ABSTRACT
Camp later explains his reasoning behind his assertion, arguing that American football’s popularity-as well as its benefit to society-is due in large part to its ability to “train” youth; that is, Camp portrays football as a moral and ethical force. “If we teach him to play,” continues Camp, “we have some chance to teach him fair play, and as the essence of his training for his games is physical and moral cleanliness, so we are helping him along that road by showing him that the best athlete is the moral athlete” (140). Camp’s vision of football was that it had the ability to refine American boys into “men.” Of course, Camp’s assertions also implicitly argue that if the moral values of “a clean life, practical self-denial, discipline, obedience, unmurmuring pluck, and a good deal of patience” (140) are important for the youth, then they are important for the country itself, as those being trained by college football will be the “reigning” generation once they pass through the initiatory stages of life (where football was, and is, so often played). Through such continual expressions of this rhetoric, Camp’s role in the development of college football went much beyond contributions to rules and league formations. As he wrote and spoke about football, his arguments posit football
as a game capable of not only instilling an ideology of morality in its athletes and spectators, but also instilling social responsibility. In short, Walter Camp believed that football would-and should-function as an activity that molds youth and, by extension, raise them up as the nation’s future leaders.
