The Beginning of College Football

In this article by Taylor Branch, he talks about the start of the National Collegiate Athletics Associations and all of its scandals. The first controversy he talks about involved the hall of famer Michael Jordan and Sonny Vaccaro. In 1984 Jordan signed a contract to promote a certain pair of shoes in exchange for cash. But talks of scandals go back to the beginning. Other then scandals, Branch talks about the start of college football. The first game was played on November 6th, 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton. Walter Camp, a graduate from Yale, played a major role in college football. He created many rules and regulations for the game like playing with 11 players on the field instead of 15 and painting the field with white lines. It's no surprise that people called him the "Father of American Football". But as years went on, President Theodore Roosevelt needed to step in to "civilize" football. Roosevelt brought in 68 college representatives to discuss the start of the NCAA. Since then there has been many memorable games but there has been corruption but the NCAA has done an okay job at slowing it down.