The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1905-10-18
THE ANCIENT
GAME OF FOOTBALL
NATIONAL SPORT OF ROME AND
FREQUENT PAsTiME OF
GREEKS.
INTRODUCTION IN THE U. S. RE.
TAlNs ALL THAT rs USEFUL
IN RUGBY RULES.

pose. Though generally called an
English game. 1t did not have its orr.
gin in England any more than the ia
nous match between Harvard and
Yale In 1876 assigns it TO this eoun.
try. A contest similar to football, as
II was before the English associations
were formed and the game started
on its course OF new development,
was one of the national sports OF
Rome and frequent pastime OF the
athletes of Greece. There can be no
doubt that the young men who fol-
lowed the army to Britain from Rome
taught the game to the young natives
of England, by whom 1t was trans
mitted to later times. II Is doubtful
even whether the ancient game had
Its beginning in Greece or Rome, for
the inflated skin or bladder kicked
on level field to opposite goals seems
to suggest the pastoral sport that
might have developed among the sons
of shepherds on the plains of Meso.
potamia.
In Greece the game was called Hep.
islSuros and was played by great
number of persons divided into two
numbed of persons divided into two
companies opposed to one another
There were few rules. except that the
ball. or follis, must not be seized or
thrown. but kicked. Among the Rom.
ans the game was called Harpastum,
the name. signifying to sieze, and in
the Roman game 1t was allowed the
players to grab the ball and run with
1t precisely as in the modern Rugby
play. The Harpastum is described
by Roman writer's as being played by
dividing into two companies and striv-
ing to throw the ball into one anoth-
er's goal, which was the conquering
cast. The scrimmages which attend.
ed both the Grecian and Roman forms
of. the game were quite as boisterous
and sometimes as disastrous as in
these modern days.
The antiquity of foot ball In Great
Britain is well attested. The great
foot ball festival of the year was on
Shrove Tuesday, and so rough did the
play become that James forbade the
heir to the throne from engaging in
1t. Both sexes and all ages appear to
have participated in the games, smut
tiers had to be put up 'on houses to
ward against damage, and collisions,
sometimes fatal. occurred between
the players. The game independent
of the great English schools died out
early in the nineteenth century, but
in the educational centers among the
boys 1t was kept alive, and the forms
OF play at Eaton and Rugby followed
the Grecian and Roman types, re.
spectively. down to the formation of
the British Foot Ball Association In
1863 ana the Rugby Association in
1871. From these two bodies have
grown the modern rules, organization
OF teams and all the scientific features
of the sport.
Football in the United States was
transplanted from England. 1t first
grew up in the colleges and passed
from them to the amateur field of
sport. The game in American colleges
was undoubtedly made popular, II Il
was not wholly inspired by the graph.
ic descriptions of the English game
contained in Tom Browns School
Days" But 1t was not until 1876 that
the game began to command serious
attention and started upon metamor.
phosis which practically changed 1t to
an American pastime. The National
League OF Baseball Clubs was form.
ed that year, upon what seemed a
promising outlook for professional
sport. There had been several decades
of baseball before that time, but in
that year the occasion seemed to call
for the organization to put the game
on substantial footing. The impetus
given to baseball that year set the
players of foot ball to thinking, and
resulted in an agreement between the
teams at Harvard and Yale uniyer
stiles to adopt the English Rubgy
rules and to play series of games
that autumn. Up to that time foot
ball had been conglomerate perver
sion of the English association game
in which the rules differed in the sew
eral colleges all the way from nc
handling of the ball to seizing AM
throwing 1t as in the Roman Harpas
tum.< The Harvard-YaIe league and
the selection of the Rugby rules
started the game in new direction
and one after another the American
colleges accepted the same rules, and
in course of time there were many