"A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF FOOTBALL-PLAYING TECHNIQUES": FIRST EDITION OF CAMP AND DELAND’S FOOTBALL, 1896

CAMP, Walter and DELAND, Lorin F. Football. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1896. Octavo, original gilt-stamped red cloth. $1200.

First edition of this well-known guide to playing football, with 51 illustrated diagrams of plays.

Walter Camp is credited with having revolutionized the game of American football during his years as athletic director and head advisory football coach at Yale in the late 1880s. He created the "fourth down rule," the "gridiron" pattern of the field, and lifted the prohibition against tackling below the waist. "Camp strongly influenced the long-term commercialization of intercollegiate sports. He published more than 250 magazine articles and numerous newspaper pieces that constantly extolled the virtues young men acquired by playing football… With Harvard football innovator Lorin F. Deland he wrote Football (1896), which offered a detailed description of football-playing techniques" (ANB).

Interior generally fine, mild toning to spine, cover gilt bright. A near-fine copy.