Editing College football (section)

====Princeton–Columbia–Yale–Rutgers====
{{main|1869 college football season}}
{{multiple image
|header = The first game
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|image1 = The first game rutgers targum nov 1869.jpg
|image2 = Birthplace of College football plaque (cropped).jpg
|footer = '''Left''': "The Foot-Ball Match", a news article on the first college football game ever played, published in ''[[The Daily Targum|The Targum]]'', the [[Rutgers University]] student newspaper, in November 1869. '''Right''': A plaque on College Avenue on the campus of Rutgers University in [[New Brunswick, New Jersey]] commemorating the location where the first college football game was played.
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On November 6, 1869, [[Rutgers Scarlet Knights football|Rutgers University]] faced [[Princeton Tigers football|Princeton University]], then known as the College of New Jersey, in [[1869 New Jersey vs. Rutgers football game|the first collegiate football game]]. The game more closely resembled soccer than [[American football|football]] as it is played in the 21st century. It was played with a [[ball (association football)|round ball]], and used a set of rules suggested by Rutgers captain [[William J. Leggett]], based on [[The Football Association]]'s [[laws of the Game (association football)|first set of rules]], which were an early attempt by the former pupils of England's public schools, to unify the rules of their various public schools.<ref name=PFRA1/><ref name=histfoot>{{cite web | title = The History of Football | work=The History of Sports | publisher=Saperecom | year = 2007 | url = http://www.historyoffootball.net/ | access-date =May 15, 2007}}</ref><ref name="NFL1869">{{cite web | title = NFL History3039–1910 | work = NFL.com | publisher = NFL Enterprises LLC | year = 2007 | url = http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1869-1910 | access-date = May 15, 2007 | archive-date = January 2, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080102045951/http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1869-1910 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=1800s |work=Rutgers Through The Years |publisher=Rutgers University |url=http://ruweb.rutgers.edu/timeline/1800.htm |access-date=May 16, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070120202924/http://ruweb.rutgers.edu/timeline/1800.htm |archive-date=January 20, 2007}}</ref> 

The game was played at a Rutgers Field in [[New Brunswick, New Jersey]]. Two teams of 25 players attempted to score by kicking the ball into the opposing team's goal. Throwing or carrying the ball was not allowed, but there was plenty of physical contact between players. The first team to reach six goals was declared the winner. Rutgers won by a score of six to four. A rematch was played at Princeton a week later under Princeton's own set of rules (one notable difference was the awarding of a "free kick" to any player that caught the ball on the fly, which was a feature adopted from The Football Association's rules; the [[fair catch kick]] rule has survived through to modern American game). Princeton won that game by a score of 8 – 0. [[Columbia University|Columbia]] joined the series in 1870 and by 1872 several schools were fielding intercollegiate teams, including Yale and [[Stevens Institute of Technology]].<ref name=PFRA1/>

[[Columbia University]] was the third school to field a team. The Lions traveled from New York City to New Brunswick on November 12, 1870, and were defeated by Rutgers 6 to 3. The game suffered from disorganization and the players kicked and battled each other as much as the ball. Later in 1870, Princeton and Rutgers played again with Princeton defeating Rutgers 6–0. This game's violence caused such an outcry that no games at all were played in 1871. Football came back in 1872, when Columbia played Yale for the first time. The Yale team was coached and captained by David Schley Schaff, who had learned to play football while attending [[Rugby School]]. Schaff himself was injured and unable to play the game, but Yale won the game 3–0 nonetheless. Later in 1872, Stevens Tech became the fifth school to field a team. Stevens lost to Columbia, but beat both New York University and City College of New York during the following year.

By 1873, the college students playing football had made significant efforts to standardize their fledgling game. Teams had been scaled down from 25 players to 20. The only way to score was still to bat or kick the ball through the opposing team's goal, and the game was played in two 45-minute halves on fields 140 yards long and 70 yards wide. On October 20, 1873, representatives from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to codify the first set of intercollegiate football rules. Before this meeting, each school had its own set of rules and games were usually played using the home team's own particular code. At this meeting, a list of rules, based more on the Football Association's rules than the rules of the recently founded [[Rugby Football Union]], was drawn up for intercollegiate football games.<ref name=PFRA1/>