Walter Camp

Walter Camp (born April 7, 1859, New Britain, Connecticut, U.S.—died March 14, 1925, New York, New York) was a sports authority best known for having selected the earliest All-America teams in American college football. More importantly, Camp played a leading role in developing the American game as distinct from rugby football.

(Read Walter Camp’s 1903 Britannica essay on inventing American football.)

As an undergraduate and then as a medical student at Yale (1876–81), Camp played halfback, served as team captain (at that time equivalent to head coach), and became a member of the Intercollegiate Football Association. From 1880 this ruling body accepted various innovations proposed by Camp: the 11-man team, the quarterback position, the scrimmage line, offensive signal calling, and the requirement that a team give up the ball after failing to advance a specified yardage in a certain number of downs (plays from scrimmage). In 1883 he secured the adoption of a scale of numerical values for scoring by touchdown, point after touchdown, field goal, and safety. Although he was an executive of a watch-manufacturing firm from 1883, Camp coached the Yale football team from 1888 through 1892, his teams winning 67 games while losing only 2.

From 1889 through 1897, Camp and Caspar Whitney collaborated in choosing the annual All-America football team, an idea that seems to have originated with Whitney. From 1898 through 1924, the teams were announced in the magazine Collier’s under the name of Camp alone. On his death he was succeeded as All-America selector by the noted sportswriter Grantland Rice. Camp wrote the section on American football for both the 10th and 11th editions of Encyclopædia Britannica. In 1951 he was in the first class to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.