The intriguing, never-before-fully-
told story of how Theodore Roosevelt helped to
save the game that would become America's most popular sport.
In its infancy during the late nineteenth century,
the game of football was still a work in progress that
only remotely resembled the sport millions follow
today. There was no common agreement about many of
the game's basic rules, and it was incredibly violent and
extremely dangerous. An American version of rugby, this
new game grew popular even as the number of casualties
rose. Numerous young men were badly injured and dozens
died playing football in highly publicized incidents, often
at America's top prep schools and colleges.
Objecting to the sport's brutality, a movement of
proto-Progressives led by Harvard University president
Charles W. Eliot tried to abolish the game. President
Theodore Roosevelt, a vocal advocate of "the strenuous
life" and a proponent of risk, acknowledged football's
dangers but admired its potential for building character.
A longtime fan of the game who purposely recruited men
with college football experience for his Rough Riders,
Roosevelt fought to preserve the game's manly essence,
even as he understood the need for reform.
In 1905, he summoned the coaches of Harvard, Yale,
and Princeton to the White House and urged them to act.
The result was the establishment of the National Collegiate
Athletic Association, as well as a series of rule changes-
including the advent of the forward pass-that ultimately
saved football and transformed it into the quintessential
American game. The Big Scrum reveals for the first time
the fascinating details of this little-known story of sports
history.