How Football Became Football: 150 Years of the Game's Evolution

I enjoyed learning the details of how the game of football evolved from a basic mash-up of rugby and soccer to the sophisticated and action-packed game that it is today. For example, the concept of the scrimmage line established the sport as one that stopped and started, whereas the "scrummage" style in the early days was more of a free-flowing game that did not have set starts and stops. The arcane rules of punting then are vastly different than today's punting skills. Punting was valuable then and is now, but it was valuable then in far different ways than it is today.Scoring has changed a lot, from when field goals were more important than touchdowns, to the opposite today. And even the concept of substitutions and coaching were light-years different then compared to today's game.This book certainly required an immense amount of research, and it shows with the written details and even many vintage photos to show the actual usage of those details in action. The book primarily focuses on the college game, but begins to weave in the NFL as it started up in the 1920s. You will learn many things about today's game from how it evolved from its origins, where otherwise, you would not be able to connect the dots. It's a fun read and well worth your time if you like football.

I'd read and thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Brown's previous book about early Rose Bowls and the service teams that played in them. But this book is a comprehensive history of the college game (with occasional references to the later arriving professional game). Although super detailed, it is a great pleasure and resource for anyone who wonders almost anything about college football.I can give a personal example: he describes what you reading this review call the "hash marks" (the one yard marks between the five yard lines across the field) and when they were introduced. But my father, John Lockney, actually invented them and Mr. Brown accurately describes their origin in my home town, Waukesha, Wisconsin, and even better, correctly calls them the "Lockney lines."In addition to the great detail and clear organization, there are also moments of levity, as when Mr. Brown, himself a former college lineman, describes the offensive line as the most intelligent position group. He slips such delights in at regular intervals to provide levity along with the detail. If you love college football, or have any questions about its history, you have to read this book.

This book is well written for the football history buff. It shares many of the revisions of the game of football and shares how they affected multiple areas of the game from the perspective of the fan, the player, the coaches and the officials

Used for Christmas gift for my 11 year old great nephew. He loved it!

Fantastic explanations for how football evolved from rugby.

How Football Became Football reminded me of a series of lectures by a knowledgeable and interesting professor. This book is logically organized, extremely thorough, and peppered with enough humor to stop it from being a dry recitation of dates and details.I appreciated the author’s observation that there was nothing inevitable about the football we enjoy today. Rules, customs, traditions, vocabulary, and even the blue blood programs all had to originate somewhere. Discussions of how changes occurred—some top-driven by power brokers, others developed at the grassroots level by participants pushing or simply ignoring the rules in place—and why those systems won out over other paths is fascinating.And although the game itself has gone through many developments through the years (Brown is fond of reminding the reader that only four of the original rules remain), so much of what surrounds it has not changed. From the start, there were fights over recruiting and eligibility. Regional differences in styles of play led to intense partisanship. The big boys arranged for rules that benefited them and hurt smaller schools or less traditional powers. Controversies over scheduling, bowls, and the deservingness of champions reigned. (Sound familiar?)Yes, football had to *become* football: the modern game on the field bears little resemblance to that fateful contest between Princeton and Rutgers. But the foundations of so much else of what attracts us and infuriates us about college football has been there from the start. I’m grateful to Brown for his comprehensive research, subtly clever writing, and obvious passion (showcased both here and at his blog Fields of Friendly Strife), and I recommend his book to all who want to learn more about this unique sport.

A must read for fans of the game, that entertained and armed me to win dozens of bar bets.Tim Brown brings a passion to the work, that comes through in his clear (and often times witty) explanations, relying on well-researched facts without succumbing to opinion or conjecture. The result is page-after-page of insights and learnings that will make even the most knowledgeable fan or historian smarter.But far from a droll lecture, the tone, coupled with the intuitive structure, make it easy for the reader to engage and connect the dots.From small insights--like the surprise that the first legal forward pass was thrown by Saint Louis University--to big ones--like LSU's refusal to play a game outside of the south region until 1971, How Football Became Football delivers from one chapter to the next.If there is a criticism, it is that the "news" in the later chapters is less significant than that in the early chapters, which focus on the games earliest days. But that is more a function of the history itself, rather than the author's treatment of it. In short: there is just more fresh stuff to learn about those early years than more modern times.All sports have their origin story and their significant history. But this sport, so quintessentially American, lends itself particularly well to a story of this nature. Thanks to Brown for doing the heavy lifting and bringing it to us.