a short history of the birth of football (1936)
Copied in its entirety from the Luton Town vs Walsall programme, 7th September 1936.
By whom, and when, football, or soccer as we now call it,
was first played has never been definitely decided by historians. It is one of
the many games that grew out of a ball; a ball that people found enjoyment and
pleasure in either kicking or passing from hand to hand. If, however, football
historians are unable to inform us definitely of the birth of football, there
are records, more or less authentic, which show that the Roman legions used to
play a handball game, which might have been football in its primitive form.
Tradition states that football was played at Derby in AD 217
for in that year the men of Derby were supposed to have defeated a company of
Roman soldiers, driving them out of town, afterwards celebrating the event by a
football carnival. This developed into an annual affair, Shrove Tuesday being
chosen as the day of festivity. Later on these Shrove Tuesday battles (?)
ceased to be soccer carnivals, eventually becoming faction fights between the dwellers
of the parishes of St. Peter’s and All Saints, at which the point of content
was the bounderies of the respective parishes. The last Derby game was played
in 1846.
A victory over the Danes was celebrated by a game of
football, the venue being Chester, and the ball being the head of a defeated
foe. In the Hareian collection of manuscripts it is recorded that: “Time out of
mind it hath been the custom for the shoemakers yearly on Shrove Tuesday to
deliver to the drapers, in the presence of the Mayor of Chester, at the Cross
of the Rodehee, one ball of leather called a foote-ball of the value of three
shillings and fourpence or above, and to play at from thence to the Common Hall
of the Said City.”
In one of the early decades of the fourteenth century Edward
II forbade football because of the, “evil that might arise through so many
people bustling together.” However, in spite of this prohibitive measure
football was still played by the common people, and sides were made up of
unlimited numbers of players, whilst there were no restrictions as to tripping,
hacking or charging. It was the law in those days that an opponent had to be
brought down whether legitimate or otherwise, was never enquired into or
remonstrations made thereon. Then, as now, there were individuals who voiced
their objections to rough play. One such individual was Sir Thomas Elyot who is
reported to have said, the year being 1531, “Footeball is nothing but beastlie
furie and extreme violence deserving only to be put in perpetual silence.”
Another critic was one named Stubbs, an outspoken historian of the Elizabethan
period, who in his, ‘Anatomic of Abuses in the Realme of England,” published in
1583, said : “As concerning football playing, I proteste unto you that it may
rather by called a friendlie kind of fight than a play or recreation, a
blooding muthering practice than a fellowly sport or pastime.”
Another town to express its disapproval of football was
Manchester, for it is recorded in the records of the Court Leet holden in the
year 1608 that football be prohibited in the town under a penalty of twelve
pence because of, “ye glass windows broken yearle and spoyled by a companye of
lewd and disorderly persons using that unlawful exercise of playinge with ye
footballe in ye streets, breakinge many windows and glasse at their pleasure
and other great enormities.”
During the time of Cromwell football was severly frowned
upon by the Lord Protector and his fellow Puritans, but as the Restoration, it
was again indulged in, being played in all manner of places, including the
streets. The game too, at this period was favoured and patronised by King
Charles for it is a fact that he witnesses a match between his servants and the
retinue of the Duke of Abermarle.
In the year 1793 a match was played at Sheffield which lasted
over a period of three days. It commenced between six Sheffield men dressed in
red and six Norton men who favoured green, but on the third day hundreds of
extras joined in and gradually the match developed into a free fight.
According to Montague Sherman in his “Football History”
(Badminton Library), “The game of Football is undoubtedly the oldest of all the
English national sports. For at least six centuries the people have loved the
rush and struggle of the rude and manly game, and kings with their edicts,
devines with their sermons, scholars with their cultured scorn, and wits with
their ridicule, have failed to keep the people away from the pastime they
enjoyed.”
And as we trace the game of football throughout the ages we
see the marvellous and extraordinary development that has occurred right up to
the current period. In the infant years of 1800 football was assuming some sort
of recognised form for it was played in schools, whilst clubs were formed in
certain towns and cities, matches being played twice or thrice a week. It is a
matter of curiosity however, that many of these matches took place in the early
summer, chiefly is is safe to presume because the light allowed the game to be
played when the business houses and the factories were closed. Football
actually became a recognised winter sport in the early forties and progressed
rapidly ending in the formation of the Football Association, which organisation
gradually has placed the game on the sound footing that we know it today.