One of Springfield's best-known claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of basketball. However, the city also played an important role in the early development of the sport of football. It was here that many of the sport's rules were established, and it was also here that the sport nearly met a premature demise due to a particularly violent college football game.

In this episode, Western Mass History podcast host Derek Strahan is joined by local historian and football official Tim Casey for a discussion of Springfield's involvement in the early history of football. For more information about the key sites discussed in this episode, check out the following articles on Lost New England:

https://lostnewengland.com/2013/09/massasoit-house-springfield/

https://lostnewengland.com/2014/03/hampden-park-springfield-mass/

And, for more information on the early development of the sport of football, the following books and articles are great resources:

• Corbett, Bernard, and Paul Simpson. “When Men Were Men and Football Was Brutal.” Yale Alumni Magazine , 2004. http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2004_11/football.html.
• Des Jardins, Julie. Walter Camp: Football and the modern man. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
• Sumner, David E. Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football’s Greatest Pioneer. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2021.
• Watterson, John Sayle. College football: History, spectacle, controversy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.