The Burnside rules were a set of rules that transformed

Canadian football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...

from a

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

-style game to the gridiron-style game it has remained ever since. The rules were first adopted by the

Ontario Rugby Football Union The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt th ...

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having bee ...

, and were named after John Thrift Meldrum Burnside, captain of the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

football team (although he did not originate them). The Burnside rules introduced sweeping changes to the way football was played. The rules included: *a reduction from 15 to 12 players per side *a reduction from 8 to 6 men allowed on the line of scrimmage when the ball was put into play *the " snap-back" system in which the ball was passed backward from a static

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 ...

by the

centre 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 eccentri ...

*a requirement for a team to make ten

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

s in three successive downs or lose possession of the ball Although similar, Burnside rules had many differences and evolved separately from the

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 ...

rules already in place at the time. The American code had been developed by

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

in the 1880s (later on, it made some modifications to its rules). Although these rules are standard today, at the time they were considered radical. Other teams outside the Ontario Rugby Football Union refused to adopt them until 1921. For the

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

season they did adopt the Inter-Collegiate rules of 10 yards to gain in 3 downs. The Alberta Union's playing rules were drawn up by the Reverend Robert 'Bob' Pearson, 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 ...

; the Alberta Union rules were heavily influenced by the Burnside rules, which Pearson had known as a player. In late 1920, these rules were agreed to by the other Western Canadian football unions. The Canadian Rugby Union Rules Committee had been seeking to standardize its rules under its former president W. A. Hewitt, and proposed a very similar version of the new Alberta Union rules in April 1921. The CRU's proposed regulations were approved to be used in

1921 in Canadian football Canadian Football News in 1921 Western Canada Rugby Football Union joined the CRU and challenged for the Grey Cup. The Edmonton Eskimos became the first Western team to play in a Grey Cup game, but lost to the Toronto Argonauts 23–0. Rule chan ...

References

{{reflist History of Canadian football 1903 in Canadian sports 1903 in Canadian football Gridiron football rules

See also

References