Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
player, coach, and
sports writer
Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...
known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's
line of scrimmage
In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an imaginary transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end o ...
and the system of
downs.
With
John Heisman,
Amos Alonzo Stagg
Amos Alonzo Stagg (August 16, 1862 – March 17, 1965) was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (now called Springfiel ...
,
Pop Warner
Glenn Scobey Warner (April 5, 1871 – September 7, 1954), most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American college football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game. Included among his inn ...
,
Fielding H. Yost, and
George Halas, Camp was one of the most accomplished persons in the
early history of American football. He attended
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
, where he played and coached
college football. Camp's
Yale teams of 1888, 1891, and 1892 have been recognized as
national champions
National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...
. Camp was inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame as a coach during 1951.
Camp wrote articles and books on the gridiron and sports in general, annually publishing an "
All-America
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...
n" team. By the time of his death, he had written nearly 30 books and more than 250 magazine articles.
Life
Camp was born in
New Britain, Connecticut, the son of Leverett Camp and Ellen Sophia (Cornwell) Camp. Walter Camp was of English descent. His first immigrant ancestor was the English colonist Nicholas Camp, who came from
Nazeing
Nazeing is a village and parish in Essex, England. Within the parish are the separate settlements of Upper Nazeing, Middle Nazeing, and Lower Nazeing. The Prime Meridian passes to the west of Lower Nazeing.
Location and topography
Nazeing is ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and arrived in colonial
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
in 1630, arriving first in
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
and then moving to Connecticut that same year. Walter attended
Hopkins Grammar School in
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...
, entered
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
in 1875, and graduated in 1880.
At Yale he was a member of
Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fiftee ...
fraternity, the
Linonian Society
Linonia is a literary and debating society founded in 1753 at Yale University. It is the university's second-oldest secret society.
History
Linonia was founded on September 12, 1753, as Yale College's second literary and debating society, af ...
, and
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...
.
He attended
Yale Medical School
The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813.
The primary te ...
from 1880 to 1883,
where his studies were interrupted first by an outbreak of
typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
and then by work for the Manhattan Watch Company. Camp worked for the New Haven Clock Company beginning in 1883, working his way up to chairman of the board of directors.
Playing career
In 1873, Camp attended a meeting where representatives from Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, and Yale universities created the
Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA). The representatives created the rule that each team is only allowed 15 plays per drive. Camp played as a
halfback at Yale from
1876
Events
January–March
* January 1
** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin.
** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol.
* February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs is ...
to
1882
Events
January–March
* January 2
** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates.
** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in t ...
. Harvard player
Nathaniel Curtis took one look at Camp, then only 156 pounds, and told Yale captain
Gene Baker "You don't mean to let that child play, do you? ... He will get hurt."
Family
On June 30, 1888, Camp married Alice Graham Sumner, sister of sociologist
William Graham Sumner. They had two children: Walter Camp, Jr. (1891-1940), who attended Yale as well and was elected as a member of
Scroll and Key in 1912, and Janet Camp Troxell (1897-1987). Camp is buried with his wife and children in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven. He was an Episcopalian.
Coaching career
Camp served as the head football coach at Yale from
1888
In Germany, 1888 is known as the Year of the Three Emperors. Currently, it is the year that, when written in Roman numerals, has the most digits (13). The next year that also has 13 digits is the year 2388. The record will be surpassed as late ...
to
1892
Events
January–March
* January 1 – Ellis Island begins accommodating immigrants to the United States.
* February 1 - The historic Enterprise Bar and Grill was established in Rico, Colorado.
* February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies fo ...
. In his time with Yale, the team won 67 games and lost just 2 games. He then moved on to
Stanford University, where he coached in December 1892 and in
1894
Events January–March
* January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire.
* January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United S ...
and
1895
Events
January–March
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
* January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...
. On Christmas Day, 1894,
Amos Alonzo Stagg
Amos Alonzo Stagg (August 16, 1862 – March 17, 1965) was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (now called Springfiel ...
and his University of
Chicago Maroons
The Chicago Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon. Team colors are maroon and gray, and the Phoenix is their mascot. They now compete in the NCAA Division III, mostly as ...
defeated Camp's Stanford team 24–4 at San Francisco in an early intersectional contest.
Father of American football
Camp was on the various collegiate football rules committees that developed the American game from his time as a player at Yale until his death. English
rugby football
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league.
Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...
rules at the time required a tackled player, when the ball was "fairly held," to put the ball down immediately for scrummage. Camp proposed at the U.S.
College Football 1880 rules convention that the contested
scrum
Scrum may refer to:
Sport
* Scrum (rugby), a method of restarting play in rugby union and rugby league
** Scrum (rugby union), scrum in rugby union
* Scrum, an offensive melee formation in Japanese game Bo-taoshi
Media and popular culture
* M ...
be replaced with a "
line of scrimmage
In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an imaginary transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end o ...
" where the team with the ball started with uncontested possession. This change effectively created the evolution of the modern game of
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
from its rugby football origins.
He is credited with innovations such as the
snap-back from
center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
, the system of downs, and the points system as well as the introduction of what became a standard offensive arrangement of players—a seven-man
line and a four-man
backfield The offensive backfield is the area of an American football field behind the line of scrimmage. The offensive backfield can also refer to members of offense who begin plays behind the line, typically including any backs on the field, such as the ...
consisting of a
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
, two halfbacks, and a
fullback. Camp was also responsible for introducing the "
safety
Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
Meanings
There are two slightly dif ...
," the awarding of two points to the defensive side for tackling a ball carrier in his own end zone followed by a
free kick
A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play.
Association football
In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...
by the offense from its own 20-yard line to restart play. This is significant as
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
has no point value award for this action, but instead awards a scrum to the attacking side five meters from the goal line.
In 2011, reviewing Camp's role in the founding of the sport and of the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
,
Taylor Branch
Taylor Branch (born January 14, 1947) is an American author and historian who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning trilogy chronicling the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and much of the history of the American civil rights movement. The final volume o ...
also credited Camp with cutting the number of players on a football team from 15 to 11 and adding measuring lines to the field. However, Branch noted that the revelation in a contemporaneous ''
McClure's
''McClure's'' or ''McClure's Magazine'' (1893–1929) was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. The magazine is credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism ( investigative, wa ...
'' magazine story of "Camp's $100,000 slush fund," along with concern about the violence of the growing sport, helped lead to President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
's
intervention in the sport. The NCAA emerged from the national talks, but worked to Yale's disadvantage relative to rival (and Roosevelt's ''
alma mater'')
Harvard, according to Branch.
Writing
Despite having a full-time job at the New Haven Clock Company, a Camp family business, and being an unpaid yet very involved adviser to the Yale football team, Camp wrote articles and books on the gridiron and sports in general. By the time of his death, he had written nearly 30 books and more than 250 magazine articles. His articles appeared in national periodicals such as ''Harper's Weekly'', ''Collier's'', ''Outing'', ''Outlook'', and ''The Independent'', and in juvenile magazines such as ''St. Nicholas'', ''Youth's Companion'', and ''Boys' Magazine''. His stories also appeared in major daily newspapers throughout the United States. He also selected an annual "
All-America
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...
n" team.
By the age of 33, twelve years after graduating from Yale, Walter Camp had already become known as the "Father of Football." In a column in the popular magazine ''
Harper's Weekly
''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...
'', sports columnist
Caspar Whitney
Caspar William Whitney (September 2, 1864 – January 18, 1929) was an American author, editor, explorer, outdoorsman and war correspondent. He originated the concept of the All-American team in college football in 1889 when he worked for '' Harp ...
had applied the nickname; the sobriquet was appropriate because, by 1892, Camp had almost single-handedly fashioned the game of modern American football.
Camp was editor for several sports books published by the
Spalding Athletic Library
Spalding Athletic Library sold sports and exercise books through American Sports Publishing Company from 1892 to 1941. Both companies were owned and founded by Spalding. Books cover over 30 different sports and exercises, and over 20 different o ...
.
Eastern bias
The dominance of Ivy League players on Camp's All-America teams led to criticism over the years that his selections were biased against players from the leading Western universities, including Chicago, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame.
Many selectors picked only Eastern players. For example,
Wilton S. Farnsworth's 1910 All-American eleven for the ''
New York Evening Journal'' was made up of five players from Harvard, two from West Point, and one each from Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Brown.
The selectors were typically Eastern writers and former players who attended only games in the East. In December 1910, ''
The Mansfield News'', an Ohio newspaper, ran an article headlined: "All-American Teams of East Are Jokes: Critics Who Never Saw Western Teams Play to Name Best in Country -- Forget About Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois."
[ The article noted:
]
The Daily Dozen exercise regimen
Camp was a proponent of exercise, and not just for the athletes he coached. While working as an adviser to the United States military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is th ...
during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he devised a program to help servicemen become more physically fit.
Walter Camp has just developed for the Naval of setting up exercises that seems to fill the bill; a system designed to give a man a running jump start for the serious work of the day. It is called the "daily dozen set-up", meaning thereby twelve very simple exercises.
Both the Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
and the Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
used Camp's methods.
The names of the exercises in the original Daily Dozen, as the whole set became known, were hands, grind, crawl, wave, hips, grate, curl, weave, head, grasp, crouch, and wing. As the name indicates, there were twelve exercises, and they could be completed in about eight minutes. A prolific writer, Camp wrote a book explaining the exercises and extolling their benefits. During the 1920s, a number of newspapers and magazines used the term "Daily Dozen" to refer to exercise in general.
Starting in 1921 with the ''Musical Health Builder'' record sets, Camp began offering morning setting-up exercises to a wider market. In 1922, the initiative reached the new medium of radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
.
Head coaching record
See also
*
References
Bibliography
* Ronald A. Smith, ''Sports and Freedom: The Rise of Big-Time College Athletics,'' (1990)
* "Walter Camp Found All-American Eleven Selections and Originated the Daily Dozen." ''New York Times'', March 15, 1925. p. 1.
External links
* Walter Chauncey Camp papers (MS 125). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Camp, Walter
1859 births
1925 deaths
19th-century players of American football
American football drop kickers
American football halfbacks
Stanford Cardinal football coaches
Yale Bulldogs athletic directors
Yale Bulldogs football coaches
Yale Bulldogs football players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Hopkins School alumni
Sportspeople from New Britain, Connecticut
Coaches of American football from Connecticut
Players of American football from New Haven, Connecticut
American people of English descent