The game has ancient origins, but in the late 19th century, Walter Camp helped shape football—the American kind—into the sport we know today.

Walter Camp is the man who receives the most credit for inventing football. He gets the credit for making the foundational changes that result in today’s modern football games. Even though the changes he made were only applied to college football during his time, the rules he created would lay the foundation for the national football league.

Walter Camp invented American Football. He, often dubbed the “Father of American Football,” significantly shaped its rules in the late 19th century.