There have been times when I've wanted to search some football topics, only to find out, after starting to read the article, that it is about soccer.
So I was thinking WHAT IF...
...way back when Rugby was evolving into Football here in North America, the people of Europe found out we were going to call our new sport 'Football'. They objected, and we decided to call this new sport something else.
What would it be??
In keeping with it's Rugby roots, I was thinking something like Ruckball, or Ruckers. How about Scrummers?
Since the ball is carried and passed more than it is kicked, handball crossed my mind, but there are already 3 sports with that name (European, Gaelic, and American).
i allways thought the Canadian version of Rugby was called Ruger(sp), or Ruger Football, later evolved to be called Canadian Football after the forward pass was adopted?
Based on the original rules, it might have been called carry ball, push ball, run ball - something along those lines. The forward pass and first down were introduced much later, and I'm guessing the lines on the field (i.e. gridiron) were probably added around the same time as first downs.
Rugger is a nickname for Rugby (derived from "Rugby" using the "Oxford -er" in the same way that the word "soccer" is derived from "association" ("association football" being the full name for soccer)).
I don't know when people stopped using Rugby to refer to Canadian football in informal conversation, but the name persisted officially at least until 1967 in the name Canadian Rugby Football Union, precursor to today's Football Canada.
Down Under, they call their game Aussie Rules or Footy (the latter despite the fact that they catch it, run with it, and bounce it
as well as kick it; but all the scoring comes by kicking)...
Canuck Rules? no. Handy? obviously not. Yardball sounds like something in the backyard.
Maybe gridball would be one of the least worst alternatives. Has a nice gritty sound to it.
