Offensive Line Gets its Start

The introduction of the scrimmage line as stated in the book, The History of American Football, Its Great Teams, Players, and Coaches (Danzig, 1956), established the principle of possession of the ball, a tremendously important principle that, more than anything else, differentiates rugby from American football. When in 1880, a new rule is formed stating at least eleven players on a side and a scrimmage line established; the latter change eliminated the rugby scrum and aligned the teams on either side of the ball.



Parke Davis wrote of the significance of this change in the 1926 Football Guide. He said, "The most important incident in the evolution of the game in the late eighteen seventies was the introduction of the modem scrimmage in the place of the rugby 'scrum'"(p. 15). The tacticians of the period perceived the vast improvement which could be obtained if a method were established of putting the ball in play that it would give to one side its undisturbed possession and thereby permit a strategic and tactical possession and thereby permit a strategic and tactical preparation to advance it (Davis 1926).



In 1883, four current methods of scoring were written into the rules book, touchdown, point after, field goal and safety.



John Heisman, famous coach and one of the inventive minds of football wrote in 1932 in the Yale Princeton football program, "Camp's scrimmage plan gave the ball into possession of the center and he alone could put it into play with a snap-back. This control of the ball made it possible for the offensive team to plan plays in advance, and the use of signals by the quarterback made for better team play". (Davis, 1926)



In 1888 the rules committee established two rules categories which governed how players could block and advance the football: (1) helping runner and using body; and (2) use of hands and arms. These two categories as found in the N.C.A.A. handbook have remained unchanged since 1888 to the present day. In 1888, the rules stated that blocking with extended arms prohibited and holding on offense constitutes loss of ball to opponent.



Pop Warner has been given credit by some for being the first to use linemen for interference. He is definitely credited, however, for introducing the Indian block, rather than the shoulder block in 1890. In his letter he said, "if you look at snapshots of football teams of the old days you will note that almost all players are on their feet." That was because in the early days blockers used only their shoulders, seldom leaving their feet. Pop Warner figured that the use of the full length of the body provided a greater blocking surface than just the width of the shoulders, and also made it less likely for a blocker to violate the rules by using the arms and hands, and also made it harder for the defensive man to avoid the block (Danzig, 1956).



The Encyclopedia of Sports (1978) referred to the line blocking of the early days as "Line Charging". Very little scientific thought had been put into that department of play before the dawn of the present century. Nearly all linemen, as a rule, lined up squarely against those who played the same positions on the opposing team. They didn't crouch or squat or play low. They mostly stood bolt upright and fought it out with each other hammer and tongs, tooth and nail, fist and feet. The fact is, you didn't stand much chance of making the line those days unless you were a good wrestler and fair boxer.



Certain ingenious plays featured in early day sport were quite as startling and unique as is the forward pass of today. First was the flying wedge, invented in 1892 and brought out by Harvard. Almost every team in the country promptly copied the play. In the flying wedge, however, nine of the players of the team withdrew about 20 yards from mid field and at a signal these nine, in two lanes, started simultaneously and at full speed, converging on a point indicated by the ball. By the time they arrived at the ball, they had worked up a stupendous mass momentum, and the interference they gave for the runner was something wonderful to behold, and terrible to stop.