Note that I have started a new channel dedicated to college football history. More videos are over here: youtube.com/@hardcorecollegefootballhistory

I'm from Rugby, Warwickshire (pronounced worrick-sheer, by the way), and I am a MASSIVE college football fan, thanks to a semester spent at Michigan. I stumbled on your vids thanks to a Husker friend, and I was surprised and honoured to see my old school, Rugby School, get a mention! The origin story is not so goofy - it may well have happened just as legend said. But as a rugby fan, from Rugby School, I am delighted that it evolved into college football, the game we love so much.

I played with Big Al at Polk High. Hell of a grid iron legend made that night; five touchdowns in one game. And he got Peggy. They needed 15, 30 guys to stop Big Al.

Nice little tidbit for the 1874 McGill vs Harvard game, is that the "Father of Ice Hockey" James Creighton also played in that game and organized the first Indoor Ice Hockey game not long after this particular game, as that early version of Ice Hockey resembles rugby as well it very possible that both American Football and Ice Hockey may have been conceived in that game

You said it yourself, American football originated in Canada. McGill college was playing football for years before playing against Harvard.

I knew the rules were different and the scoring was different, but OMG! I had no idea just how foreign 'football' was in 1869-1881. This is the most fascinating video, on any subject, that I have seen in months. Thank you for all your hard work, and bravo!

FYI. Rugby scoring field goal or drop goal 3 points (this is a impromptu kick from a player who received a pass on the run and in theory can be tired any time the ball is in motion including after a scrum). The 'Try" = TD but only for 5 points. Conversion is the kick after the 'try' and worth 2 points. There are also Penalty kicks for infringements that can net 3 points.

You may be interested to look at the other form of Rugbys history. Rugby LEAGUE. The development of this game shares massive similarities to the development of US football.

I enjoyed your video as a historian of "Rugby League" The game in 1880 resembles what Rugby League became after the breakaway in 1895. RL brought the play the ball across and later in 1967 changed to 4 tackles before it settled on 6 tackles When you watch the NRL games in Vegas you will see what gridiron could have become without blocking and forward passes

I'm a huge rugby fan and always curious about how the game changed (rugby, association, american, etc...) from the 1800's into the games we know today. Thank you!

Absolutely love these college football history vids!

Really interesting. I’ve been watching American Football here in the UK since 1983 - took a couple of seasons to work out what was going on! Very useful to hear the early development of the game - thanks very much. 👏👏

Really well done! I'm loved the history and your audio and video are both clean! Great work and I look forward to the next one!

Interesting video. I have been an American football fan for years. I’ve always wondered about the early years of football. So thanks for making videos about it. Perhaps you could look at the development of the early teams playing the game between 1880s and 1919.

My grandfather played in the 1900-1910 Era. Thank you for your video.

Damn. Football has come a long way! Great content. Thanks again always.

This was awesome. Thank you.

This was excellent! Thanks for sharing this.

Been searching for a coherent history of Football video for a while, great job, thanks!

Fantastic video! Noles fan here, and am fascniated with deep dives like this

Fascinating! Well done. Thank you! 😎

Thanks for this video. The history is, indeed, fascinating. I played football through middle school and college and enjoyed my time a lot. I find it interesting how much more prominent kicking apparently was in the early days. The reading at the end was amazing! Thanks again!

Very informative thanks

Loved this look into the history of the game and looking forward to the next segment. 👍🏻🏈

This is a fantastic series--loving it!

Thank you so much for doing this series! I've been dying to learn more about the roots.

Enjoyable, thanks Jon. See you and Todd tonight.

Hey from Sydney Australia, love all the information in your story looking forward to hearing more! Thank you very much for sharing this.

Great Visio and material! I love it. Do more. I love that it’s about the game and objective content. Any football lover will enjoy it.

This is wonderful, thank you for doing this. I look forward to more. I've always wondered how we got from point A to point Z where we are now, and I know the second half of course from about the 60s, but I didn't understand all of these early evolutions. Thank you again.

God bless you! Thoroughly enjoyed this

Good stuff, Jon! Keep it coming :)

Great video, this is my 2nd time watching. First time commenting I did give it a 👍 the first time 😂 Just left therapy ☺

As a Uk based fan of American Football and a former amateur rugby player I want to say how much I enjoyed this video. To pick you up on one misconception about rugby union the way the ball comes out from a scrum is rarely random and the backs of the team with the put in to the scrum will line up very differently to the team without.

Thank you for the information on the history of American football 🏈 very informative and inspiring to know how it all began

This was an awesome video, i loved all the sources and the analytical way it was done

Super interesting! Thanks!

Thanks John! I usually just come here to get my dose of Bugeater epicaricacy, but I will be back to learn more about the history of college football.

Excellent Job! Cant wait for next episode

Very interesting. And I like how Paul Koch's books are in the background, too.

Enjoyed it, especially the Stagg rules at the end, most dramatic.

The Grey Cup and the CFL Canadian Football 🏈 League is older than the NFL . I had no idea McGill played Harvard University.. They Should play each other again .

I liked it a lot. keep doing what are doing. have a store with goodies!

Great vid! Keep it up!

Thanks Jon. Great video.

McGill gave us the 'snap' as well. There's a really cool documentary available for free on another platform entitled, "Harvard beats Yale 29-29." Worth a watch. Also, I would love to see a bibliography. Would love to chat about it further. I find this early American shift as a really fascinating period. Moreover, you see the individualization based upon geography and adopting and evolving codes of football come to the fore. Gridiron, Australian, Association, Irish, Rugby etal., this is when it happens; the 1880s. Gawd, football is awesome no matter the code. As for "scientific." That is Walter Camp. Great video. I got a few books on this wonderful game, the real American Pastime.

Tanks great job

great video 😊

This is great! Love the football history

Fascinating!!!! I loved the part about why it was called 'the grid iron"!

I grew up loving football and history so this was friggin awesome. Subscribed

Nice history lesson Thank you.

This was awesome! I grew up in a small town with my grandparents and my grandpa was from Nebraska, his parents from Iowa, they often talked about how football had changed just from the 40s to the 90s. In its origin, the game was all very closely related to rugby and I wish my grandfather was here to be told about how different it all used to be. I was inspired by some of the power backs that my grandfather talked about but to play some of that older football sound absolutely brutal on the body.

Great historical look - looking forward to learning more!

Sir, your channel is Awesome!!! It not only teaches football but also history, which to me, is so important in anything with want to learn. I grew up in Brazil with Soccer, but I have lived in US for the last 19 years. I finally fell in love with American Football and there's always a debate about Football and Futebol. I love both! I live in Tampa, FL and if someday I'm in Nebraska, I'd love to invite you for lunch or dinner and learn more about football from you! Thank you!!!

The early soccer vs rugby divisions in the US seem to mirror those in England. My understanding is that they were both called "football" and were considered to be the same game, but with different rules. And each school pretty much had their own rules, which made larger competitions difficult. When teams played each other they would have to agree on which rules would be used on that particular day. At some point they tried to standardize the rules, but failed, and instead broke off into two separate camps: one called "football association" and the other "rugby union."

Great job my friend!

This was immensely interesting for a continental European who grew up with European football (soccer, as you call it) and discovered his love of American football only in the late 2000s. It would be even more instructional with a couple of graphics more e. g. how plays were usually performed in the "neolithic" era vs. in contemporary football. Thank you for this great video, I shall recommend it to other fans.

Enjoyed this video. If you haven't already please create a playlist for the videos on this topic to make it easier to did them and view them in order. With all the other content you create it can be hard to find the specific videos you want.

You have given us a wonderfully detailed history of American football's beginnings. So much I didn't know. I'm going to have to rewatch your video to more fully understand the many, many changes. I had assumed, correctly, that American football evolved from rugby, but I was completely unaware of the relationship between European football (soccer) and rugby. Also, I had assumed, correctly, that the evolution of rugby to American football was somewhat incremental; but I had no idea how many, many increments of change were involved. Thank you.

Really good video. I hope the rest of your videos are this good because you just got a new subscriber 🤘🏽😎🎸🔥

really enjoyed this video your knowledge and analysis of the history and progression of the sport was fantastic. I do feel that a greater knowledge of rugby (both league and union) would have enriched your analysis further as at times you appeared to oversimplify rugby. I do appreciate that this was a video focusing on American football though, overall great video mate

I support both American football and rugby (English, used to play) and I can say that the parts about rugby possession and strategy are a bit erroneous, certainly for modern day rugby (which I take to mean rugby union, the far bigger game) When a player is tackled, it's true that he doesn't keep possession automatically. However, something called a 'ruck' forms, where opposing players try to reach over and pick up the ball, and the tackled players teammates try to stop them from taking the ball. When I played, we would get coached on good ways to take tackles and go down to protect the ball and make it far easier to defend, and turnovers in the ruck are fairly uncommon, so there is strategy in how many players to commit to avoid spreading the rest of your defence too thin. A 'scrum' is a set-piece, a penalty, that is different from the ruck, and that is more like the 'random' element you suggest, although it is again rare for scrums to be won 'against the head' or by the team who committed the foul. This is a little more like gridiron's play from the line of scrimmage, except with all of the forwards (like the O line/D Line) interlinked and pushing as a pack. There are also a lot of set plays, especially in modern rugby, that you can play from the ruck (also referred to as the 'breakdown'), such as skip passes, dummy runners/jackals (similar to how you might use a full back to block for a running back, but rugby has far stricter off-the-ball contact rules), certain running patterns etc, it's just by no means as organised as the gridiron system of course, it all has to happen in the span of a few seconds of open play

I enjoyed the video and learned a bunch. Thanks for making this video, I subscribed and will be checking out more of your videos. Adding simple pictures or slideshow would be a good move . Be well! ✌️🖖

Rugby League, as distinct ftom Rugby Union (from which itctoo evolved), is almost a living relic of what American Football must have been like once the rules of possession were established. It would take few rule adjustments to morph Rugby League into a recognisable form of American Football (namely allowing blocking and the forward pass).

Great video. Fascinating stuff. With regard to rugby: 1. It's not really capricious as to who gets possessions in a scrum. Usually the stronger team moving the scrum will get possession.

Great presentation! Thank you! Could you do a history on Option Football? Nebraska, Oklahoma, Syracuse and the Service Schools would be interesting.

Good video

Fantastic! But perhaps some subtle music in the background would enhance your videos tremendously. Just be sure not to break any copyright restrictions😊 Keep up the great work sir! ❤

I knew a lot of this but it was still informative. Like I knew Walter Camp came up with the snap in 1880 but TIL about how 11 a side also came about that year and limited downs came later

Subscribed! Very interesting.

Really great video, thank you for taking the time to make this - as someone that loves history and football it’s nice to have someone put together content combining both. I am not sure if you know the answer to this but you mentioned in the bonus section that once the ball was snapped the quarterback could hand it off to be kicked, but does that mean the kicking team could recover it further down the field? It seems that such a tactic would be common considering it would be easier to move the ball down the field that way. And if kicking were an option would the defending team always have at least one player acting as perhaps what we would consider today a nickel safety or even returner? Of course they would not be aware before the snap a kick was being performed but it seems almost necessary to be safe. Thank you again for the video and no worries if you are unable to answer my questions. Thanks again.

Thanks I always wondered how such a complex game came about. I fell in love with the strategy, the suspense... I also never understood the enormous support for school sports but it started at the schools I never knew that. Now if only CF has an understandable post season.

great story thank you! I do think that who gets the ball in a scrum in rugby is not by chance as you mention..one team gets to throw the ball in after a minor infringement..that team's half scrum (usually wearing the #9 jersey) throws the ball in always from the left side, and in the most current games, is allowed to put it in on his players' side, in essence they have the advantage

Going to Try to listen to it again without interruptions.

Sir that was very interesting I love it

Great topic. When you mention the early scoring rules, it clicked to me why a score in rugby is called a try. Once you cross the try line and touch the ball down, you would be given an opportunity to kick for points over the cross bar in a straight line back from where the try was awarded. Naturally, it was better to score in the middle to provide for an easier kick.

I did enjoy your show,I love the game and always are eager to know more.On a persoal note I am just begining to make videos if I may ask what equipment ,and software do you utilize? thanks again for the show

Thank you

do a documentary on jim thorpe's college football career especially the games between his school carlisle and the army academy . i am wondering was this a continuation of the battles that happened from about 1865-1890 between the indians and the us army

I like your sacrilegious approach to origin stories! As you say, one has to start somewhere, but many people insist on some real, instantaneous creation of a new thing, which is usually silly.

Another possible video is rules that are still the same or similar between American football and rugby. I know a few as a fan of both sports. But that would be a great video idea b

how about a documentary on the history of the southeastern conference from it's start to how it became as great as it is. especially focus on the time from about 1950-1980 when alabama is coached by bryant, auburn by jordan, georgia by dooley, arkansas by broyles, lsu by mcclendon, and ole miss by vaught . these are still the winningest coaches in these program's history and they competed at the same time and against 1 another

If rugby came from soccer, and football came from rugby, than American football is in fact a distant distant distant relative of soccer! It just blows me away, how completely different they are and yet are still related. Very interesting video by the way!

Rugby have two different codes when the north of England broke away from the southern lot in 1895 and made there own rugby code.

I knew about some of these early key games, but I never understood just exactly what they were playing. It's interesting to see how football as we know it developed from soccer/rugby.

Thanks

Much more informative video about the origins of American football than the 2008 film "Leatherheads" provided. The film, more or less, depicts how professional American football came into dominance (over?) college American football. This subject (origins of American football) is relative, as well, to me as I've been "studying" the relatively recent development of the LFL (Lingerie/Legends/X Football League,) i.e., women's semi-professional, tackle American-style football. It's interesting to observe the few differences in the rules between LFL and NFL and how those differences affect the game. I would like to point out that your presentation is clearly presented, the included graphics/pictures are always a positive addition, and it seems that these videos will only improve with experience. Making a KZfaq video that gets over 100 views in the time span of a year or less is difficult enough, as of my viewing and commenting of this video it stands at 34k views in 11 months. Dig it with toast.

Rugby is spontaneous. That is its charm. Not scripted and idiotic set-pieces like in Gridiron.

Hell yea 🤙🏻

I think when you explain the distinction in around 8:40, it is also similar to rugby league. Rugby as you explain before that is known as rugby union

I am finally starting to be able to picture early football much better. But in that 1880s period before allowing blocking but after the possession rules what was a typical play from scrimmage like? Other then the V-trick, would they be more line abreast ?

I would like to see a game played under the original rules and on the down the line as rules changed. It'd be interesting to see the evolution of the game in action.

6:13 The idea back when a TD itself was worth nothing was that the game was based on goals scored, hense why they all have "goal" in the name; fieldgoal, dropgoal, etc. But the incentive behind touching down was that the kick attempt was worth 2 goals where all other goals were simply goals. 7:20 Mr Camp wanted to make the game more exciting for spectators, because more spectators meant more money. Less players on the field means more open field to use to break out for more territorial gain, which - in the long run - means more scoring. The allure of the game at the time was its full-contact nature, but Camp wanted a game with more scoring. Which is why its ironic he introduced the scrimmage rule instead of the scrummage. 7:42 Scrimmage ironically made the game slower, which was not Camp's intent. He thought it would make the game more exciting and action packed. But, as you allude to later in the video, teams used it to retain possession and burn the hell out of the clock. While Rugby style Football had changed little over the years, American style football had to change to amend mistakes made by the previous change. But it ultimately worked, hitting its peak in the 1960s with the creation of NFL films and of course the big merger and subsequent super bowl.

The history of the first Oklahoma vs Oklahoma A&M (Bedlam game) would be interesting to watch

Good video. Suggest not to diminish rugby strategy if you don't know the game. There is a lot of it and it is not as simple as you describe it

Just came across your college football history videos and I am taking them all in. My advice, keep doing what you're doing. You do good storytelling and your pace is perfect for allowing me to digest a lot of interesting and new information coming at me as i watch and listen. I look forward to discovering what other historical stories you may dive into. By the way, I'm curious about the origins of the channel name, Corn Nation.

15:37 No, no "vertical" (longitudinal) stripes at that time, except the sidelines.

The Amos Alonzo Stagg description sounds quite modern even for lacking the forward pass and having a couple other old rules Snap and downs, as previously established Something like unnecessary roughness for late hit on someone already down Offside and similar penalties Formation and coded playcall

I don't understand the rules of the block games. Were there no 'downs'? If not how was the ball turned over, i.e. when does the drive end? Did they just keep running plays until they fumbled or scored?