Editing Forward pass (section)

===Early illegal and experimental passes===
The forward pass had been attempted at least 30 years before the play was actually made legal.  Passes "had been carried out successfully but illegally several times, including the 1876 [[Yale]]–[[Princeton University|Princeton]] game in which Yale's [[Walter Camp]] threw forward to teammate [[O. D. Thompson|Oliver Thompson]] as he was being tackled.  Princeton's protest, one account said, went for naught when the referee 'tossed a coin to make his decision and allowed the touchdown to stand'&nbsp;".<ref name=vahe1>Gregorian, Vahe, [http://nahtmmm.livejournal.com/99821.html "100 years of Forward Passing; SLU Was the Pioneer"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822231037/http://nahtmmm.livejournal.com/99821.html |date=August 22, 2011 }} ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', September 4, 2006</ref>

The [[North Carolina Tar Heels football|University of North Carolina]] used the forward pass in an 1895 game against the [[Georgia Bulldogs football|University of Georgia]].  However, the play was still illegal at the time. Bob Quincy stakes Carolina's claim in his 1973 book ''They Made the Bell Tower Chime'':

{{blockquote|[[John Heisman]], namesake of the [[Heisman Trophy]], wrote 30 years later that, indeed, the Tar Heels had given birth to the forward pass against the Bulldogs (UGA). It was conceived to break a scoreless deadlock and give UNC a 6–0 win. The Carolinians were in a punting situation and a Georgia rush seemed destined to block the ball. The punter, with an impromptu dash to his right, tossed the ball and it was caught by [[George Stephens (American football)|George Stephens]], who ran 70 yards for a touchdown.
}}

[[File:Georgia Tech Auburn football game Thanksgiving 1921.jpg|thumb|A pass at the 1921 [[Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football|Georgia Tech]] v [[Auburn Tigers football|Auburn]] game]]

In a [[1905 Fairmount vs. Washburn football game|1905 experimental game]] at [[Wichita, Kansas]], [[Washburn Ichabods|Washburn University]] and Fairmount College (what would become [[Wichita State Shockers football|Wichita State]]) used the pass before new rules allowing the play were approved in early 1906.<ref name= nelson>
{{cite book|title=The Anatomy of a Game: Football, the Rules, and the Men Who Made the Game|first=David M.|last=Nelson|publisher=University of Delaware Press|year=1994|isbn=0-87413-455-2|url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofgamef00nels}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=OmwfnipKuogC&pg=PA156 p. 128]</ref>  Credit for the first pass goes to Fairmount's Bill Davis, who completed a pass to Art Solter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-bypaths-of-kansas-history-november-1940/12839|publisher=[[Kansas State Historical Society]]|title=ADDENDA TO "COLLEGE FOOTBALL IN KANSAS"|access-date=November 11, 2012}}</ref>

1905 had been a bloody year on the gridiron; the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' reported 19 players had been killed and 159 seriously injured that season.<ref>{{cite web|last=Jeffrey |first=Terence |url=http://townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=one_hundred_years_of_the_forward_pass&ns=TerenceJeffrey&dt=08/30/2006&page=1 |title=One hundred years of the forward pass |date=August 30, 2006 |publisher=Townhall.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215210520/http://townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=one_hundred_years_of_the_forward_pass&ns=TerenceJeffrey&dt=08%2F30%2F2006&page=1 |archive-date=February 15, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> There were moves to outlaw the game, but United States President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] personally intervened and demanded that the rules of the game be reformed.  In a meeting of more than 60 schools in late 1905, the commitment was made to make the game safer.  This meeting was the first step toward the establishment of what would become the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]] and was followed by several sessions to work out "the new rules".<ref name="WashPost-1906-1-28">{{cite news |title=New Football Rules: Radical Changes Are Tentatively Adopted |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/251732852.html?dids=251732852:251732852&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=JAN+28%2C+1906&author=Special+to+The+Washington+Post.&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=NEW+FOOTBALL+RULES |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |page=S1 |date=1906-01-28 |access-date=2008-02-19 |archive-date=August 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090802061318/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/251732852.html?dids=251732852:251732852&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=JAN+28%2C+1906&author=Special+to+The+Washington+Post.&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=NEW+FOOTBALL+RULES |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The final meeting of the Rules Committee tasked with reshaping the game was held on April 6, 1906, at which time the forward pass officially became a legal play.<ref name= nelson />  ''The New York Times'' reported in September 1906 on the rationale for the changes: "The main efforts of the football reformers have been to 'open up the game'—that is to provide for the natural elimination of the so-called mass plays and bring about a game in which speed and real skill shall supersede so far as possible mere brute strength and force of weight."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90222708/the-new-game-of-football/ |title=The New Game of Football: Radical changes in this year's rules revolutionizing the sport |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=M5 |date=1906-09-30 |access-date=2021-12-07 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  However, the ''Times'' also reflected widespread skepticism as to whether the forward pass could be effectively integrated into the game: "There has been no team that has proved that the forward pass is anything but a doubtful, dangerous play to be used only in the last extremity."<ref>{{cite news|title=New Football A Chaos, The Experts Declare: Ground Gaining by Carrying the Ball Made Impossible; Onside Kick Is Only Hope|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/09/30/101799881.pdf|work=The New York Times|date=1906-09-30}}</ref> [[John Heisman]] was instrumental in the rules' acceptance.

In Canadian football, the first exhibition game using a forward pass was held on November 5, 1921, at [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal]], Quebec, Canada, between the [[McGill Redmen football]] team and visiting American college football team the [[1921 Syracuse Orangemen football team|Syracuse Orangemen]] from [[Syracuse University]].  The game was organized by [[Frank Shaughnessy]], the head coach of McGill.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mcgill.ca/channels/news/history-mcgill-athletics-176215|title=The History of McGill Athletics|website=Channels|language=en|access-date=2018-04-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8bEgAAAAIBAJ&pg=4776,2306533|title=The Lewiston Daily Sun - Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com|access-date=2018-04-20}}</ref>  McGill player Robert "Boo" Anderson is credited with the first forward pass attempt in Canadian football history.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mcgillathletics.ca/hof.aspx?hof=53|title=McGill Athletics & Recreation|website=www.mcgillathletics.ca|language=en|access-date=2018-04-20}}</ref>

The forward pass was not officially allowed in Canadian football until 1929.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cfl.ca/page/his_timeline_1920 |title=CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League |access-date=2010-04-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625032212/http://www.cfl.ca/page/his_timeline_1920 |archive-date=2010-06-25 }}</ref>