The Big Scrum

The most popular sport in America, football is a central part of the nation’s identity. Millions of youngsters play in youth leagues and high schools, millions of adults fill the stadiums to watch college and professional games, and millions more watch from the comfort of home. Football games are “more than athletic competitions,” contends author John J. Miller. “They are cultural rituals of deep significance. They not only unite a diverse campus of engineering students and English majors, but they also create a community of fans across a region and beyond.”

The sport has earned a permanent place in the lives of countless Americans. Yet there was a time when football was in danger of being banned. Objecting to football’s violence, a collection of Progressive Era prohibitionists tried to do away with the sport while it was still in its infancy. Had Theodore Roosevelt not intervened, Super Bowl Sunday would not exist today. The Big Scrum reveals the intriguing details of this fascinating story. National Review correspondent and author of The First Assassin, Miller chronicles the little-known skirmish that took place far from the 40-yard line.

In the late 19th century, football was still a work in progress that only remotely resembled the sport we know today. There was no common agreement about many of the game's basic rules. It was also extremely violent and exceedingly dangerous. An Americanized version of rugby, this new game's popularity grew even as the number of casualties rose. Numerous young men were badly injured and dozens died playing it. The sport claimed the lives of some of the best and brightest of America’s prep schools and colleges. The highly publicized fatalities sparked a movement to abolish the sport, led by Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot and the editors of The Nation.

President Roosevelt, a vocal advocate of the strenuous life and a proponent of risk, acknowledged football's dangers but admired its potential for building character. A longtime fan of the game, he had purposely recruited men with college-football experience for his Rough Riders. Roosevelt was determined to preserve the game's forceful 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 work on reforming the game.

The end result was the formation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. A series of rule changes were made, including the advent of the forward pass, which ultimately saved football and transformed it into the quintessential American game. Entertaining and enlightening, The Big Scrum reveals how football evolved into one of the country’s greatest pastimes.