Question from public-- Why football in autumn?

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Question from public-- Why football in autumn?
Started by Mark L. Ford, Dec 10 2013 04:01 PM

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#1 Mark L. Ford
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Posted 10 December 2013 - 04:01 PM

Here's a question posed by the press, and I'll throw it to our PFRA experts. If anyone can point the reporter to this being written about in the past, all the better.

Hello,

My name is Tyler Silvy, and I’m a high school sports reporter for The Fort Collins Coloradoan.
I’d like to know how the modern football season came to be. How/when was it decided that
Football would be played in the fall/winter? Did pro football take its cue from college football?

Thank you,

Tyler Silvy
TylerSilvy@coloradoan.com
(970) 589-3829

#2 Greg Gubi
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Posted 11 December 2013 - 01:33 AM

By the time of the first intercollegiate football game in 1869, rowing and baseball were already popular sports in the spring and summer.

During the 1870s, most Eastern colleges played football in the autumn but several schools, including the University of Michigan, played in the spring. [1]

The two pivotal games between Harvard and McGill University in 1874 (played under two different versions of rules and starting the evolution of American football) were played May 15 and 16. [1]

In the December 1888 issue of Outing magazine, Walter Camp (at age 29) wrote: “For years before the adoption of the game of football in America our autumn season had no sport distinctively its own. Baseball dragged out a lingering existence as the hands grew numb in the frosty air. Boating shivered along into November in sweaters, but its life was frozen. Until the advent of football many of our best athletes, finding nothing to train for, strayed away from the strict regimen and early hours to the seductive tobacco and beer and all-night cards. Nor did they always return, for many refused to tear themselves away when the spring came, while still others, after the first few days of effort in the warm May weather, were so overcome with the longing for the fleshpots that they would fall out of the ranks, never again to reappear. The athletes of to-day have an autumn sport the equal of any in enjoyment and the superior in helping symmetrical development…” [2]

The first Stanford-Cal game was March 19, 1892, the first Alabama-Auburn game was Feb. 22, 1893, but subsequent games in the rivalry were played in the fall.

From the Nov. 10, 1894 issue of Harper’s Weekly: “The Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska football outlook is brighter than at the beginning of any previous season. During the past two the game has been rapidly spreading, until the autumn sees its establishment in most of the high-schools and academies, as well as in the large colleges and universities…” [3]

Sources: LostCentury.com - [1] The First Decade of College Football, [2] Walter Camp in Print, [3] The Lost Century of American Football.

#3 luckyshow
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Posted 11 December 2013 - 01:38 AM

From a column called Jimmy Watson's WATTLINE, in The Ruston Daily Leader, May 29, 1975, Ruston, Louisiana
I don't know if this was a syndicated column or just in this paper.

The article was actually about baseball in summer.
One paragraph about football:
"Ask any of the local gridders why football is played in the fall and you'll get a quick answer, 'Summer is hot enough to sweat you out of existence with all that equipment, winter will make your fingers crack when you touch the ball and in the spring there is just too much love circulating around to feel like blasting someone in the head.'"


From The Billings Gazette, Billings, Montana, August 2, 1953, in a column called Answers to Questions, by The Haskin Servive.
Q. Why is football always played in the autumn? R.P.
A. In the United States football was originally a spring game, When Princeton, Rutgers, Columbia, Harvard, and Yale formed the American Intercollegiate Football Assn. in 1876, it was decided that such a rugged game should be played in the autumn.

#4 JuggernautJ
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Posted 11 December 2013 - 01:47 AM

In the December 1888 issue of Outing magazine, Walter Camp (at age 29) wrote: “For years before the adoption of the game of football in America our autumn season had no sport distinctively its own. Baseball dragged out a lingering existence as the hands grew numb in the frosty air. Boating shivered along into November in sweaters, but its life was frozen. Until the advent of football many of our best athletes, finding nothing to train for, strayed away from the strict regimen and early hours to the seductive tobacco and beer and all-night cards. Nor did they always return, for many refused to tear themselves away when the spring came, while still others, after the first few days of effort in the warm May weather, were so overcome with the longing for the fleshpots that they would fall out of the ranks, never again to reappear. The athletes of to-day have an autumn sport the equal of any in enjoyment and the superior in helping symmetrical development…” [2]

Thank God (or rather Walter Camp) that football saved me from "the seductive tobacco and beer and all-night cards."
And the fleshpots.... definitely the fleshpots.
(Well 2 out of 4 ain't bad)

#5 luckyshow
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Posted 11 December 2013 - 01:58 AM

Here's a different take from The Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 16, 1949
This was an essay on how football is a replacement for war. Called We Play It With Footballs, by Paul Gallico (I think he's a famous sports writer from days gone by)

"...No doubt you have often wondered why football was played in the fall when the weather is likely to be uncertain and rain or snow praactically a fixture, instead of in the more stable summertime. Look at it in the light of what has been revealed above [when he presented his war theory. How we would be at peace if the Soviet Union learned and played football] and you will see how carefully and beneficially it has all been planned. Football really lacks complete therapeutic value without mud. You must have mud into which to push the other fellow and then fall on him so that he really gets it in his ears.
Just think of it. Saturday, somewhere in our vaast land, rain was falling at 2 p.m., kick off time, and one minute later 22 young giants were rolling in the guck, sliding on their faces and pushing each other's faces in the goo. ..."

#6 John Grasso
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Posted 11 December 2013 - 09:09 AM

luckyshow, on 11 Dec 2013 - 01:58 AM, said:
This was an essay on how football is a replacement for war. Called We Play It With Footballs, by Paul Gallico (I think he's a famous sports writer from days gone by)

GALLICO, PAUL WILLIAM. B. 26 July 1897, New York. D 15 July 1976, Monte Carlo, Monaco. Paul Gallico is known by most people as an award-winning author whose works include The Snow Goose, The Poseidon Adventure, The Adventures of Hiram Holliday and Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris.
A 1919 graduate of Columbia University he began as a sportswriter for the New York Daily News and is the man responsible for creating the New York Golden Gloves boxing tournament in 1927 and writing daily articles on the tournament's progress. During his career as a sportswriter he challenged several athletes at their own sports so that he could better appreciate their efforts. He sparred with heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, played golf with Bobby Jones, swam against Johnny Weismuller and batted against baseball pitchers Herb Pennock and Dizzy Dean. Writer George Plimpton acted similarly during the 1960s, and boxed Archie Moore, played football with the Detroit Lions and ice hockey with Boston Bruins.
Gallico left the sports desk of the Daily News in 1936 to concentrate on writing fiction. From 1938 until 1974 he wrote more than 40 books and numerous short stories several of which were later made into films or television series. The 1952 film, Lili, starring Leslie Caron was based on one of his short stories that was later turned into a book by Gallico. Lili later became the Broadway musical Carnival.
He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009.

#7 rhickok1109
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Posted 11 December 2013 - 11:01 AM

Actually, I think this can be traced back to England, where cricket became a well established spring/summer sport in schools well before soccer and rugby. Schools began playing cricket in the 1790s, and the first Oxford-Cambridge match was in 1827, while the first Oxford-Cambridge football (soccer game) was in 1873.

American intercollegiate sport was quite clearly based on the English model. When cricket was gradually replaced by baseball here, baseball took over cricket's niche as a springtime sport. Later, football was notched into the fall when it developed as an intercollegiate sport. And it really was a fall sport, since the college season typically ended with the Thanksgiving Day games. When James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, he was intent on creating an indoor sport for the winter to fill the gap between football and baseball.

#8 Greg Gubi
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Posted 11 December 2013 - 07:33 PM

Another factor was the football hazing ritual "rush" staged early in the fall term.

From John Langdon Sibley’s Diary --

August 31, 1846 - Monday. College lessons begin. After evening commons the Sophomores & Freshmen meet, as has been customary for many years on the Delta to try themselves with football. The Sophomores, of course, know each other & consequently who are the Freshmen. The Freshmen of course know but few of their classmates & cannot well distinguish them from the Sophomores. The different classes come together, the football is thrown down among them, & the object of each class is to kick the others & “bark their shins” as much as possible. After a few evenings, classmates know each other, the two younger classes form two sides, & the ball is kicked in a regular way. This is the general sport among students till cold weather. In the spring there is no playing of football, but “bat & ball” & cricket.

#9 rhickok1109
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Posted 11 December 2013 - 08:03 PM

Greg Gubi, on 11 Dec 2013 - 7:33 PM, said:
Another factor was the football hazing ritual "rush" staged early in the fall term.

From John Langdon Sibley’s Diary --

August 31, 1846 - Monday. College lessons begin. After evening commons the Sophomores & Freshmen meet, as has been customary for many years on the Delta to try themselves with football. The Sophomores, of course, know each other & consequently who are the Freshmen. The Freshmen of course know but few of their classmates & cannot well distinguish them from the Sophomores. The different classes come together, the football is thrown down among them, & the object of each class is to kick the others & “bark their shins” as much as possible. After a few evenings, classmates know each other, the two younger classes form two sides, & the ball is kicked in a regular way. This is the general sport among students till cold weather. In the spring there is no playing of football, but “bat & ball” & cricket.

Yes; of course, this was at Harvard and the "football" referred to was the old "melee" form of the game (if it can be called a game), which was banned at Harvard in 1860.