CAMP, WALTER CHAUNCEY

born April 7, 1859, New Britain, Conn., U.S. died March 14, 1925, New York, N.Y. Walter Camp. sports authority best known for selecting the earliest All-America teams in U.S. college football but, more importantly, for his role in developing the American game as distinct from Rugby football. As an undergraduate and then as a medical student at Yale (187681), 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, try for 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 1896, Camp and Caspar Whitney probably collaborated in choosing the annual All-America football team, the original idea of which seems to have been Whitney's. From 1897 through 1924 the teams were announced (in the magazine Collier's, the National Weekly from 1898) under the name of Camp alone. On his death he was succeeded as All-America selector by the noted sportswriter Grantland Rice.