What no one anticipated was that collegiate rugby would exist for only a brief five-years. It proved popular with players and students. It encouraged school spirit. It created athletic rivalries. Yet, despite these many positive features, it failed to weather the persistent challenge of a single IFA rules committee member from Yale whose missionary fervor for change would abandon rugby in order to launch a dynamic new sport: Walter Camp and gridiron football.

The Five-Year Rugby Reception 

Harvard in 1876 promoted the idea that rugby become the official autumn sport, replacing association football. The Intercollegiate Football Association's (IFA) charter members (Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Stevens) agreed, joined that season by Rutgers, CCNY, and Penn. 

Over the next four-years, Yale would dominate rugby against all competition, triumphing with 14 wins, 1 loss, and 5 drawn games. The team held opponents scoreless in twelve matches.  Other eastern colleges started to play rugby, including, Tufts, Trinity, Brown, Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Amherst, and MIT. Michigan traveled to play Yale in 1881, when a total of 22 colleges played the sport. 

Yale vs. Princeton, The Rivalry

. Only Princeton had proved a creditable competitor against the dominant Elis. The Tigers scored the sole victory against Yale, and also recorded three hard fought ties. Scheduling their  football contest at the end of each season, set up a one game finale for the championship of the Intercollegiate Football Association. Whoever won this match would reign for a year as the nation's unofficial football champion.

The eastern press publicized the story of Yale-Princeton rivalry for the college title. In 1884, both squads were undefeated at 8-0. The venue was held in the first iteration of Polo Grounds stadiums, located in Central Park, Manhattan, between 110th and 112th Street, and Fifth and Sixth Avenues. (The third, and final, Polo Grounds stadium was home to baseball’s New York Giants in Upper Manhattan.) 

The contest drew an extraordinary 10,000 plus people, each paying fifty-cents admission. The game day featured a parade of elegant horse carriages driving from the hotels along Park Avenue near Grand Central Terminal. These transported Yale and Princeton students and alumni to the stadium. The stands featured colorful pom-poms of orange and black for the Tigers and blue and white for the Elis. No prior collegiate sports event in America had created such excitement. The result: another tie. Both teams would share the rugby title.

Walter Camp, The Revolutionary

What Walter Camp accomplished starting in 1880 was the total overhaul of rugby, and the formation of a new contact sport. He played rugby for six-years at Yale, starting in the first match of 1876. He acted as the school's chief representative to the IFA Rules Committee that met each year in Springfield, Massachusetts. (He served 48-years as a member.)

Camp was zealous in his efforts to recommend changes that would overhaul many aspects of the rugby game. Foremost was the reduction of players to a workable eleven. Importantly, he was convinced that a game of football could be perfected with a demarcated offense and defense with players in defined positions. His changes follow:

• The Hike: Initiated a snap-back from center to quarterback.
• Line of Scrimmage: Replaced the scrum with a line of scrimmage.
• Offense: Advance five yards in three "downs" to keep possession or give up the ball. 
• Team Size: Players decreased from 15 to 11 players. 
• Positions: Instituted the seven-man line (center, guards, tackles, and ends) and a four-man backfield (quarterback, two halfbacks, and a fullback).
• Field Markings: Added the gridiron arrangement to mark attaining a first down.
• Safety: Included this new point count occurrence.

Once the IFA members acquiesced to Camp's changes, all other colleges followed, eager to play the new American conceived football version. But it would no longer be identified as rugby. The marking of the field into multiple five-yard lines resembled the underside of a metal grid for broiling food or a gridiron. Accordingly, the nascent sport adopted the descriptive name: Gridiron Football.