are not students or the idea that football teams, college football teams
are playing like town football teams that are full of fully grown mature men who then beat
the holy hell out of them. There's a lot going on in the early days of football that really I don't
see reported on in a lot of places unless you go out and dig through history books.
This is John Johnston, founder of Corn Nation. I hope you enjoyed this. I plan on doing more. We've
got the next controversies coming up and it's going to get much worse before it gets better.
So please let me know what you think of this video. Please give me some
feedback. If you like this format, if you don't, thank you for listening.
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