Football — America’s favorite Canadian game

The first week of football season arrived, and with it, a renewal of the collision of our modern gladiators amid cheers of familiar names such as Brady, Rodgers and Newton. Baseball, the pastime of my youth, gave way long ago to our undeniable national passion — football — and we should take a moment to thank our Canadian neighbors for the joys of our annual fall preoccupation.

“Wait,” I can hear Americans say, “I thought football originated in the Ivy League.”

Indeed, the roots of football include a series of games played in American universities before the Civil War. Our beloved game, however, also has roots in Canada. In fact, the game we play today is influenced by rules that originate in, of all places, Montreal.

At Princeton, they called the early game “ballown”; at Dartmouth, it was called “Old Dominion football”; and the lads at Harvard held a violent affair called “bloody Monday,” which soon became the “Boston game.” All three universities crafted variations on soccer, replete with up to 20 players to a side kicking a spherical ball through goals and prohibitions on picking up or running with the ball.

It was a violent game, and after a nationwide ban on football in the early 1860s, a renewed interest in reviving the sport at the nation’s top schools brought about new rules. In Harvard’s case, the game was breaking away from its form before the Civil War, while Yale and Princeton continued to fashion their games based on soccer independently.

Enter a group of Canadians from Montreal’s McGill University. Sensing an opportunity for a spirited fight and an opportunity to show off their own football game heavily influenced by rugby, McGill’s captain, David Rodger, issued a challenge to Harvard’s captain, Henry R. Grant, to play two games between the squads. The first match under Harvard’s rules, the second under McGill’s rugby-influenced rules.

The Bostonians readily accepted, while the Harvard Advocate sneered that Canadian “rules apparently are wholly unscientific and unsuited to colleges.” Regardless, the first game between the two squads was played at Cambridge, Mass., on May 14, 1874, in front of a crowd who paid a small sum to watch the action. Harvard won the first coin toss and took the first possession. The Canadians, lacking practice in Harvard’s rules, were dominated in a 3-0 loss.

The next day, May 15, 1874, the two teams met again for a match using McGill’s rules. The Canadian match featured “tries” or touchdowns as well as tackling and downs for each side. The Canadian players explained to the Americans that their game also featured an oval ball instead of the round ball used by Americans, but, unfortunately, there was no oval ball available in Boston.

McGill won the coin toss and the first possession in the second match leading to the two teams tussling to a 0-0 tie. The Harvard players, while starting slow, grew to appreciate and excel at the McGill game, so much so that the Harvard Advocate would later admit that “the rugby game is in much better favor than the somewhat sleepy game played by our own men.” The Harvard team, persuaded by the new rules from the McGill contest, would go on to introduce the Yale football team to the McGill style of football on Nov. 13, 1875. It was not long before the “concessionary rules” of football created by Harvard and Yale formed the structure of our modern game of football in America.

Since 1876, football has blossomed in both countries. There are, of course, differences between American and Canadian football today, such as the number of downs and scoring methodologies. Yet, both games have a proud tradition stretching all the way back to 1874 when American and Canadian players first met on a field in Cambridge, Mass.

Perhaps, given our current trade relations, the enduring story of football’s origin is the enormous benefits we enjoy in the collaboration between Canadians and Americans. SOMETHING ON YOUR MIND? Ideal letters to the editor are brief. Letters may be edited for clarity, accuracy or length. Submissions require the writer’s name, address and phone number.

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