Burnside Rules

Burnside Rules

The Burnside rules were a set of rules that transformed North American football from a rugby-style game to the gridiron-style game played in both Canada (Canadian football) and the United States (American football). Named after Thrift Burnside, captain of the University of Toronto football team (although he did not originate them-- see below), and first adopted by the Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1903, the rules introduced sweeping changes to the way football was played. The rules included:

*the reduction to 12 players per side from the standard 15
*the "snap-back" system in which the ball was heeled backward from the line of scrimmage by the center
*the requirement for a team to make ten yards in three successive downs or lose possession of the ball
*the reduction to six men from the previous eight allowed on the line of scrimmage when the ball was put into play.

All of these rules were derived from American football rules already in place at the time; these were developed by Walter Camp for use in American football in the 1880s.

Although these rules are standard today, at the time they were considered radical. Other teams outside the Ontario Rugby Football Union refused to adopt them until 1905.

ee also

* Canadian football
* American football
* Rugby union
* Comparison of American football and rugby union
* Football


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Canadian Football League East Division — The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues. History Pre 1907 The first organized football …   Wikipedia

  • Gridiron football — An American Football field. The Canadian field (below) differs slightly in dimensions and design, but is quite similar, as shown below. The numbers on the field indicate the number of yards to the nearest end zone …   Wikipedia

  • Ontario Rugby Football Union — The Ontario Rugby Football Union or ORFU was an early amateur Canadian football league with teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded in 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt the Burnside Rules, from… …   Wikipedia

  • London Lords — The London Lords were a Canadian football team of the 1950s and 1960s from London, Ontario. The Lords belonged to the Ontario Rugby Football Union, a league that preceded the Canadian Football League and was the first to adopt the Burnside Rules …   Wikipedia

  • List of The Bill characters (A-D) — This is a list of characters from the Police procedural British television series, The Bill. The fictional characters displayed here are ordered alphabetically by character surname. For a full list of current characters ordered by rank, see list… …   Wikipedia

  • Mount Osmond, South Australia — Mount Osmond Adelaide, South Australia Population: 612 (2006 Cen …   Wikipedia

  • Ice hockey at the Olympic Games — Representing Canada, the Winnipeg Falcons (pictured en route to the 1920 Summer Olympics) were the first Olympic champions in ice hockey. Governing body …   Wikipedia

  • United States — a republic in the N Western Hemisphere comprising 48 conterminous states, the District of Columbia, and Alaska in North America, and Hawaii in the N Pacific. 267,954,767; conterminous United States, 3,022,387 sq. mi. (7,827,982 sq. km); with… …   Universalium

  • List of The Bill characters (Q-Z) — This is a list of characters from the police drama The Bill ordered alphabetically by character surname. For a full list of characters ordered by rank, see list of The Bill characters. The characters are all police officers or civilian staff at… …   Wikipedia

  • History of the National Hockey League (1992–present) — The Columbus Blue Jackets face the St. Louis Blues in 2008. The National Hockey League (NHL) has endured a tumultuous period of history in recent years. It has grown from 22 teams in 1992 to 30 today as the league expanded across the United… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”