Texas A&M Football: The History of how Aggie football came to be

Early 1900’s

October 9, 1905

President Roosevelt hosts a summit with Walter Camp, the father of American football, and the football powerhouses of the day – Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. The president threatened to make football illegal due to the number of deaths and life-changing injuries associated with the game if serious changes weren’t made. The game was originally players-only, meaning no adults refereed the games or had any kind of supervision over them.

1906

After a particularly brutal 1905 season – 19 players died – the Intercollegiate Athletic Association was formed to be a governing body for the growing sport. It was renamed the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1910. The NCAA did not have much power to enforce its rules until the 1940’s, however.