>>>So back in the days of the Pilgrim Fathers they were talking about bringing the game into the 20th century? And being progressive they decided to subtely change the game from one of skill, and no contact, to one where two sets of men attack each other with such violence that they need to wear armour?
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>>>There mustn't have been enough indians to fight! :-)
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>>Well, American football doesn't really date from the pilgrim fathers. It really dates more from the early 1900's. The pilgrim fathers, being just staid old British non-progressives, left the game the way it was. It wasn't until the early 1900's that people really started to get tired of the same old 'kick the ball, run around a bit, fall down and roll around holding your head or privates for 10 minutes, make a miraculous recovery, jump back up and start all over again'.
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>Alan;
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>Here is an interesting article that mentions Rugby, Soccer (both invented by the English) and Football, all beginning around the 1820’s.
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>http://wiwi.essortment.com/americanfootbal_rwff.htm
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>Around 1865 American Football was being played by American colleges.
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>Here is a story about American college Football I like. Stanford and UC decided to have a game in 1892. It has since become known as “The Big Game”, and is played each year.
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>The game was played at the intersection of Haight and Stanyan Streets, in San Francisco. This is the entrance to Golden Gate Park and also near the place where the hippy movement began.
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>Stanford student manager and future President Herbert Hoover collected $30,000 in gate receipts. There were 20,000 people in attendance for that first “Big Game”, and it was realized just before the game started that something was missing! No one had brought a football!
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>Now there are two stories about how a ball was obtained to allow play to begin.
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>1. Herbert Hoover got on a streetcar and went down town to a sporting goods store and purchased one, returned with the ball and the game began!
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>2. The owner of a sporting goods store was in attendance of the game and jumped on his horse. He rode downtown where his shop was located and brought back a football.
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>Considering the distance involved (about five miles one way) I cannot believe a horse could have run that distance up and down hills (we have 32 of them) and return within a reasonable time. The street cars were very fast and that seems more like a reasonable choice about how the football found its way to the “Big Game”!
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>By the way being a good San Franciscian (fourth generation) I researched the above story read the story in an original edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. It mentioned Herbert Hoover took a street car and obtained the ball. I guess you can believe whatever you like. :)
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>Any way the score at the end of the game was: Stanford 14 - UC 10.
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>Tom

Oh, well, I was only off by half a century. Although, if we go by the time it began to really look like what we call American Football, I was reasonably close.