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What is a football made of?
  
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IN THE BEGINNING
The story of
football began sometime during
the 19th century in England when a soccer player, frustrated at using
only his feet to manipulate the ball, decided to simply pick it up and
run with it. Although it was clearly against the rules of soccer,
other players soon found the new way of playing soccer appealing and
thus, the sport of rugby was born.
The new sport soon became a
world-wide success that found
its way into America by the mid 1800s. Played by many
northeastern
colleges, it was not long before Harvard University and Yale University
met in Massachusetts in 1876 to formalize the rules to rugby that were
similar to those in England. There were differences however;
instead
of playing with a round ball, the schools opted for an egg-shaped and
the game’s name was changed from rugby to football. To finalize
the
meeting, an organization called the Intercollegiate Football
Association (IFA) was created to preside over the Americanized sport. |
