A Football Education

The history of almost every sport known as football (from Grid Iron to Aussie Rules to Gaelic) is tied a medieval sport known as folk football. This sport was played throughout Europe during the Dark Ages and continues to be played in its various forms today. The concept of sports as we known them today with codified rules which are standardized anywhere in world simply did not exist until the 1800's. Hence folk football often times took many characteristics of a modern riot.

Often times these riots were made up of larger groups of people from two opposing sides, sometimes from two different villages other times just from rival sides of town. There was often a ball (inflated pig's bladder) and sometimes a type of a goal or end zone or boundary would be established but not always. The ball could be thrown, kicked, passed, hit, or carried and the the person carrying the ball was certainly in peril as people would be tackled, slide tackled, stabbed, beaten, and on occasion shot.

The parts of the game which disturbed the peace, in this case the game itself, made it difficult for the local rulers and kings to maintain the peace. There are numerous instances where football was listed as an illegal sport and other sports such as bowling and archery are recommended in its place. However, these laws were totally unsuccessful. The fact is folk football was the game of the people.

Rules for the various forms of football began to arise in the 1800's, and the first of such sports was Association Football establish in England in 1848. These rules were set in place and agreed to by an association of schools (hence the name) and a true sport was born. This sport would have resembled something akin to Aussie Rules or Gaelic Football as handling and kicking were major parts of the game.

For a minute consider the first colonies established in Americas by the French, Spanish, Dutch, and English. Personally, I am a Covert. My family has lived in the United States since the Dutch established New Amsterdam (for those unfamiliar with early American Colonial History, that's before the English defeated the Dutch and renamed it New York). So what sports were people in the colonies playing from 1492-1848? These colonist (immigrants) would have brought with them the sports from their childhood and passed it down. Such sports would include bowling, hurling, hockey, curling, archery, and folk football.

Aussie Rules football was the next sport to codified and established, and Americans who aren't familiar with the various forms of football mistakenly call it rugby. Aussie rules features a number of differences such as players running free with the ball without his teammates pushing him and the large arc with posts which makes up the goal. This sport is aired from time to time on Fox Sports, but those interested would be better served tuning in on Setanta.

In 1863, the London Football Association and the Sheffield Football Association put an end to the minor differences in the rules for Association Football. The Laws of the Game written in 1863 created what is today still known as Association Football and the original Football Association still governs the English Premier League, lower leagues, and English National Team. The word soccer is derived from the word association, and soccer is the second fully codified form of football established after Aussie Rules with Rugby just behind forming the Rugby Union in 1870.

So what of football in North America? Where did Grid Iron Football come from? In 1869, Princeton University and Rutgers played what is considered the first game of college football; however the rules used were the Football Association Rules, so the first game of college football was in fact the first game of college soccer. Soccer was played in the United States before Grid Iron Football had been codified.

Grid Iron Football stemmed from a match between Harvard University and Canada's McGill University (a school playing under Rugby Union Rules) played in 1874. Soon after, other American colleges adopted these rugby rules and association football fell out of favor. The rules such as downs and marking the distance to the goal via downs were added in the 1880's by Yale, and the forward pass would eventually be added to the game as schools attempted to used through the late 1800's.

By the 1870's in America, there were two sports being played at various levels. One was played on the Grid Iron while other was played on the Pitch. Soccer clubs (still called football at the time) sprang up in New England and were often time affiliated with a place of business. These team featured former Ivy League college graduates and recent immigrants from the British Isles which accompanied the industrial revolution. Football continued to grow on the college scene and went through growing pains in the early 1900's as the sport was considered too violent by the federal government.

In either case both sports featured teams directly or indirectly affiliated with large companies or industries such as the Decatur Staleys (later named the Chicago Bears) and the Bethlehem Steel (of the American Soccer League 1922-1932). Neither sports' professional era started with glitz and glamour. It is however worth noting, that the US Football Association (later named US Soccer Federation) and the US Open Cup were founded in 1914. The US Open Cup saw it's 95th champion in 2008, D.C. United. The US Open Cup is one of the oldest sports competitions in American History.

For years the two sports went their separate ways and each developed in its own way. Football focused on developing professionally with numerous professional leagues eventually narrowed down to two, the National Football League and the American Football League. Soccer on the other, was a game for amateurs, Olympians, and international competition. The United States has had a men's national soccer team in international competition since 1885, and in 1930 the United States reached the semi-finals of the first World Cup. During that tournament, Bert Patenaude, an American born in Fall River, Massachusetts scored the first hat-trick in World Cup history. The American soccer team would qualify for World Cup 1934 and 1950, but would not see a World Cup again until 1990.

Although the sports took different routes, the fates had other plans for the athletes. While a handful of Americans, whom history has forgotten, such as Walter Bahr of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania played for the Philadelphia Nationals (a team that lasted from 1936-1954). He played for the US Soccer team in the Olympics and the World Cup of 1950, and he ended up coaching Penn St. to 12 NCAA titles. Bahr had three sons, two of which should be familiar to football fans, Chris and Matt who became placekickers after their soccer careers had ended in the NASL, while their brother Casey was an American star in the now defunct soccer league.

But the sports two paths collided once again. In the 1960's Lamar Hunt, among other owners in the NFL-AFL, had a problem. During the summer, their stadiums sat empty. About the time of the first Super Bowl (1967), Hunt and others ventured into the North American Soccer League. The goal of the organization was to establish a top tier soccer league and draw in big crowds during the summer months. Teams ended being comprised largely of foreign players and largely of stars such as Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, and Johann Cryuff. From 1968 to 1984, the United States was home to some of the world's best soccer players.

American youth were inspired by on field performances of the world's best soccer players and joined newly formed soccer clubs, many of which were run by the NASL teams themselves. The American Youth Soccer Organization saw an increased in enrollment during the 1960's by hundreds of percents. The Dallas Tornado claimed to have enrolled over 60,000 youth players during their time in the NASL.

Although many of the league's stars were foreign, a number of standouts were Americans. In 1973, Kyle Rote Jr., the son of Kyle Rote (a football player) won rookie of the year in the NASL. Rote Jr. scored 42 goals in 121 games for the Dallas Tornado, averaging one goal every three games, a mark even the best strikers today hope to achieve.

After the NASL folded, soccer didn't die. Six years later, a team of Americans, who had grown up during the NASL era qualified for the World Cup. John Harkes, Tony Meola, and Tab Ramos grew up playing together and watching the New York Cosmos. Chris Henderson and Kasey Keller grew up playing in Washington near the original Seattle Sounders. Were some of the players on this team immigrants? Yes. Tab Ramos was originally from Uruguay, but Meola was a kid from Jersey as was Harkes. Eric Wynalda heralds from Fullerton, California, and other American greats from the early 1990's were guys like Cobi Jones an African-American from Detroit, Brad Friedl from Ohio, Joe Max Moore from Tulsa.

If you want to know what the face of America soccer looks like check out the guys who have been the U.S. National Team. The American soccer team looks like America. It's Asian-American, African-American, Hispanic-American, European-American, it's quite frankly American. It's hard for me to think of guys who are more American than Clint Mathis of Georgia, Brian McBride of Illinois, DaMarcus Beasley of Indiana, Eddie Pope of North Carolina, Brian Ching of Hawaii, Tim Howard of New Jersey, Clint Dempsey of Texas, or Michael Bradley of New Jersey.

The argument that soccer is merely immigrants' game simply doesn't stand, unless one is saying that it's not a Native Americans' sport. Soccer came with the Grid Iron from as early as the Mayflower and the Pilgrims. Soccer has been played in the US for longer than football. Soccer is part of American History. It hasn't always been a popular part, but take the time go to down the youth fields on a Saturday morning. How American children are playing the sport? 17 Million was given as an estimate in 2003 as far as the total number of Americans playing the sport. It was second to only basketball. Perhaps in TV ratings and attendance it will never be the biggest, but soccer is and always been an American sport.