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 (1859–1925) virtually invented American football, splitting it off from British rugby by such changes as devising the position and signal-calling role of quarterback, cutting team size to 11 from 15, and replacing the somewhat more boisterous free-for-all of the scrum with the scrimmage.