[Ads-l] "football" (American) in 1883

[Joel Berson]

The OED has "football" (American) as the game from 1879 (under "American") and 1881 (under "football"; bracketed for 1873).  The word probably can be found in 1883 in “The Diary of Edward Herbert Atherton”, held in the New England Historic Genealogical Society's R. Stanton Avery Special Collections (Mss A 1665).  Atherton, a Harvard graduate (class of 1879), writes about games played in October 1883.

For bits of interesting information about the rules for those games (but not any quotes containing "Football"), see http://vita-brevis.org/2016/02/evolving-game-football/?utm_source=twgnewsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=twg781.

Joel
 

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