CAMP, WALTER 1859-1925

Football Coach

Father of American Football

Walter Camp, who was associated with football at Yale University from 1876 to 1910, first as a player and then as a coach, is considered the "Father of American Football." He was the son of Leverett and Ellen Camp, and his father served as a schoolmaster in New Haven, Connecticut. After attending the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Camp enrolled at Yale University and graduated in 1880. He stayed on at Yale to study medicine for two years. In 1882 Camp started working for the Manhattan Watch Company and became president of the company in 1903. In 1888 he married Alice Graham Sumner, the sister of William Graham Sumner, an eminent Yale sociologist and outspoken proponent of social Darwinism.

Innovator

Camp played football at Yale from 1876 to 1882, the final two years as a medical student. In 1876 he played halfback in the first Harvard-Yale game. As the team captain for the next three years, Camp developed rule changes that cast the foundation of modern American football. One of his first innovations was to reduce the number of players on the field for each team from fifteen to eleven. In 1880 he proposed replacing the rugby scrum with the scrimmage. Whereas the scrum led to constant turnover of the ball from team to team, the scrimmage encouraged the undisputed possession of the ball by one team. The scrimmage brought order to the game and encouraged the development of rational strategy and team formations. The scrimmage, however, made it possible for one team to control the ball for the entire game, so in 1882 Camp proposed the downs system, in which the team was given three downs to advance the ball five yards (later four downs to move the ball ten yards) or relinquish possession of the ball. Under the downs system, lines marking five-yard increments were chalked across the playing field, thus producing the grid-iron effect upon the field. Camp also instituted the present point system for touchdowns (6), field goals (3), and safeties (2). As secretary of the intercollegiate football rules convention from 1877 to 1906, he influenced the development of college football nationwide.

Unofficial Coach

From the mid 1880s to about 1910, Camp served as an unofficial advisory coach to the Yale football team. Because he could not attend the team's daily practice sessions due to his work at the watch company, Camp analyzed its progress from detailed notes taken by his wife. In the evenings Camp would meet with the team captain and other key players, suggesting improvements and formulating game-winning strategy. His role as advisory coach provided continuity to the Yale football program. During Camp's association with the team, as a player and coach from 1876 to 1909, Yale established an astonishing record, losing only fourteen games. As graduate athletic adviser and paid treasurer of the Yale Financial Union, Camp contributed stability to the entire Yale athletic program.

Commercialization

A savvy businessman, Camp sold college athletics to a ready public. He applied his business acumen to college athletics in producing both victories and spectator interest. His most successful device in promoting college football to the public was the annual All-American Team, which he first instituted in 1889, personally selecting the outstanding players from colleges and universities nationwide. Camp also successfully promoted the game through his prolific publication. In addition to editing the annual Spalding's Official Intercollegiate Football Guide, he authored hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles.

Response to Brutality

Despite football's popularity, it was a violent and at times a deadly sport. In the 1890s Camp spearheaded an investigation of the brutality in college football, publishing his findings in Football Facts and Figures (1894). Camp maintained that regardless of its hazards, football was a benefit both physically and mentally to the men who played it. In 1894 the intercollegiate football rules committee, under Camp's direction, eliminated many of the dangerous mass plays, including the flying wedge, which resulted in injury and death. In 1905 the death toll in college football rose so dramatically that President Theodore Roosevelt convened a meeting of representatives from football's Big Three—Yale, Harvard, and Princeton—at the White House to devise a strategy to reform the game. Camp, as one of the representatives from Yale, took the lead at the conference and scripted a statement, acceptable to Roosevelt, which promised to "eliminate unnecessary roughness, holding, and foul play." Reluctant to reform football, the conservative Camp opposed the forward pass rule agreed upon by the Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee in 1906. With the growing power of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Camp soon lost the control over college football that he had enjoyed since the 1880s.

Withdrawal

After 1910 Camp withdrew from most aspects of Yale's athletic program. When the United States entered the First World War, he directed the U.S. Navy Training Camps Physical Development Program and created a popular "Daily Dozen" exercise program. Camp remained active on the football rules committee until 1925, when he died of a heart attack at the rules committee meeting that year. On 3 November 1928 the Walter Camp Memorial Gateway was dedicated at the Yale Bowl to the man who more than any single person developed American football.

Sources:

Richard Borkowski, "Life and Contributions of Walter Camp to American Football," dissertation, Temple University, 1979;

Harford Powel Jr., Walter Camp: The Father of American Football (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970).

Walter Camp (1859-1925)

Source

Football coach

Father of American Football. Walter Camp, who was associated with football at Yale University from 1876 to 1910, first as a player and then four years as an undergraduate and the final two as a medical student. As the team captain, from 1877 to 1880, Camp developed rule changes that cast the foundation of modern American football; among his innovations were the scrimmage and the downs system. He also served as secretary of the intercollegiate football rules convention from 1877 to 1906.

Unofficial Coach. Although Camp started working for the Manhattan Watch Company in New Haven, Connecticut, in i 1882, he served as Yale’s unofficial advisory coach until 1910. Since he could not attend the team’s daily practice sessions, he analyzed the team’s progress from detailed notes taken by his wife. In the evenings Camp met with the team captain and other key players, suggesting improvements and formulating game-winning strategy. During Camp’s association with the team, as a player and coach from 1876 to 1910, Yale established an astonishing record, losing only fourteen games. Camp vigorously promoted the commercialization of college football through the application of marketing techniques to boost spectator interest and promote the game to the public. His most successful device in generating broad spectator appeal was the selection of the All-American Team, which he first instituted in 1889. Camp developed a mass audience for college football by editing the annual Spalding’s Official Intercollegiate Football Guide and writing hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles.

Response to Brutality. In the 1890s Camp led a crusade to reform the brutal and, at times, deadly play of college football. In 1891 he spearheaded an investigation of the brutality in college football. In 1894 he published his findings in Football Facts and Figures, maintaining that despite the game’s hazards, football both physically and mentally benefited the men who had played it. The Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee in 1894, under Camp’s direction, eliminated many of the dangerous mass plays, including the flying wedge, which resulted in injury and death. Further reform of college football, which led to the organization of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1906, marked the decline of Camp’s influence over college football. He reluctantly withdrew from most aspects of Yale’s athletic program in 1910. Campdied of a heart attack at the rules committee meeting that year.

Source

Ronald A. Smith, Sports and Freedom: The Rise of Big-Time College Athletics (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

Walter Chauncey Camp 1859-1925, American athlete, football coach, administrator, b. New Britain, Conn. In his three years as captain at Yale Univ. in the 1880s, Camp shaped the rules that transformed rugby football into American football, including playing with 11 men, using a line of scrimmage, a system of downs, and the present point system. Until 1910 Camp continued at Yale as an unpaid advisory coach. Often called the father of American football, he was a prolific writer and promoter for the sport and from 1889 until 1925 selected its All-American teams. He wrote more than 30 books on football and physical fitness.