“Foot Ball Seems To Be Usurping the Place of Base Ball.” Football in Kansas, 1856–1891

Authors

Mark E. Eberle, Fort Hays State UniversityFollow

Files

DOI

10.58809/WIHE5111

Date

2020

Abstract

Following the US Civil War, baseball quickly spread among communities across Kansas. Football was less widespread, and the first reports of “foot ball” during this period referred to early versions of association football (soccer) or rugby. American football developed from modifications to rugby rules beginning in the late 1870s and continuing into the early twentieth century. A few Kansas communities experimented briefly with soccer, rugby, and American football teams based on the model of town team baseball. However, interest in American football soon dominated, with attention focused on collegiate teams. The first intercollegiate games in Kansas were played in the autumn of 1890 by teams representing Baker University, the University of Kansas, and Washburn University. The following year, these three schools organized the state’s first intercollegiate sports league—the Triangular League. This monograph examines the early histories of soccer, rugby, and American football in Kansas through 1891 and the partition of the seasons for football and baseball.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

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© The Author (s)

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Recommended Citation

Eberle, Mark E., "“Foot Ball Seems To Be Usurping the Place of Base Ball.” Football in Kansas, 1856–1891" (2020). Monographs. 17.
DOI: 10.58809/WIHE5111
Available at: https://scholars.fhsu.edu/all_monographs/17