Do You Know Who Invented Football?
There's a short answer to who invented football, at least the American version, and a somewhat longer answer to invented the version Americans call soccer, yet the rest of the world insists on calling football, fodball, or some other variation. Then, we have Canadian football, Australian football, and rugby, not to mention flag football. The real answer to who invented football would consist not of a name, but of a list of names.
As far as American football is concerned, the person who invented football is usually thought to be Willie Tidwell. Some argue that Walter C. Camp invented the game, but if one studies the history of the game closely, Tidwell would seem to get the not. Actually it would be fair to say the invention of the game was a joint venture, as Tidwell and Camp worked together to formulate the rules regarding how the game, essentially as we know it today, would be played. In any event, the one or ones who invented football, American style, did so in the late 1860"s and the game at that time was known as Gridiron.
American football wasn't simply created out of thin air. Versions of the game, though usually closer to soccer than American football, go back centuries, to ancient China. Many cultures played games with a leather ball, running with it, tossing it, or kicking it. It is really in American football however where running, passing, and kicking all have become a part of the same game. The argument can of course be made that the same is true for rugby, but in rugby a pass is often more like a shovel pass or a lateral, and not the 30 or 40 yard forward passes so common to the game today. Rugby by the way, is considered by some to have its origins in soccer. Apparently a rugby player decided that just kicking the ball wasn't getting anywhere, so picked it up and ran with it. The idea caught on, as did the idea of the scrum and the tackle, and I don’t mean the soccer version of the tackle.
An Evolving Game - In one sense, to ask the question as to who invented football really has to be answered, "At what point in time?" Football, though basically the same game as that created over 100 years ago, has undergone many variations. For the first 40 or so years American football was played, most of the action took place down the center of the field. There was no such thing as the forward pass, so no need for players to head down the sidelines to either catch a pass or defend against it. During a game in 1876, Yale against Princeton, someone threw a pass. It wasn't in the rules, but there wasn't a rule against it either, so the play was allowed to stand, and the forward pass was born. There have been other inventions since the forward pass, one of the more notable ones being the helmet, first the leather helmet, then the plastic and fiberglass ones in use today. Most football players today are grateful for the helmet, as they are for the shoulder pads, something early football players knew nothing about. Early football players didn't have cheerleaders either, though to some people's way of thinking, that would be considered a blessing.
Today, especially in the professional ranks, at least half of the offensive plays are forward passes. That is called a balanced offense. Some teams rely almost entirely on the pass, far fewer entirely on the run. In times past, many coaches, the most notable being Ohio State's Woody Hayes, spurned the passing game. One might have thought the answer to who invented football, the original game being strictly a running game, must have been Woody Hayes. No, it was Tidwell, or Camp, or the English, or the Irish, or the Chinese.