Football made its first appearance at the intercollegiate level. As a prelude to what would become an American game, collegians played rugby, but the sport was so grueling that it was barred at Harvard in 1860. Nine years later, on Nov. 6, 1869, two New Jersey universities, Rutgers and Princeton, played what is considered the first intercollegiate game in the United States--although it hardly resembled modern-day football, or even the football that was played at the turn of the century. There were 25 players on each side, and the scoring was decided by goals, not touchdowns, conversions, and field goals. Rutgers won that first game, and Princeton won a rematch a week later. Before long, other universities began taking up the game--Columbia in 1870, followed by Yale 2 years later.
Harvard continued to play a game more similar to rugby; but in 1875, when it played Yale, Harvard convinced its opponent to play under new rules, which brought the game into a new era. Touchdowns counted only one point, compared to four for a successful conversion kick. A field goal was worth five points.
Walter CAMP, a freshman at Yale in 1876, became the organizational genius that the college game badly needed to unify and organize the rules. Under his influence the teams were decreased in size from 15 to 11. The field varied from 140 yd (128 m) by 70 yd (64 m) to 110 by 53 1/3 yd (100.5 by 48.8 m), and the ball was put in play by having the offensive team's center get the ball from his line of scrimmage to the quarterback. In 1889, another innovation Camp shared in was the selection of the first All-America team, which started the trend toward glamorizing individual stars.
The first significant rules convention was held in 1880. The participants neglected, however, to provide incentives for advancing the line of scrimmage, thus sustaining the dull, 90-minute game. In 1882, Camp successfully campaigned for the rule that made the offensive team give up possession if it moved the ball less than 5 yd forward in three downs.
Camp also standardized the scoring system in 1883, showing a strong prejudice toward the kicking influence of rugby and soccer. Touchdowns scored only two points, whereas the conversion kick scored four and field goals five.
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