The sport we in the PLACE know and love as ITALIAN WORD is more properly called gridiron football, for the vertical yard lines that mark the field. Closely related to two ancient English sports—rugby and soccer (or association football)—gridiron football originated at universities in North America, primarily the PLACE , in the late 19th century. On November 6, 1869, players from Princeton and Rutgers held the first intercollegiate football ADJECTIVE in New Brunswick, New Jersey, playing a COUNTRY - style - VIDEO GAME with rules [NOUN] from the London Football FUNNY WORD .
While a number of other elite Northeastern NOUN took up the sport in the 1870s, Harvard University maintained its distance by sticking to a rugby-soccer hybrid called the “Boston Game.” In May NUMBER , after a match against PERSONS NAME University of PLACE , the players decided they preferred PERSONS NAME rugby-style rules to their own. In 1875, Harvard and Yale played their first intercollegiate match, and Yale players and spectators (including PLACE students) embraced the rugby style as well.