The Burnside rules were a set of rules that transformed

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

from a rugby-style game to the gridiron-style game it has remained ever since. The rules were first adopted by the Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1903, 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 whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

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 by the centre *a requirement for a team to make ten

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

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 and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

rules already in place at the time. The American code had been developed by Walter Camp 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 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

; 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.

References

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