Football has been around for more than one hundred and thirty years. One of the longest played and favored sports in American history. The funny thing is the game is not exactly what it used to be. When Princeton played the very first game of college football back in 1869 the football, wasn’t really a football. At that time, they were tossing around a soccer style ball. It wasn’t until several years later that the football was designed for aerodynamics and catching capabilities. Of course, this would be the football we are familiar with seeing of Fridays and Mondays during football season. During the first few seasons of college football, the entire environment was different. When the games were played there was nothing but fun competition, after the games, each team would meet for dinner and drinks, with one another. Something you would not see today.

American style football became popular with a slow crawl, starting with schools such as Columbia, Yale, and Harvard. In those days, for normal play and ‘fairness’ there were three officials, one for each team and a third for mediation.

As the years went on there were new additions, and subtractions to the rules of the game. They eventually added the goal post, which stood 10 feet high on each side for either team. As that was brought into the game, the amount of players, was minimized to fifteen on each team. No one is for sure what the number allowed to play was before this time.

The first few years that American football betting was introduced, there were no uniforms, no major rules, and it was basically a bunch of men running around, beating the heck out of each other with no real direction. As time went on, and the fan base slowly grew, there were more rules brought into play. The modern football we see today took literally decades to form. Now there are only 11 players on each time, compared to the 15 back in the 1870′s. It wasn’t until 1878 that officiates decided to create the All American teams, and then colleges caught on the this growing epidemic adding a $300 college football field for their new college representatives to play on. This of course was the beginning of a contagious era of football and competition.

When one looks back over the last few hundred years it is very interesting to see all of the changes we have made, and progress that has been a result of all of our hard work, and determination. A simple game of catch was turned into one of America’s greatest competitive sports, and part of American tradition. Today there are high school football camps, try-outs in the late summer, and college recruits coming to visit potential college stars. There is always that great rush to be the college recruit that brings in that hot new quarterback. Or to be the lucky girl who gets to go to prom with the quarterback. Football is a large part of the American dream. In some states they build their lives around the sport. Texas is considered one of those states.