Now You Know Big Book of Sports. Doug Lennox

or onto its church’s steps. The rules were vague and play was often extremely violent, leading to broken limbs, internal injuries, and even the occasional death.

       Why did both Edward II and Edward III prohibit soccer?

      In 1314 King Edward II issued a prohibition against so called “mob football” because of the chaotic impact that “this hustling over large balls” had on the city life in London. Edward III also prohibited “futeball” in 1349 because it distracted able-bodied men from archery practice.

       Quickies …

       Did you know …

      that the first recorded soccer death was in 1280 when in a game of mob football at Ulgham, near Ashington in Northumberland, a player was killed as a result of running against an opposing player’s sheathed dagger?

       Who owned the first pair of football boots?

      King Henry VIII’s soccer shoes — called football boots — were listed within the

      Great Wardrobe of 1526, a shopping list of the day. They were made by his personal shoemaker, Cornelius Johnson, in 1525, at a cost of four shillings, the modern equivalent of $160 CDN. Little is known about them, as there is no surviving example, but the royal football boots are known to have been made of strong leather, ankle-high, and heavier than the normal shoe of the day.

       What British king was first to give soccer royal approval?

      Charles II of England gave the game of soccer royal approval in 1681 when he attended a match between the Royal Household and the Duke of Albemarle’s servants.

       What was tsu chu ?

      As far back as 2,500 B.C., a game of kicking a ball called tsu chu (also spelled as cuju) was played in China. Tsu means “to kick the ball with feet” and chu means “a ball made of leather and stuffed.” Matches were often staged in celebration of the emperor’s birthday. The objective was for players to kick a ball through a round opening into a small net attached to bamboo poles. The opening was about one foot (30–40 centimetres) wide and elevated about 30 feet (nine metres) from the ground. During the Ts’in Dynasty (255 B.C.–206 B.C.) a form of tsu chu was used for training by soldiers, and from the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.) there survives a war manual featuring physical exercises called tsu chu. These exercises involved a leather ball filled with feathers and hair. With the exception of the hands, all other body parts could be used while trying to “score.”

       Quickies

       Did you know …

      that the first instance of the modern spelling of football appeared in 1608, in act 1 scene 4 of Shakespeare’s King Lear: “Nor tripped neither, you base football player”?

       What was episkyros

      Around 2000 B.C., the Greeks played episkyros (also known as phaininda), a kicking and throwing game played primarily by men, usually in the nude. Early balls were made of linen and hair wrapped in string and sewn together, though it is believed inflated balls — inflated pig bladders wrapped in pigskin or deerskin — were used by later practitioners of the game.

       Quickies

       Did you know …

      that an ancient Greek marble relief housed in the National Museum of Archeology in Athens shows an athlete balancing a ball on his thigh as a young boy looks on? This very same image is featured on the European Cup trophy.

       Who was Richard Mulcaster?

      Richard Mulcaster, who lived from 1531 to 1611, was headmaster of the Merchant Taylors’ School and St. Paul’s School in London. Not only was he a prominent educator of his time, he was also one of the greatest sixteenth-century advocates of soccer. In his 1581 publication titled “Positions Wherein Those Primitive Circumstances Be Examined, Which Are Necessarie for the Training up of Children,” he argued that “Footeball” was beneficial “both to health and strength” of students, and he advocated for, organized, and refereed matches to counteract the craze of mob football.

       What is the world’s oldest soccer club?

      The Sheffield Football Club was founded in 1857 in Sheffield by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, and is now recognized as the world’s oldest club. The club initially played William Prest, and is now recognized as the its own code of football: the Sheffield rules. Players were allowed to push or hit the ball with their hands, and there was no offside rule at all, so that players known as “kick throughs” could be permanently positioned near the opponents’ goal.

       Quickies

       Did you know …

      that the Inuit played a game called asqaqtuk, which involved booting a heavy ball stuffed with grass, caribou hair, and moss across the arctic tundra between goals as much as 10 miles (16 kilometres) apart?

       What is the oldest national soccer team in the world?

      That would be a tie. Both Scotland and England were the first countries to put forward national teams, in 1872. In fact, they did so for a match against each other, which also allows them to share the credit of holding the first international match. The game was held at Hamilton Crescent in Partick, Scotland, on November 30 that year, and, appropriately enough, it ended in a goalless tie.

       Who drew up the first set of soccer rules?

      During the eighteenth century, the game of mob football evolved into a codified sport at England’s public schools like Eton, Westminster, Rugby, Charterhouse, and Harrow. The first-ever set of formal soccer rules were written at Eton College in 1815, though each school tended to have their own set of rules.

       What are the Cambridge Rules?

      In 1848, representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, and Shrewsbury schools gathered at Trinity College, at Cambridge University, for a meeting to codify the rules of soccer. These were the first set of rules to be used collectively by multiple school teams. When the country’s leading clubs and schools got together to form the Football Association in 1863, they used the Cambridge Rules as the basis for a new set of FA rules.

       When did soccer and rugby become separate sports?

      When England’s Football Association was established in 1863 they published the first set of rules, which expressly forbade carrying, passing, or otherwise handling the ball. Prior to this, the various codes of soccer used by clubs allowed players to use their hands to move the ball, often in a manner that resembled today’s rugby. It is felt that the establishment of the first FA rules marked the break between soccer and rugby.

       When did the FA Cup begin?

      In 1871, Charles W. Alcock, then FA secretary, announced the introduction of the Football Association Challenge Cup. It was the first knockout competition of its type in the world. Only 15 clubs took part in the first staging of the tournament. It included two clubs based in Scotland: Donington School and Queen’s Park. In the 1872 final, the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1–0 at the Kennington Oval. The FA Cup is the oldest association football competition in the world.

       The 12 Founding Clubs of England’s Football Association

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