page_title: Early history of American football
section_title: Innovators and Motivators (1894–1932)
hierarchical_section_title: Early history of American football / Early history of intercollegiate football (1869–1932) / Period of Rules Committees and Conference (1894–1932) / Innovators and Motivators (1894–1932)
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Parke H. Davis, college coach during the first years of American football in the USA.
context_page_description: The early history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and association football. Both games have their origin in varieties of football played in Britain in the mid–19th century, in which a football is kicked at a goal or run over a line, which in turn were based on the varieties of English public school football games.
  American football resulted from several major divergences from association football and rugby football, most notably the rule changes instituted by Walter Camp, a Yale University and Hopkins School graduate considered to be the "father of gridiron football". Among these important changes were the introduction of the line of scrimmage, of down-and-distance rules and of the legalization of interference.
  In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, gameplay developments by college coaches such as Eddie Cochems, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Parke H. Davis, Knute Rockne, John Heisman, and Glenn "Pop" Warner helped take advantage of the newly introduced forward pass. The popularity of college football grew in the United States for the first half of the 20th century.
context_section_description: Although Walter Camp is widely considered to have been the "Father of American football", the development of the game was collaborative in nature and many different people contributed to the early development of the game.
caption: Parke H. Davis, head football coach, Lafayette College (1895–98)
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