Twenty years ago the sport of football in the United States, though it was known, could hardly be dignified by the name of a game in the ordinary acceptation of the word. In the olden times here and there in New England it was the custom upon Thanksgiving Day, after the dinner had been properly discussed, for the gentlemen of the party to adjourn to the 'yard' of the old house and there kick an inflated pig's bladder about, amid shouts of merriment from the rest of the party. Looking back upon this time-honoured custom, one can, perhaps, trace a rude justice in the fact that so many New England Thanksgiving dinners are now deprived of the joyous presence of the young men of the family, who swell the crowd and join in the cheering of thirty or forty thousand at some final football match in the metropolis. But the Thanksgiving Day kicking was not the only phase of the sport, for after a number of years a rough game was indulged in, which was evidently derived from what has been known in England as the Association game of football. No British subject would have felt complimented at being accused of introducing this game could he have seen it played, and certainly he would have had great difficulty in recognising any marked resemblance to the Association rules.

The truth was that every team made its own rules and no two teams played under the same code. When a match was brought about it was preceded by a meeting of the captains and a general compromising upon points of difference for the sake of a contest. Then the defeated team could, with a considerable modicum of truth, say that the game was not played under the rules to which they had been accustomed.

In these early days football at the colleges was merely a cloak for rough battles between the sophomores and freshmen, amounting to the same thing as the more modern 'rush.' In these football rushes the active classes joined, and there were no rules worth regarding. When the class of 1S61 at Yale challenged the sophomores to the usual contest, the class of '60 prefaced their reply with the suggestive quotation, Come! And, like sacrifices in their trim, To the fire-eyed maid of smoky war All hot and bleeding" will we offer you.

The faculties finally took a hand in the matter and prohibited these contests.

In the early seventies the sport approached more nearly the form of an acknowledged pastime, and several of the colleges played matches, one with another, which led to a greater harmony of rules. They were crude, and dependent largely upon the discretion of the referee, but some of the contests were not without interest. The ball that was used was the round black rubber ball, and the common number of players was twenty on a side. The uniform of the players was quite different from that of the present day, many of the men wearing long trousers, and jerseys well pulled down over the top of the trousers. None of the various codes provided for any off or on side, and players stationed themselves at such points along the field as they judged best. The general arrangement partook more nearly, therefore, of players in a Lacrosse match. No running with the ball was permitted, but it could be struck with the hand or foot. The fact that it could be played with the hand eventually led to something quite like running with it, however, as a man would knock it from one hand to the other as he ran down the field. This manner of babying the ball became far more developed among these early American players than did the dribbling with the feet in which the British Association players are so proficient.

The dribbling was attempted and practised to no inconsiderable extent, but not with marked success. Nothing scored except goals, and these were made by sending the ball not over but under the bar across the goal-posts. The direct method of attacking an adversary was by butting him in the side with the shoulder, and in this art the American college players became exceedingly expert. The object was to knock the man out of the way or over to the ground, and it was wonderful how some of the most proficient would, by catching the man fairly under the shoulder and at the same time giving a judicious lift with the body, bowl an opponent head over heels.

In October of 1873 a convention was held in New York, at which Columbia, Princeton, Rutgers and Yale were represented, and a set of rules upon the above lines was drawn up. In the same year a team, composed of Englishmen and captained by an Eton man, played a match at New Haven with a Yale team. This game was played with eleven men a side, and the rules were modified to bring about a measure of harmony. It was more nearly approaching to the English Association than any game played up to that time. All the college games were played by teams of twenty men. In all these games, when a foul occurred, the ball was thrown perpendicularly into the air, and it was not allowable to touch it until it struck the ground. Many were the injuries received from the kicks that were directed at it as it struck.

In 1874 several games were played, but much dissatisfaction was expressed with the rules, and the contests provoked but little interest even among the collegians. Far from there being any great striving for positions upon the teams, in selecting a captain a man was always sought after whose chief qualification was that of possessing great powers of persuasion or influence, so that he might be able to collect enough men to compose a team.

This was the point reached by American football previous to 1875. Outside the college teams there was but little playing and no permanent organisation. Meantime, for a year or two, Harvard had been seeking something new in the line of the sport by taking up the Rugby Union game, in which she could have matches with Canadian teams. After a few contests her men became so enamoured of the sport under this code that they looked for contests nearer home, and invited Yale to take up the English game. At first there seemed little likelihood of this, for Yale was playing under the old-fashioned American rules, having as competitors Princeton, Columbia, Rutgers, and, as above mentioned, an occasional contest with others. But between Harvard and Yale there had always been the keenest rivalry in matters of sport, and both base-ball and boating drew them together. It was not to be wondered at, then, that, sooner or later, they should adopt a set of rules for football under which they might have still another vigorous contest. In the fall of 1875 they did succeed, after a rather exciting convention of delegates, in adopting a most extraordinary compromise between the Rugby Union, which Harvard advocated, and the old American code, which Yale desired, and a match was arranged.