Bobby's US History Blog: The Creation of the NCAA

The Creation of the NCAA

College football is the favorite national past time of many people in the United States, today it is still played with the same passion as it was in the late 19th century when the first colleges started playing the sport. The sport of football was appreciated by more of the elite upper class males in the United States. The morals of College football became corrupt many universities would hire tramp athletes called "ringers" to come and represent the certain university on the gridiron.

The sport became known for its gang tackling and mass formations and became known nationally as one of the nations most dangerous sports. Although some people did not believe that the game was not dangerous to the health of the athletes, like one man said in a newspaper article, "Football is anything but a hazard and we will gladly insure any number of football players who come up to the standard in other respects. It would be really ridiculous to consider Football a hazard. Just consider the fact that there are thousands and thousands of men playing football in the country today and yet football accidents are very few." But most of the nation sided with the fact that the game was dangerous to the health of the players. Some of the injuries that were published in newspapers at the time, were reports of displaced shoulder blades, sore arms, week ankles, dislocated shoulders, twisted knees, fractured skulls, broken collar bones, broken legs, broken ribs, losing conscience, and even death. An astonishing fact 48 deaths occurred in a 4 month period of time during the college football season. One report of death was, "William Moore right halfback of the Union College Football Team died from injuries playing New York University, 19 Years Old." These types of injuries set off an alarm inside the heads of the population of the United States.

In 1896 a man by the name of Amos Alonzo Stagg, athletic director and coach at the time at the University of Chicago led in forming the nations first conference the Western Conference or better know today as the Big Ten. This creation led to some minor rule changes but still left many very hungry to reform the game of football.

The wave of shock and alarm sent the whole nation in panic. A man had to step up and change the rules of the game to settle the commotion down. Theodore Roosevelt summoned many leaders of the college football world to the white house to encourage rule changes and reforms of the game of football. In early December of 1905, the chancellor of New York University Henry M. MacCracken met with 13 other colleges and universities to talk about possible rule changes in the game of football. Later on in December, 62 different Universities and colleges met in New York City and decided to become members of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS). This committee created the 10 yard rule where you have to gain 10 yards in three plays to gain a first down and many other rules that reformed the game of college football to the way we know it today. The IAAUS changed its name to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) in 1910 to the name it still holds today.