Articles to accompany Who Invented This Sport? podcast by Roger Harb and David Drews.
You’re a freshman at Harvard in 1827. It’s Bloody Monday. You’re out on the commons field and the upperclassmen bellow a chant: “Football, Freshie—Football, Freshie,” and before you and your fellow first-year classmates know it, you are all standing on a field, pitted against a sea of sophomores amassed at the opposite end of the … Read more
In the early 1800s, British football begins to slowly take a more orderly form, becoming a sport for privileged boys at elite boarding schools like Eton, Charterhouse and Rugby—several of these schools are in towns with long folk football histories. Middleclass and aristocratic young men take the past and forge a future. Britain’s political, theological, … Read more
Over the last two millennia, humans have dotted the world with football. Connect these milestones and we eventually arrive at the birth of American football. In the shape of half-moons, two goals stand on opposite ends of an imperial field in ancient China. To their teammates, aristocratic young men kick an inflated round ball, which … Read more