One of America’s favorite pastimes, college football, became a very controversial sport in the early 1900’s and was being considered to be too dangerous to be played. College football was in serious talk of being discontinued and faced much criticism over player safety. A big supporter of college football (especially Harvard), Theodore Roosevelt wanted football to continue being played at Harvard.
Roosevelt went behind the scenes to bring reform to the sport and ensure its continuation. Theodore Roosevelt is considered as a savior of college football and annually the NCAA gives the “Theodore Roosevelt Award” to a collegiate athlete and a distinguished citizen in the community. Former winners include Dwight D. Eisenhower, Arnold Palmer, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Cosby.
Roosevelt decided that the “carnage” of college football around the turn of the century needed to be changed so he met with representative from Northeastern schools at the White House and address the issue. At least twenty schools at this time were considering dropping the sport all together until Roosevelt felt that reformation was crucial for the survival of the sport. In 1905, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States was created, an ancestor to the NCAA, to group the teams together under a higher government with new rules unlike the former running of the sport when students ran the team and collected the tickets for the game. The IAAUS worked to eliminate the bad reputation of the sport and make it safe for athletes to play.
Many new rules were established to make football safer and different from rugby. In 1906, the first forward pass was thrown and was a twenty yard toss. Although this revolutionary concept was used, there were still many critics who thought the forward pass wasn’t manly enough. By 1912, the six-point touchdown was created, instead of five. Next, the field goal was decreased to three points instead of two, which is still true today. President Roosevelt’s need for reform of college football impacted the game dramatically making it the game we know today.
The impact of Roosevelt’s change on college football still exists today and will be present of years to come. The former “grudge match” between the teams, where punching and kicking was accepted, no longer seemed to exist in the sport. With the reforms, new found popularity came too as new stadiums were being built and the sport gained nationwide acceptance. If it were not for Roosevelt’s love of the game, it is possible that college and professional football might cease to exist.
With the reforms came rules that are still used today, like the line of scrimmage and the ten-yard first down. Theodore Roosevelt's impact on football is omnipresent for almost every rule on the field and changed the game from rugby to what we now know as football. Some actually say that his deep concern for safety came from his concern for his son, who was a freshman on the football team at Harvard, but we will never know the real reason. In my opinion, Teddy Roosevelt is the savior of college football.
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