Are you ready for some Football!?!

[Ken]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

Oddly enough I was searching camp scenes on LOC a while back and happened to magnify this one image when I noticed the soldier in a kicking position. I couldn't figure out what it was all about. When I magnified it I thought to myself, geez these guys a playing some type of football. When I saw this post, I figured the picture was just right!

[paulcalloway]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

I'm wondering if the ghosted image directly behind the kicker and the man immediately to the kicker's left might be the same man.

[hendrickms24]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

I'm wondering if the ghosted image directly behind the kicker and the man immediately to the kicker's left might be the same man.

It looks to be the same person to me. Once you compare the two ghost images heads that is. The soldier wearing just his shirt is a little hefty.

[toptimlrd]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

I'm wondering if the ghosted image directly behind the kicker and the man immediately to the kicker's left might be the same man.

Paul, the one directly behind doesn't seem to have brass on his hat as the kicker does.

[Pvt_Jack_Bauer]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

Ken, great picture!!!! Exactly what I was looking for. At least some type of evidence. Great picture of the ball and of the action. Thank you to all for the input!

[paulcalloway]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

Paul, the one directly behind doesn't seem to have brass on his hat as the kicker does.

I'm not suggesting the ghosted image and the kicker are the same person - I'm suggesting the ghosted image and the man to the kicker's immediate LEFT are the same person.

[toptimlrd]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

I'm not suggesting the ghosted image and the kicker are the same person - I'm suggesting the ghosted image and the man to the kicker's immediate LEFT are the same person.

Sorry, I misread your post. My mistake, I stand corrected. Great image though.

[ArtilleryNick]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

Beautiful - fellar on left is getting ready to boot that thing into the next county.

Naturally he's going to give it a rather lengthy kick. He should be well experienced in launching projectiles judging by the brass on his hat :D

[vbetts]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

There's also a Beadle's dime book of cricket and football
be[ing] a complete guide to players and containing all the rules and laws of the ground and games, published in 1866. I think I posted the rules out of this book "before the crash" and it may still be in a file at the house. If there is interest I can repost it if I can find it.

Vicki Betts

[clairemorris]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

Hi Vicki

That would be great if you could re-post it. Thanks.

Claire Morris
69th New York (UK)

[vbetts]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

Beadle’s Dime Book of Cricket and Foot-Ball, Being a Complete Guide to Players, and Containing All the Rules and Laws of the Ground and Games. Edited by Henry Chadwick. New York: Beadle and Company, Publishers, 1866.

Football.

Simply stated, Football is a game in which a number of players, divided into sides, or parties, endeavor to kick a large ball from one part of a field to another, the side which succeeds in kicking it beyond a certain boundary, at either end of the field, winning the match. Let us endeavor to describe football in such a way as to enable lads on cricket-fields and village greens to play with pleasure and profit.

First, as to the ground. Any meadow or open space will do to play the game in. Nothing is so well adapted, indeed, as a cricket-field when there is no match going forward. In this field the players meet and divide themselves into two parties, each one choosing a captain or leader, whose business it is to direct the sport.

[diagram of field resembling a soccer field]

The next thing is to set up two goals, about eighty or a hundred yards apart. The goals may be made with sticks or posts; and through one of these goals the ball must be fairly kicked in order to win the game. A diagram, (see page 41) will assist the reader to understand the form of the ground laid out for football.

The lines, a, b, are the goal lines, and those on each side, c, d, at right angles with them, are the touch lines; while the centre dotted line is marked on either side (s. p.) by side-posts. A flag, or other distinguishing mark, is placed at each corner, and when the ball is kicked behind the outer lines it is said to be in touch, and a player is permitted to bring it back into the ground with his hands. In order to understand what follows, it will be well that the reader should acquaint himself with the following.

Technical Terms used in Football.

Free kick.—The privilege of kicking the ball in such a manner as the kicker may think fit.

Place kick.—A kick at the ball while it is on the ground, in any position in which the kicker may choose to place it.

Fair catch is when the ball is caught after it has touched the person of an adversary, or has been kicked, knocked in, or thrown by an adversary, and before it has touched the ground or one of the side catching it; but if the ball be kicked from out of touch, or from behind goal-line, a fair catch can not be made.

Hacking is kicking an adversary on the front of the leg, below the knee.

Tripping is throwing an adversary by the use of the legs, and without hacking or charging.

Charging is attacking an adversary with the shoulders, chest or body, without employing the hands or legs.

Knocking-in is when a player strikes or propels the ball with his hands, arms or body without kicking or throwing it.

Holding includes the obstruction of a player by the hands arms, or body without kicking or throwing it.

Touch is that part of the field, on either side of the ground, which is beyond the marking flags or boundaries.

Drop-kick is a ball dropped to the ground and kicked at the rise.

The game is commenced by one of the players brining the ball to the middle of the ground; he drops it to the ground and immediately kicks it away toward the enemy’s bounds. He and all the players on his side follow it, while those on the other side endeavor by every fair means to kick it back again. There should always be a safe player stationed just inside the goal, to kick back the ball when it comes near him, while the inferior players remain near the touch lines, to return the ball into play whenever it leaves the ground. A player should also stand at each side-post for the same purpose. Sometimes the players advance in a compact body, shoulder to shoulder, so that it is nearly impossible for the ball to pass beyond them; or occasionally both sides form into a ring and tussel and scramble for the ball till one contrives to kick it away to a distance; and so hotly is the contest pursued, that often a goal is not won during two hours’ play.

But as soon as a goal is won, the players change sides, and the game recommences as before. As now played, charging is allowed, but tripping and hacking are forbidden. The following are the

Laws of the Game.

1. The maximum length of the ground shall be two hundred yards, the maximum breadth one hundred yards; the length and the breadth to be marked off with flags.
2. The goals are to be defined by two posts, eight yards apart, without any tape or bar across them.
3. The winner of the toss shall have the choice of goals, when the game shall be commenced by a place kick, from the center of the ground, by the side losing the toss; the other side not to approach within ten yards of the ball until it is kicked off.
4. After a goal is won, the goals shall be changed, and the loser of the previous goal shall kick off.
5. A goal is won when the ball passes between the goal-posts or over the space between the goal-posts (at whatever hight), the ball not to be thrown, knocked in, or carried.
6. When the ball is in touch, the first player who touches it shall throw it from the point on the boundary-line where it left the ground, in a direction at right angles with the boundary line; and it shall not be in play until it has touched the ground.
7. When a player has kicked the ball, any other player, on the same side, who is nearer to the opponent’s goal-line, is out of play, and may not touch the ball, nor in any way prevent any other player from doing so, until the ball has been played by one of the other side; but no player is out of play when the ball is kicked off from behind the goal-line.
8. In case the ball goes behind the goal-line, if a player on the side to which the goal belongs just touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick from the goal-line at the point opposite the place where the ball shall be touched. If a player of the opposite side just touch the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick, at the goal only, from a point fifteen yards from the goal-line opposite the place where the ball is touched, the opposing side to stand behind the goal-line until he has had his kick.
9. If a player make a fair catch, he shall be entitled to a free kick, provided he claim it by making a mark with his heel; and in order to take such a kick, he may go as far back as he pleases, and no player on the opposite side shall advance behind his mark until he has kicked.
10. No player shall carry the ball.
11. Neither tripping nor hacking is allowed, and no player may use his hands to hold or push his adversary.
12. No player shall throw the ball, or pass it to another with his hands, or otherwise than by a kick.
13. No player shall take the ball from the ground with his hands, while it is in play, under any pretense whatever.
14. No player is to wear projecting nails, iron plates, or gutta-percha soles or heels, to his boots or shoes.

With regard to the ball, opinions are divided between the claims of the bladder confined in a leather bag, and the strong india-rubber sphere sold in the shops; we incline to the latter. The ball should not be too large nor too light; as in windy weather too large a ball is a nuisance, and the kick can not be fairly and effectually made.

Written instructions can do no more than give readers general information as to a game like football. More will be learned in an hour’s play than can be acquired from a week’s teaching on paper. Therefore we hope that our friends—whom we number by tens of thousands among the boys of America—will profit by our advice and the hints here thrown out, and speedily organize football matches in the fields about the neighborhood of their homes; for the game is a thoroughly good and health-giving one, played anywhere.

[There are also rules for “The Rugby Game.”]

Vicki Betts

[Pvt_Jack_Bauer]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

Thank you very much for those rules. Now I am just looking for a sample of a ball or either a sutler that would like to create a ball for me. I wonder if LD Haning or a leather maker would be up to the task?

[5thMIkeydet]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

It looks to be the same person to me. Once you compare the two ghost images heads that is. The soldier wearing just his shirt is a little hefty.

Hmmm... Early Lineman?
I would be interested in finding the rugby rules, or atleast some more physical versions. I bet the boy's would have gotten pretty aggressive pretty fast. They probly put a lot of emphasis on the physical side of it.
Also it sounds like you could probly set up your own variation of the rules and have a pretty authentic game.

[vbetts]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

Beadle’s Dime Book of Cricket and Foot-Ball, Being a Complete Guide to Players, and Containing All the Rules and Laws of the Ground and Games. Edited by Henry Chadwick. New York: Beadle and Company, Publishers, 1866.

The Rugby Game.

The system in use at Rugby has been adopted by Marlborough, Cheltenham, and other schools and English colleges. Matches at Rugby are played at that part of the close known as the Old Bigside, where seventy or eighty of the students will engage in a game for the regulation of which there are forty rules. The ground, which is marked out by the removal of a narrow strip of turf on all four sides, is about a hundred and thirty yards long by seventy yards broad, and at either end goal-posts eighteen feet high, fourteen feet apart, and with a cross-bar at about ten feet from the ground, are erected. The object of the game is to kick the ball over the bar between the posts. The use of this cross-bar is one of the distinctive features of the Rugby game, and goals are proverbially difficult to obtain there. One of their rules is framed to meet this, by declaring a match which lasts three days without a goal being kicked by either side, to be "drawn." The players on each side in a match wear different-colored jerseys, so that it can readily bee seen when a player is off his side. The rules relating to off-side are the most difficult of all.

Each school has its one peculiar rule, the object being to prevent a player loitering in his opponent's goal until the ball is kicked up to him by one of his side, or, if he is by the chances of the game placed nearer to the goal of the opponent than the ball, to disqualify him till he has been behind it.

The course of a match at Rugby is this: the two captains toss for choice of goals, the winner of course choosing the one which will give him the favor of the wind. As a compensation for this, the other side has the kick off from the center of the ground. Captains have different methods of disposing their forces in the field, but the custom is, to place three or four fast runners some thirty yards in the rear, ready to take up the ball when it breaks through the rows of forwards, and is not stopped by the half-backs. The half-backs play just beyond the mass skirting the scrummages, ready to take up the ball when it gets free. The ball having been kicked off, the opposite players are allowed to catch or take it up from a rebound. This feature is not allowed by any school but Rugby. Having caught up the ball, the object is to run with it beyond the line of the opponent's goal, and there touch it down. This is, however, a very difficult feat, and on its being attempted, the player may be hacked, that is, kicked on the legs, mauled, or pulled over, until he cries: "Have it down!" and lets the ball fall.

This cry of "have it down" is made with reluctance, and the players will struggle hard to get free and keep the ball. It is, however, well-nigh impossible to do so, as, upon his first attempt to run with it, the opposing players rush upon him, and if one succeeds in holding him, the others come up, and a scrummage ensues, in which all but the back-players take part--he who holds the ball being in the center, and the other players, frequently to the number of sixty, wedged around in a compact mass. Rugby players, who alone recognize hacking as a legitimate feature in the game, justify it by saying that it is necessary, and that without hard, vigorous kicks, the ball would never emerge from the middle of some seventy pair of legs wedged together in a Rugby scrummage. Players are said by a present Rugbian "soon to learn to give and bear the kicks they get."

The ball is seldom on the ground for any length of time at Rugby; one side or the other having it generally in their arms and struggling for its possession. When it is kicked out at the side-lines, the player who first touches it has to bring it to the edge, where the two sides spread out, facing each other to catch it, and as soon as caught, there is another scrummage. Play seems to be directed too little to the goals. When the ball is driven near to one, the defenders' rear-men take it up and kick it out at the side-bounds into touch (the ground without the boundary-lines); then it is brought to the edge; thrown in again, and attempted to be run with. These features of the game are of constant recurrence, till at last the ball gets kicked over the cross-bar--an undisputed goal, or driven beyond the lines and touched down, when one of the players is commissioned to bring it into the ground for a try at goal.

The course of proceeding, after the ball has been touched down beyond the goal-line is very amusing and ingenious. It is carried up to the line, and the player who brings it, kicks it gently up for one of his own side to catch. The instant he has caught it, the other side may set upon him and wrest it from him if they can before he makes his mark--that is, kick a hole in the ground with his heel. If he succeeds in doing this while still holding the ball, all his adversaries must go beyond the mark and stay there until the ball has been placed on the ground again. If the ball is taken from him before his mark is made, the try at goal is lost. In the former case, however, a player is ordered to carry it to a convenient distance from the goal for a kick.

The best place-kicker is appointed by the captain to make the try. The adversaries are watched carefully to prevent their advancing beyond the mark. The player who is to take the kick, makes a little hole with his heel, into which the other is to place the ball. It is held by the leather lace. It must not be touched by two hands, and if any but the one player ordered to take it out touch it, the other side may immediately maul and charge. The moment the ball touches the ground, it is kicked, and the other players rush forward. If it goes over the bar (it must not be over either of the posts, and it will not count if it is touched by any player), the game is won, and the two sides change goals, and begin again. A game is decided by the best of three games, and the time of play is usually something over an hour.

It will be readily conceived this game is one requiring great agility, skill, and courage.

The Eton Game.

Eton football is very different from that of Rugby. They do not allow the ball to be caught or carried, nor one player to be held, struck, or pushed by another. They have no cross-bar, and in their matches only eleven players are allowed to each side. Their game is at the head of what is called the close system.

They commence a game with a bully in the middle of the field. One layer on each side, chosen for his skill and speed in running, is placed at the goals to guard them. Two others act as cornerers, to keep the ball in the bullies. The other eight form themselves into a compact wall, two deep, standing shoulder to shoulder, with heads bent down and hands on knees, each side facing the opponent's goal. The ball is placed between these two lines at their toes by one of the cornerers. Then they push and struggle, each side trying to bear the other down, and drive the ball through the ranks. With sides of equal strength, these struggles are often protracted. When the bully is broken up, all is fair kicking at the ball, but every player must keep on his right side, and must avoid sneaking--that is, kicking the ball along with less than three of his opponents before him. A goal so sneaked does not count. A goal is counted where the ball passes between two poles eleven feet wide. Whenever a ball is kicked out at the side-lines, it is brought straight in, and a bully is formed on the spot. When it passes the goal line, there is a race to touch it. If one of the side to whom the goal belongs first touches it, it is carried to the edge and kicked off into the middle of the ground again; but if an opponent touches it first, the grand feature of the Eton game ensues; the ball is placed one yard in front of the center of the place marked out by the goal-sticks of the side where the ball was touched. The players close up, each side forming a semicircle, with their strongest men in front. They meet each other, the ball being in the center of these, and then push, kick, and struggle, till the weaker side gives way and goes down, the other side falling on the top of them, and the ball being some where beneath. In this position they carry on the battle, and continue to writhe and struggle, trying on the one side to creep through the goal and drag the ball with them, on the other to drive it away. These struggles cometimes continue for ten minutes. Players get exhausted, and creep out; wipe the beads of perspiration from their faces; and plunge down again with renewed vigor, till at last the ball is dragged through the goal or got away, when every body gets up and declares it very jolly.

Vicki Betts

[5thMIkeydet]

Re: Are you ready for some Football!?!

Thank you very much.