History of Soccer
By: Jacelyn Ellinger
Origins
Development of Name
The name soccer originated in England. England was looking for a name to tell soccer and rugby apart so they came up with "rugged" for rugby and "assoccer" for soccer. They eventually dropped the "a" off of "assoccer" to make it sound fancier. Later when soccer became more popular than rugby England went back to using "football" for soccer because they knew which one it was. We still use soccer so we can distinguish soccer from American football.
History Timeline
1000 B.C. - Japan played Kemari with a hackysack like ball stuffed with sawdust. Their field was between four trees.
50 B.C. - China played Japan in a game of both versions of soccer.
600 A.D. - 1600 A.D. - Mexico invented the first rubber ball and in their game of soccer they wanted to get the ball through a ring on the wall.
1331 A.D. - 1424 A.D. - Soccer became illegal in England and Scotland during this time.
700 A.D - 1500 A.D. - England played their first games of soccer which were deadly and violent. It was not uncommon for deaths to occur. Italy played calico where you kicked, carried, or passed a ball across the goal line.
1620 A.D. - Native Americans played a game of pasuckuakonowog which is a lot like soccer.
1815 - 1848 - The first rules were made by Eton College of England and then were standardized later.
1862 - The first club outside of England was formed in Boston and named the Oneida Football Club.
1863 - 1869 - Rugby and Soccer associations split and the rules were amended to say you can't touch the ball with your hands.
1872 - England and Scotland played the first international game.
1800s - USA played Canada and the penalty kick was introduced.
1900s - Socer was played in the Olympics. Women's soccer in the USA won the first women's cup and the first women's Olympics.