The great institution of American college athletics almost perished in its infancy. In 1905, due to 45 deaths caused from in-game football injuries during the prior five years (including 19 deaths in 1905 alone), there was broad outcry to outlaw the sport. This movement was crystalized by Harvard President Charles William Eliot, who mounted a campaign to abolish the game.

Today, more than a century later, college sports once again face an existential turning point. It will result in either fortification or destruction of this uniquely American system that provides opportunity to hundreds of thousands of young people and intrinsically cultivates American values.

In 1905, it was strong leadership from an American icon that rescued college sports. President Theodore Roosevelt saw football as core to the American spirit, and an integral part of the “Strenuous Life” that he knew was necessary for the nation’s protection and prosperity. President Roosevelt famously said, “In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don’t foul and don’t shirk, but hit the line hard!”  

To save this game, Roosevelt convened the most-prominent football coaches of the day, including the famous Yale University coach Walter Camp. Roosevelt called for reforms in game rules and for forming an association to standardize and govern their implementation and enforcement. This resulted in the organization we know as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA.