[...]... professional training of a number of teachers who were active in promoting schoolboy football in the London area at the time with a view to establishing something about their reasons for promoting football in their schools Chapter 6 examines the influence of elementaryschool football on the growth of the amateur game in working-class and lower middle-class areas in London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth... reasons The traditional rural and urban pastime of football was adopted by the public schools in the 2 Introduction nineteenth century and transformed into a game with rules that increased in number and sophistication and were co-ordinated and codified by the FA in 1863 and the Rugby Union in 1871 The early teams in association football, besides public -schoolboy teams, consisted mainly of men who had played... in tracing the background of some of the teachers involved in promoting schoolboy football Reports from the Education Department and the Board of Education on the progress of elementary education from 1888 to 1909, including inspectors’ reports, have been valuable in tracing Introduction 19 what is one of the main arguments of this book, namely, that the voluntary efforts of teachers in promoting football. .. factor in guaranteeing the future of football as a mass game and was undoubtedly a determining factor in making football the national game’.76 As in his history of childhood reviewed above, Walvin did not acknowledge either the SFAs or the teachers who were instrumental in achieving what he has confirmed was a crucial contribution Introduction 17 to football His view on the influence of football in state... contained a brief tribute to his pioneering work for schoolboy football and, in a section on football in the Metropolis, London teachers are complimented for their ‘splendid enthusiasm’ in promoting the game.69 The Book of Football, which was published in 1905, carried what is perhaps a more informative account of the origin of schoolboy football than any that has appeared in histories of the game in. .. promising young players, this book examines how association football came to be introduced into elementary schools and what significance that might have had for the subsequent development of the game.1 Following a chapter on other agencies, mostly instigated by ex-public-schoolboys, that preceded the work of teachers in promoting football in working-class areas, the main focus is on the work and influence... including Queen’s Park Rangers in west London, that had their origin in elementary schools and gives his view that inter-school and inter-district competitions ‘became of crucial importance in generating and maintaining the youthful commitment to football, particularly among working-class boys whose occupational opportunities were limited’ For Walvin, this new emphasis on football in state schools was, by... being confined to the playing fields and a passion which grew into an obsession was being assiduously cultivated by the zealous’.28 In Godliness and Good Learning Newsome acknowledged Bowen’s qualities as an educator but felt that it was Edward Thring, headmaster of Uppingham, ‘who most determined the shape of things to come’.29 Like Bowen, Thring was an outstanding games player in his youth and Tozer’s... the Rugby Union ‘Hacking’, however, was soon banned in the rugby game also for its obvious danger to life and limb and it was the issue of the players’ use of their hands in the two codes that grew into the most distinctive distinguishing feature between football and rugby Catching the ball in the air was allowed in the original FA rules of 1863, the player making the catch being awarded a free kick,... work in promoting football in London schools and its influence on schoolboy football nationally up to the First World War Chapter 4 also studies four players who had been prominent in London schoolboy football and whose subsequent careers in football are known, with a view to establishing what their attitudes to the game might have been Chapter 5 explores the background, education and professional training . involved in school football associations for many years. He is also the official historian of the English Schools’ Football Association. Teachers and Football Schoolboy association football in England,. and influence of elementary-school football associations. It begins with an investigation of how teachers in these associations established and promoted schoolboy football in the London area, and. hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication