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The intriguing, never-before-fully-told story of how Theodore Roosevelt helped tosave the game that would become America’s most popular sport.
In its infancy during the late nineteenth century,the game of football was still a work in progress thatonly remotely resembled the sport millions followtoday. There was no common agreement about many ofthe game’s basic rules, and it was incredibly violent andextremely dangerous. An American version of rugby, thisnew game grew popular even as the number of casualtiesrose. Numerous young men were badly injured and dozensdied playing football in highly publicized incidents, oftenat America’s top prep schools and colleges.
Objecting to the sport’s brutality, a movement ofproto-Progressives led by Harvard University presidentCharles W. Eliot tried to abolish the game. PresidentTheodore Roosevelt, a vocal advocate of “the strenuouslife” and a proponent of risk, acknowledged football’sdangers but admired its potential for building character.A longtime fan of the game who purposely recruited menwith college football experience for his Rough Riders,Roosevelt fought to preserve the game’s manly essence,even as he understood the need for reform.
In 1905, he summoned the coaches of Harvard, Yale,and Princeton to the White House and urged them to act.The result was the establishment of the National CollegiateAthletic Association, as well as a series of rule changes—including the advent of the forward pass—that ultimatelysaved football and transformed it into the quintessentialAmerican game. The Big Scrum reveals for the first timethe fascinating details of this little-known story of sportshistory.
The unlikely—and perhaps slightly overblown—tale of how Teddy Roosevelt flexed presidential muscle to save the fledgling game of football.
The story of football's rise from a haphazardly organized game dominated by Yale and Harvard to America's favorite sport is a fascinating one, requiring the contributions of many men—not the least of whom, writes National Review correspondent Miller (The First Assassin, 2010, etc.), was President Roosevelt. An advocate of the "strenuous life" that helped him overcome childhood asthma, the president admired those who sacrificed their bodies on the playing field and felt it was the job of America's universities to spend as much time molding young men's bodies as they did minds. Football's popularity grew in lockstep with Roosevelt's political success, though the game became increasingly controversial, the result of a style of play that led to numerous deaths and countless debilitating injuries. Trailblazing Harvard president Charles Eliot, himself a firm believer in exercise, crusaded against football as a dangerous endeavor that encouraged deception and cruelty, making him the perfect foil for Harvard grad Roosevelt. Even as Eliot led efforts to ban football, Roosevelt called the game's most influential coaches—including legendary Yale coach Walter Camp—to a White House summit to discuss the state of the game. Though the tangible results of that meeting—a joint statement by the coaches in which they promised to be more vigilant in upholding the rules of fair play—were minimal, the author contends that the meeting had a profound impact on the game's development and set Roosevelt up as a behind-the-scenes influencer who ensured the game's survival long enough for new rules (including the forward pass) to make it safer. It's a worthy addendum to the story of football's rise, even though the case for Roosevelt as a cornerstone of its development feels overstated.
A good yarn, but might have made a better chapter than a full-length monograph.
Introduction: America's Game ix
Chapter 1 The Killing Fields 1
Chapter 2 Creation Stories 19
Chapter 3 Game Time 47
Chapter 4 Camp Days 65
Chapter 5 The Capacity to Inflict Pain 91
Chapter 6 The Virile Virtues 111
Chapter 7 Let Them Be Men First 135
Chapter 8 Rough Riding. 155
Chapter 9 Football Is a Fight 175
Chapter 10 The Air War 205
Appendix 223
Acknowledgments 225
Notes 227
Index 247
Anonymous
Posted June 22, 2012
Many paragraphs of this text are spent on TR's hunting and health and other tangential issues. Little is spent on TR and football because there is little to say. TR did some crucial bully pulpit work in 1905 to push reforms. That's about it. 70% background of TR, 30% about football, which never had a big scrum.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Jay_Andrew
Posted January 27, 2012
This was a great book in terms of the history of football and the history of Teddy Roosevelt. However, I'm not sure it really ever got to the point where it brought Teddy Roosevelt and football together. It almost read like two seperate stories, and I am not sure if the point ever got made as to how TR saved football. All in all though it was insightful, well researched and very interesting in terms of the founding of the game with the rules as we know them today.
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Posted October 19, 2011
A very good book about the beggining of college football, with some information on Roosevelt's life. It gives basically a walk through the events of the Industrial Revolution that were important to the start of College Football and the life of Theodore Roosevelt. It also introduces you to other men that aren't as well known as Roosevelt.
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Posted July 8, 2011
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Posted August 23, 2011
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Posted February 3, 2012
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Posted July 10, 2011
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Overview
The intriguing, never-before-fully-told story of how Theodore Roosevelt helped tosave the game that would become America’s most popular sport.
In its infancy during the late nineteenth century,the game of football was still a work in progress thatonly remotely resembled the sport millions followtoday. There was no common agreement about many ofthe game’s basic rules, and it was incredibly violent andextremely dangerous. An American version of rugby, thisnew game grew popular ...