How the Forward Pass Saved Football

Football had always been a dangerous game, but by 1905 the carnage had become unacceptable. Deaths and serious injuries had become common place. In 1905 there were 18 deaths and over 150 serious injuries. Players were often dragged or trampled. There had always been those who wanted to ban the sport. Something had to be done to curtail the brutality, or the game itself might face extinction. In 1906, football took a giant step towards becoming the game that we know today.

Leading the effort to modernize the game was President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt summoned Walter Camp and representatives of Princeton, Harvard and Yale to the White House, in an attempt to find ways to lessen the violence. Adding to the movement for change was Chancellor Henry MacCracken of New York University. After a player on an opposing team was killed during a game with N. Y. U., MacCracken organized a meeting to decide if football should be banned. Of the thirteen institutions represented at the meeting, six voted to ban the sport.

MacCracken’s meeting led to major changes in the game of football. The biggest changes involved creating space between the players. To create space vertically, a neutral zone was established at the line of scrimmage and as a way of spreading out the players horizontally, the forward pass was legalized.

The introduction of the forward pass was just the first step in it’s evolution. The game was still based on power. Severe restrictions on the forward pass limited its usefulness. A pass could not be thrown over the center, it had to be thrown at least five yards to the right or left from where it had been snapped. An incomplete pass that could not be reached by either team was awarded to the defense at the point where it had been thrown. Furthermore, a ball that crossed the goal line without being touched was a touchback, and would be given to the defense.

Throwing and catching the oversized ball that was used at that time was not easy. Adding to the degree of difficulty, pass interference was not illegal. In spite of the limitations, the forward pass added a new dimension to the game. In anticipation of the more open offense, the distance needed for a first down was increased from five to ten yards. The number of downs for distance remained three. The fourth down was not added until 1912. In order to make the new rules easier to enforce, the field was divided into a grid pattern with five yard squares.

The rule changes in college football were meant as role models for others follow. Of the seventeen men and one woman who died in 1905, most were not on college teams. Most of the deaths occurred on high school or club teams, where players were not as evenly matched in size or ability. Still, football continued to be dangerous at all levels. One of football’s grim traditions was the annual printing of the death toll at the end of the season.

A One of football’s grim traditions was the annual printing of the death toll at the end of the season. After the new rules were implemented, in 1906, there were only 11 deaths on the gridiron. Two more died in rioting after games. Some of the deaths were from undetected medical conditions, not from physical contact. The rule changes were hailed as a success.