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

by Timothy P. Brown, Mary Jewel Brown (Illustrator)

How Football Became Football traces football's evolution from a version of rugby played before a handful of friends to a spectacle played in packed stadiums before television audiences of 100 million or more. Organized by era, How Football Became Football shows how football’s rules, tactics, and equipment shifted over time, as did its coaching, officiating, and fan behavior. Richly illustrated and written in a fun, engaging manner, readers learn why maul-ins, puntouts and quarterback kicks disappeared from the game, as well as how helmets, end zones, hash marks, and penalty flags became part of football. Walter Camp, Paul Brown, and Sid Gillman receive their due, while revealing the roles played by Frank Birch, John Lockney, and other lesser-known men who impacted the game. How Football Became Football provides a thoroughly researched and humorous look at how football became the game we know and love today.

Genres: Football, Sports, History

438 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 21, 2020

About the author

Timothy P. Brown is the author of Hut! Hut! Hike!, How Football Became Football, and Fields of Friendly Strife. Tim combines years of research experience and the insight of a former college football coach to illuminate football’s past and its relevance to the modern game.

Empty nesters, Tim and his wife, Carolyn, live in southeast Michigan.

Reviews

[Joe Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book for the average fan. It is more academic and covers the evolution of equipment, fields, refs, coaching, conferences and television as much or more than the evolution of the game of football players and strategy. That said if you want a good look at the evolution of the game that includes all these thongs, I suspect this is the best book you will find on the subject.

[Ben Schilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read but a reader really has to have love for the game of football to get through it. It’s not really written as a story per sé, but is a chronology of the game similar in flow and sectioning to how you might find a high school history textbook. Some of the facts in the life and times of the early game are absolutely fascinating, and some sections are a bit dull. The book would do better to have dove into (any number of the many) controversies, but was pretty benign in its telling of the history and evolution of the game. Probably 3.5 stars, but we’ll round up here.

[Chris McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was not what I expected. Instead of a narrative history of football, it almost read like a football history textbook, breaking down both on and off field developments in the history of the game from its inception in 1869. It was extremely interesting, especially reading about the early rules before the rules really resembled the modern game. Old time football was a strange game; it's hard to imagine it getting so popular based on the early versions of it. This is a great read for any football fan.

[Drake McCrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for something else when I stumbled across this book. I would say it is a true hidden gem with a wonderful mix of a systematic approach, fun facts, and personal stories.