David Rosenthal

Well...

Back in England, it was quite popular among public school students.

Now, public schools in England are like private schools in America, and they were starting to adapt it into an actual sport.

And so like any sort of stepchild nation, these American college kids were kind of trying to keep up with the social elite back in the mother country and do the same thing, bring football in a codified way to schools in America.

There were 25 players per team, so 50 people on the field, a round ball that could not be picked up and carried, couldn't be thrown, and the object was to kick the ball through the opponent's goal for which he received one point.

Yes, but that was the start of what would become intercollegiate American football.

And this becomes, just like back in England, wildly popular.

And over the next five to 10 years, it gets more and more codified and formalized amongst the Ivy League.

It kind of comes to be seen as this integral part of the college experience, this character-building experience.

It's also still wildly dangerous.

There are like deaths, serious injuries, very, very common through this period.

Finally, 1905, there are 19 fatalities in intercollegiate football in the U.S.

and a serious injury at Harvard to one Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of sitting president Theodore Roosevelt.

So this is a major event.

After that happens, Teddy Roosevelt calls a summit of all the major colleges and universities in New York City and says he's going to outlaw the game in the US unless they adopt major changes to make the game safer.

Yeah.

And it's a fine line, right?

Like, I think the violence is a critical part of this sort of rite of passage, and it's

Teddy Roosevelt probably kind of likes it because this is a training ground for future military, governmental and military leaders of America.

So I had no idea until doing the research.