History of soccer in America, The College Era, and Rules Consolidation, 1862-1875

Collegiate play resumed on a regular basis after the Civil War. Rules varied widely
among different schools and communities; Princeton played with 25 players, some
people even played a game with innings, with a victory going to the first team to score a
fixed number of goals (a la volleyball). In 1866, Beadle & Company of New York
published a set of rules for both Association Football (soccer) and the "Handling game"
(Rugby). The first intercollegiate game using rules resembling modern game was played
on November 7, 1869 in New Brunswick, NJ between Princeton and Rutgers (Rutgers
won 6-4). This game used the London Football Association's 1863 rules which called for,
among other things, 25 players, a field 110 meters x 70 meters, a 24 foot wide goal,
movement of the ball allowed with all parts of the body (including hands, ball could be
batted or held, but not carried or thrown). First team to score 6 points won.
Interestingly, this same game is also generally recognized as the first GRIDIRON
FOOTBALL game as well.

Soccer was also taken up at this time by Yale, Columbia and Cornell, and reintroduced
to Harvard in 1871 in a hybrid form known as the Boston Game, a version which also
allowed the throwing and carrying of the ball. At this time, football was still played by a
number of different and conflicting rules. In 1873, inspired by the English Football
Association's rules unification, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and Rutgers met in New York to
draw up a uniform set of rules based on the London 1863 rules. They established 20
players on a team, a field measuring 400 feet x 250 feet, 25-foot wide goal, 6 goals to
win, and a point scored by passing the goal past the goal posts. Carrying the ball was
prohibited. Shortly after the first game under these rules, a Yale victory over Princeton,
an English team, the Eton Players visited New Haven and played Yale, to whom they
lost 1-2, in the first Anglo-American international match. Yale was persuaded to adopt
the English custom of 11 players to a side, and subsequently argued for its universal
adoption, which was generally achieved by 1880.

Meanwhile, Harvard had become more interested in the Rugby style of play, and looked
for competition against similarly oriented teams. When they happened upon McGill
University of Montreal, who had also adopted those rules, the two teams played the
first intercollegiate rugby match in 1874. The second of these games was played with an
oval ball under English Rugby Association rules, and marks the evolution of soccer into
the modern gridiron game. A fateful event which would forever change the fortunes of
American soccer took place in 1875 when Yale Harvard and bridged the game gap to
play a match under special concessionary rules, which included both goals and tries
(later touchdowns), and a 15 man roster. Harvard won 4 goals to none and 4 tries to
none. Yale reassessed their position after this humiliation, and decided to adopt the
Rugby code. Princeton, (who had watched the game as observers) were impressed
enough to follow suit. In 1876, Harvard, Princeton and Columbia formed the
Intercollegiate Football Association using Rugby rules. Stevens, Wesleyan and Penn
soon followed, and the end of 1876 had signed the death knell signed for collegiate
soccer in the US.

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History of soccer in America
The College Era, and Rules Consolidation, 1862-1875

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