David Rosenthal

This had been played for centuries in England, and basically the only goal of the game was for one side to get a ball to a certain spot on the other side.

And that was it.

There were no rules.

Any number of people could participate on either side.

You could do anything up to and including maiming and killing people on the other side or your own, which happened quite frequently.

Yes.

So now why were these two groups of Princeton and Rutgers students so interested in playing this game?

This terribly violent game.

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.