Also - the forgotten Rule of the onside kick.

The year 1906 in college football terms is best known as the year the Forward Pass was first legalized.

But it wasn’t the only major change to college football. There were a slew. Nearly 30 rules changes

Including the onside kick rule, which made offensive players onside once the ball was kicked, so it was a punt with a free ball. It has faded over time, but if it had caught on, we’d be watching a much different game than we do now.

The major focus of these changes was to open up the game and to make the game less brutal. In this video, I’ll discuss the changes in 1906, along with the reaction that coaches and sports writers had to the new rules and the new football.

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Complete Transcription

The year 1906 in college football terms is best known as the year the forward Pass was first legalized.

But it wasn’t the only major change to college football. There were a slew.

Nearly 30 rules changes. The major focus of these changes was to open up the game and to make the game less brutal. In this video, I’ll discuss the changes in 1906, along with the reaction that coaches and sports writers had to the new rules and the new football. This video is called the forward pass, how a rules change in 1906 revolutionized football strategy forever.

So let’s first do a quick recap on why so many changes were necessary. In 1905, football was in a crisis. The public and the powers that be took notice that too many players were being killed and seriously injured playing football.

The public didn’t like the mass play, which consisted of running the ball into the middle of the line over and over and over. They also didn’t like the brutality.

And if you watched my earlier college football videos, you know that some teams were coached to take out the opposing team’s best player within the first five minutes with violence. The game had to change. It had to be opened up to become less boring for the fans. And it had to be changed to be less violent. It had to be something the public would want to watch. And of course, there was politics involved because colleges across the nation were tired of the game being controlled by the big three at that time, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton.

The forerunner of the NCAA, the intercollegiate athletic association of the United States, as if that isn’t a mouthful, had taken over the rules making and was determined to save the game. As if they couldn’t change the game, the universities were ready to abolish it. As I go over the rules changes as written in 1906 over the course of this video, know that they’ve been taken from the excellent David M. Nelson book, The Anatomy of a Game, Football, the Rules, and the Men Who Made the Game. Making the Game Safer.

1906 is the first year that the powers that be, the rules makers, make a first real attempt to reform the game to make it much less violent. And I’m not talking about the big hits in football that we all love. I’m talking about sheer brutality.

To start with an example, let me show you an old photo that you’ll find if you go out on the internet and you search for like old time college football photos or something like that. It’s labeled as a player showing an illegal strike circa 1901. But this photo is mislabeled because in 1901, striking a person with the heel of your hand like this is not illegal. There was a rule against slugging that’s illegal. But this hitting them with an open palm in the face or wherever, that is not illegal. So in 1906, that changes and a personal foul is defined as follows.

These include but are not limited to striking with the fist or the elbow, kneeing, kicking, meeting with the knee, and striking with locked hands by linemen breaking through. The runner may not be struck in the face with the heel of the hand by an opponent. And this is the first time these rules have appeared in football. There were rules against slugging, like I said, but not against kneeing somebody, kicking somebody or note that the rule is very specific that the runner may not be struck in the face with the heel of the hand by an opponent, which indicates that this is an actual problem that needs to be eliminated.

When we watch football today, all of these seems like common sense to us. But before they came up with these rules, it wasn’t illegal to jump on somebody with your knees first. It wasn’t illegal to kick somebody and it wasn’t illegal to elbow somebody or purposely use your knee. And guys got injured because as they were running with the ball, people would bring their knees up into their ribs and continuously do this play after play. And it wasn’t illegal to use your elbow. I don’t know if you’ve ever been hit with the elbow like that or had a knee brought up into you. I mean, both of those things can be pretty devastating blows. So they actually made it against the rules. Imagine that the penalty for breaking these rules is disqualification and 15 yards.

And they came up with another rule called unnecessary roughness. Think about it. Football has been going on for decades. 1906 is the first year you get unnecessary roughness. Unnecessary roughness includes tripping, tackling out of bounds, piling up, hurdling and other such acts. But prior to this rule change, it wasn’t illegal to tackle somebody out of bounds because there wasn’t a rule against it. Again, something that we would take as common sense. Piling up is something that we would call piling on now.

And hurdling was outlawed for exact reasons. And the rule is pretty specific as it goes on about what is illegal. Hurdling in the open is jumping over or attempting to jump over. An opponent who is still on his feet, hurdling in the line is jumping over or attempting to jump over. A player on the line of scrimmage with the feet or knees foremost within the distance of five yards on either side of the point where the ball is put in play. In other words, pretty much where we would define as the offensive line space. Here’s the center, five yards of either side of that center is where they outlawed hurdling.

But why is it that specific in the rule?

Because it’s made illegal to eliminate plays in which the ball carrier is literally picked up and thrown across the line of scrimmage. This was an actual play. Remember that prior to 1906, teams only had to get five yards in three plays to get a first down or to keep possession of the ball. So if you had to pick a guy up, there was your ball carrier and throw them over the line. There you go. You were gaining yardage.

New rule called unsportsmanlike conduct is created. Unsportsmanlike conduct is defined as, “It includes but is not limited to abusive insulting language to opponents or officials.” The penalty is disqualification. Another new rule, the neutral zone is established. So defensive and offensive players were no longer allowed to line up right next to each other on the line of scrimmage. So they separated them basically.

And the reason for this is previous to this, the offensive and defensive line would line up so close to each other that the way they would start the play slugging each other or punching each other. And the distance allowed for the officials to be able to see if somebody reached across the neutral zone and punched a guy. Before the play began, sometimes these guys would start doing that stuff. By separating them with the neutral zone, the officials could see such infractions. Offensive line change. Six players were required to be on the offensive line. The new rules restricted offensive linemen from dropping into the backfield to become part of the mass play. So number one, you have to keep guys on the offensive line. Number two, you can’t just take your linemen and put them in the backfield. There were popular plays called guards back and tackles back, like in this photo. And they were commonly used mass plays.

And this rule targeted those types of plays, making them illegal. Rules for holding were put in place so that players with the ball or the offensive team could obstruct opponents only with the body.

They could no longer grab the defensive players with their hands or push an opponent away from the play. They could not wrap their arms around an opposing player and they couldn’t lift them. Another huge rule change is that first down yardage is changed, requiring teams to make 10 yards in three downs. Now the purpose of this rule is to open up the game. The hope being that teams wouldn’t just keep running the ball into the middle of the line over and over, but would have to run off tackle or what we would call plays in space. In other words, they’d have to gain more yardage. Another important rule, the game is shortened from 70 minutes to 60 minutes with two 30 minute halves. Teams are given three timeouts per half. So the idea behind the time change is that players would get exhausted and they’re more likely to get injured when they’re exhausted. So they shortened the game to basically how we play it now. Officials.

Another official is added and it’s a very subtle but huge change is that all officials are now responsible for calling penalties. They changed it so they will have a referee, two umpires and a linesman with the second umpire optional. The teams could agree to use three instead of four officials if they both teams agreed. All officials became responsible for penalizing unnecessary roughness on sportsman like conduct and disqualification. Previously it was like before the only official that could really call anything was the head referee. This led to a lot of penalties not being called because the referee was being paid by the school, the home team. And if you called a bunch of penalties or disqualified somebody on the home team, they’d probably bar you from being an official again. So the result was that officials just didn’t call a lot of penalties or they could pretend they didn’t see something. And this was commonplace.

Downing a runner. The rule is the runner is down when any part of his body except his foot or hand touches the ground while in the grasp of an opponent. And that last part is huge and we’ll get to that much later. But this is another huge change. If you watched some of my earlier videos, you know that a ball carrier had to cry themselves down or basically cry down in order for the play to be stopped. This led to ball carriers being pushed and pulled through the line or across the field, literally crawling on the ground before they would call themselves down. And opposing players would jump on them, sometimes with their knees first to get them to cry down. And this would lead to a lot of injuries. And it sounds a little insane, but that’s how the game was played. Now changing the rule was an effort to make the game safer and remove the brutality.

Now note that it didn’t actually eliminate completely the pushing and pulling that happened in the middle of the lines. But it was no longer up to the ball carrier to determine if they were down.

And the whole grasp and the opponent bit that’s in the rule, this would continue to cause problems and would be eliminated years later. But the idea is in 1906, you know, things are pretty good. And in 1909, we’re going to have another crisis because of massive amounts of death. And that’ll be a different video. The onside kick.

The weirdest, most forgotten and nearly never used rule change of 1906 is the onside kick.

And just so we’re clear, we’re not talking about the onside kick like we know it today. This is not about kickoffs.

The onside kick rule states a player of the kicking team becomes onside and may recover the ball as soon as it strikes the ground.

So again, this is not about a kickoff. This is a play from scrimmage where a player could basically kick a ball like a punt. And then if it hit the ground, it was immediately a free ball that anyone could recover. So teams tried to run plays where they punted the ball and then ran interference or blocked, basically blocked people out of the way to keep the opposing team away from the ball while it hit the ground and they could recover it.

And this was used by teams. We see in this Detroit free press article from November 4th, 1906, the onside kick was used in a game between Vanderbilt and Michigan. According to historian John Watterson, coaches and players found this trick almost impossible to control. From the New Castle Herald, New Castle, Pennsylvania, on October 25, 1906, we see the headline, “Forward pass is a favored play, is being used more than the onside kick in big games.” And from the article, we see, “The forward pass is being used more than the onside kick in the question has been raised, is the latter not the more practical of the two?”

And then later on the article, it says, “It has been contended by some experts that the onside kick is one in which men are more likely to get hurt.

It’s interesting that kickoffs and punt returns are still of a concern today about injuries, about how they might eliminate both of those plays and make the game safer. They still had the same issues way back in 1906 and previous. This now brings us to the forward pass.

The forward pass.

According to David M. Nelson in the book, Anatomy of a Game, Football, the Rules and the Men Who Made Them, no one knows for sure who is responsible for initiating the forward pass, but a number of stories advance some names. John Heisman, the outstanding coach for whom the Heisman Trophy was named, told of seeing a forward pass in the 1895 North Carolina Georgia game that was allowed for a touchdown. Heisman claims that eight years afterwards, he wrote twice to Walter Camp, but Camp ignored him and nothing happened.

Though almost every section of the country claims a coach who invented, perfected, or proposed the forward pass, but probably none did so with the thought of making the game safer. Whatever the coaches envisioned, it is unlikely that any of them could foresee the aerial circuses that are now commonplace today. Many of the forward pass advocates who hoped to open up the game were not part of the brutality lobby, in other words, people that wanted the game to be less violent. But they were waiting off stage for the fourth dimension of college football. However, the forward pass probably would have never become part of the game without the brutality issue.

So what is Nelson talking about?

The brutality issue is the continual mass plays over and over and over, and the momentum plays that had players starting on the offense before the line was put in play. They were very dangerous and caused a lot of injuries. Those are people who wanted the forward pass, thought that if they had a play like that, they could keep the defense from just smashing themselves up against the line and that would open up play because the opposing team had to worry about the ball going over their heads and a player just catching it and running by them. And that’s really how they envisioned first passing opening up everything.

It keeps you from just stacking everybody on the line. So the forward pass rule, they met several times and the forward pass rule goes through many iterations before it’s final because number one, they had no idea what they were doing.

Keep in mind, the forward pass was against everything pretty much in every sport. Football came from rugby and in rugby, it’s illegal to pass the ball forward and they have no reference. They had no idea what they’re doing and they are worried about completely ruining this game of football. The other issue is you have people such as Walter Camp, the father of American football, who are opposed to anything that will change the game and allow innovators to use some new gimmick to start winning games.

Camp is a Yale man and Yale is one of the best teams in the country and they’re making unbelievable tons of money as well. He doesn’t want to give up his edge because someone else figures out a new way to do things. Iterations about the forward pass, there were suggestions that the ball had to go higher than the passer’s head.

The passes could not be longer than 10 yards. Some committee members wanted to outlaw the forward pass when the offensive team got to the 25 yard line because they didn’t want scores happening with anything other than the old mass plays.

In the end, they establish a rule to allow the forward pass, but in such a way that it’s neutered, and they quite frankly hope that it doesn’t destroy the game, they also don’t really want anyone using it all that much.

The first accepted forward pass rule is as follows. One forward pass shall be allowed to each scrimmage or each play, provided such pass be made by a player who is behind the line of scrimmage when the ball was put in play, and provided the ball, after being passed forward, does not touch the ground before it being touched by a player of either side. There is a penalty involved with the forward pass. If a forward pass be made by a player who is not behind the line of scrimmage, when the ball was put in play, the ball shall go to the opponent’s on the spot where the pass was made. If the ball, after being passed forward, touches the ground before being touched by a player of either side, it should go to the opponent’s on the spot where the pass is made.

So basically, if you throw the ball and it hits the ground and it’s incomplete, the other team gets the ball, which is pretty risky. And then another part of the rule specifies that only players that we call tight ends can actually catch the ball. So the next section is, the pass may not be touched by a player who was on the line of scrimmage when the ball was put in play, except by either of the two men playing on the ends of the line. Again, there’s a penalty, and the penalty is to give the ball to the other team. There’s more limitations on the forward pass. A forward pass over the line of scrimmage within the space of five yards on each side of the center shall be unlawful.

In other words, you had to get outside, basically get outside what we would call the tackle box. To throw the ball, because they wanted you out in the open. And guess what the penalty was? If you violated that rule, if you guessed giving the ball to the other team, you’re correct. Good job. So the forward pass is made legal, but it’s heavily neutered. Again, because they don’t want the game to change too much. The forward pass is pretty progressive. Some ways it’s blasphemy to those who’ve been around football for a long time.

This article on how to play under the new rules appeared in the Minneapolis Journal on September 23rd, 1906, before the start of football season. It ran in newspapers across the nation. It discussed the new rules, but mostly it was a way for fans to familiarize themselves with the changes. And we’re going to take two snippets from this article.

The first is a description on how to throw the forward pass. And it states, “The point of the ball is held in the palm of the hand, with the fingers outspread around it. The ball should be made to sail flat in the air. In passing a ball while on the run, it should be thrown almost always with both hands, very much as a basketball player throws a pass. A very clever and dexterous man can pass the ball secretly behind his back.”

It’s pretty clear they had no idea how to deal with the forward pass. And from this description, obviously, they considered it much like basketball.

Or quite frankly, rugby, because in rugby, if you pass the ball to a guy behind you, you normally are throwing it like a chess pass in basketball. The other snippet from the article talks about the defense. It states, “Let’s go to the diagram and take a look at the second line of the defense. Note that it is playing further back and more scattered than it was last year. The halfbacks are practically secondary ends, whereas they used to play just back inside of the tackles. Why is this?” First, because the second line of defense is afraid of forward passes in the short kicks where everyone is onside when the ball hits the ground. Second, because the second line of defense is not so afraid of short gains because of the new 10-yard rule, and therefore does not have to spring to support the first line of defense so sharply as it used to do. Third, because the second line of the defense is afraid of long end runs.

So we see from this article that the defense has already changed. The game has been opened up more, theoretically. Previously, the defense would stack in the middle because the offense ran mass plays, repeatedly in the middle, over and over and over. Now they have to worry about the ball being thrown over their heads, and they have to worry about being kicked over their heads with the onside kick.

Because the offense now has to gain 10 yards for a first down, they have to worry about the end runs much more than they did before. Reactions to rules changes. I spent way more time than I should have looking for negative reactions to the rules changes.

You’re probably aware of an old saying in life, “If you go through life looking for crap you’re going to find it.” I did find negative reactions, but honestly they were few and far between.

The final meeting of the Rules Committee took place on April 14, 1906. On April 29, Nebraska played Doane College and they followed the new rules and they were not impressed. As the article states, “result was not highly satisfactory in the Nebraska gumbo field.” The article states that the game was played on a muddy field, but it also states, “The opinion of the officials and the several hundred spectators, the latter including several football experts, was unfavorable to the new rules.”

On April 30, 1906 in the Pittsburgh Press, Amos Alonzo Stagg, the now famous coach from the University of Chicago, states that football is to be much improved, that the rules will make it a better game and he predicts a bright future from the game. From the article, he, Stagg, claims that there will be a better game than ever this fall. His reasons for thinking so were based on the new 10-yard rule, the forward pass, on-side play and the technical points in the new code, all of which will lessen the number of injuries to a greater extent.

Another reaction, this time from Judge Magazine. Judge Magazine was a satirical magazine that published weekly at that time. The illustration shows two dudes with a list of rules between them that states, “No pinching, no slapping, hug easy, don’t yell, no nose pulling and don’t bite.”

This illustration frequently comes up when people want to look for reactions to the rules of 1906.

My question is this, is this making fun of the new rules themselves or is it making fun of people who make fun of the new rules? Because giving that this is from a satirical magazine, I think it’s making fun of those people who make fun of football that it may no longer be as brutal as it once was. These people who think the rules changes have turned the game into a dainty emasculated nambipambism.

You can write that down.

Another negative article from the Union Leader of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on November 30th, 1906 states, “Football causes as many deaths. Emasculated game no safer than other. There were 14 fatalities. This is the same all in the previous years except that of 1905.” So it reasonably states facts, which is to say there’s still a lot of deaths from football.

And besides the crisis year of 1905 in which there were 18 deaths, nothing is really improved.

But from another article on November 30th, 1906 from the Oxford Register of Oxford, Kansas states, “fewer injuries as a result of the new rules. Reformed code passed to debrutalize the game is regarded effective.

The reformed football rules have increased minor injuries but have decreased fatalities.”

And from the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 7th, 1906, we get a smattering of opinions. Great possibilities for a new game. Navy thinks rules don’t serve purpose.

Rules won’t last another year. And we hear from Coach A.L. Smith of Pennsylvania Football, who says, “There is no doubt that the new football rules will not last another season. The game is practically spoiled by the changes. And about the only play that will be used this year will be the punt. There is little reason to believe that a system of offense can be perfected under the new system, which only adds the forward pass to the old plays that will enable a team to make 10 yards in three downs. And the public is almost bound to be treated to an exhibition of punting that will grow very tiresome and monotonous. Everyone will be thoroughly disgusted with the changes by the end of the season. It seems as though the committee has made too many radical changes in the game, and it will greatly suffer in the goodwill of the public because of the changes.

Open play always causes more serious injury, and this fall will not be the exception. In another year it is hoped that the committee will get back to the old game for it had developed to a very high point.” This whole section is basically the equivalent of our meme today where an old man yells at a cloud. And I did it then that voice. I mean, you know, it’s not the best impression of a grouchy old man, is it? But, you know, I tried. Coach A.L. Smith does not like the changes because Pennsylvania Penn is one of the best teams in the nation, and they have a set system for doing things.

He’s not interested in change. He’s not interested in innovation. And he couldn’t be more wrong with his statement and couldn’t... he could quite possibly want to be one of the wrongest people in the history of sports because the rules, they didn’t go back to the old game. They didn’t eliminate the forward pass. And I put this section in here just so honestly I can feel better about myself sometimes because some guy was wronger than I am.

Wronger.

Yes, wronger.

From the state newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina on October 3rd, 1906, we see the following headlines.

New game chaos, say experts. Ground gaining by carrying the ball impossible. Onside kick is only hope. Attack disorganized and defense and weakened.

Kick’s interchange of kicks only possible development. So that’s at the beginning of the football season, right? So what we see at the end of the year is that people are excited about the new game of football.

From the Courier Journal, a newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky on December 30th, 1906, we see the following headline.

New rules given throw trial improve unqualified success from start. Unqualified success.

As a general criticism, it may be truthfully said that the new rules have been very satisfactory and that the consensus of able football opinion is that they should, with a few minor alterations, be tried again next season. This article is more forward thinking. It goes on. There seems really to be no limit to the strategic possibilities under the new rules. The fear of the onside kick and the forward pass has necessarily weakened and scattered the defense so much that spectacular runs and plays are perfectly possible. From the Interocean, a newspaper from Chicago on December 30th, 1906, we see the following.

New football rules prove a decided success on trial. College game has been made more interesting and spectacular by Wisdom of Rules Committee. Overall, 1906 is a huge year for college football. The new rules are in and the crisis that almost abolished football the year before in 1905 has settled down.

Conclusion.

The first intercollegiate football game was played in 1869. There were 25 players on each side and players could not pick up the ball. The ball could only be advanced by being butted with the head or kicked. In 1876, the concept of possession or rules change changed the game to make football a truly American game separating it from rugby forever. The idea that a team possessed the ball led to the concept of having scrimmage plays or plays around which strategies could be built. In 1882, the concept of downs was invented, another rule that changed the game forever.

And in 1906, we see a set of rules that truly makes the game much different than the way it was before and much different than any other sport in the world. The invention of the forward pass further set American football apart from everything. The 1906 rules weren’t enough to solve the death and injury problem. Football would be in crisis again in 1909. I will be doing a video later on that year whenever I get it done. I wish I could stay on more of a schedule. But these things, you know, they take a lot of time and research and to be honest with you, I want to get them right.

And I’ll also be doing another video to cover 1907 and 1908. So in 1907 or 1908, did teams start using the forward pass? Did it take off despite its limitations? Well, stick around to find out. I’m Jon Johnston, the founder of Corn Nation. I hope you enjoy these videos. Please give me some feedback.

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