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The essence of college football is found in three stadiums that stand as the clocks in a maze around 300-miles of Interstate 95 between Philadelphia and Boston.
No longer attract the country’s largest and rarely its participants will play in the NFL on Sundays, but Penn’s Franklin Field, home of Harvard and Yale Bowl stand as monuments to the past.

Photos yellowish allusion to their history, but only tell part of the story. What those photos do not reveal is how visionaries turned a bloody mess of a game in the most popular sport in the nation.

The NCAA deems Franklin Field (33rd Street at South Street, Philadelphia, Web site), which organized the University of Pennsylvania sports since 1895, as his old football stadium. The facility is believed to have hosted the most games of any team in college football – Penn No. 800 is scheduled Saturday against Dartmouth – although the NCAA does not have official records in this category.

Harvard Stadium (95 N. Harvard St., Boston, Massachusetts, Web site), opened in 1903, is the oldest permanent concrete structure in the country.

The cup of Yale (276 Derby Ave, West Haven, Connecticut, website) hosted its first tilt, against Harvard University on 21 November 1914.

Together they represent three of the four oldest Division I stadiums in the country, Bobby Dodd Stadium at Georgia Tech opened in 1913.

Ed Mahan / Penn Athletic CommunicationsBack in the day, Quakers fans actually could raise a glass to toast “dear, old Penn.” Now throw toast instead. Industrial toasters provide toast before games, and a “toast Zamboni” invented by a Penn engineering student cleans up after.
The basic elements of the game began at three schools and three stadiums, essentially setting up football and college athletics as we know.

Almost every aspect of modern game has its roots in the stadiums – the number of casualties and the game being broadcast on radio and television pet band, the halftime entertainment and shouting from upstairs.

To be sure, Franklin Field, home of Harvard and Yale Bowl have undergone renovations – the latter two only in recent years. But essentially remain unchanged, mostly through carefully planned projects.

The first night game in Harvard Stadium’s history, for example, last September was played before 18,898 fans as Harvard beat Brown 24-17. Renewal of Harvard, also gave a bubble dome for year-round use. The playing field was named Yale Bowl 1954 class field last year after a generous donation. Fortunately, through the best lines of all stages “have been excellent unobstructed view.

In its beginnings, football epic in these areas was more like going to a mosh pit – a mass of pushing and shoving, sometimes with 40 players on the field at the same time.

Walter Camp, a Yale graduate of 1880, with letters in all sports offered by the school, helped revolutionize football and away from this rugby scrum. Among his many contributions were the line of scrimmage; low and patios-To-Go, 11 players per side, the quarterback position, and the standard formation of seven linemen and four players in the line of scrimmage.

He is credited with starting All American teams and wrote over 30 books on football and amateur athletics. He also coached Yale to a 67-2 record from 1888 through 1892.

American football in 1900 was a brutal game popular, but in which serious injuries, broken bones and even deaths were not uncommon. In 1904, 21 players were killed and over 200 were seriously injured, the following year players with 18 dead and 149 seriously injured, according to reports a day. Football was so rugged that even the original Rough Rider, President Teddy Roosevelt, a Harvard graduate himself, considered banning the nation.

In late 1905, Harvard coach Bill Reid – chosen by the opposing football at Harvard and president Charles Eliot – was part of group of representatives who later became the NCAA.

Reid, Roosevelt and others, worked with the newly formed committee to establish standardized rules for football, with an eye toward eliminating roughhousing. Reid informed his constituents that unless new rules were adopted Harvard not play football in the future. The rules were adopted, making the game more consistent and put to rest its rudimentary beginnings.

Sometimes, as in the case of Harvard Stadium, the game has changed literally by design.