Editing Forward pass (section)

===First legal pass===
[[File:Cochems 175.jpg|thumb|[[Eddie Cochems]], "Father of the Forward Pass", 1907]]
Most sources credit [[Saint Louis Billikens|Saint Louis University]]'s [[Bradbury Robinson]] from [[Bellevue, Ohio]] with throwing the first legal forward pass. On September 5, 1906, in a game against [[Carroll University|Carroll College]], Robinson's first attempt at a forward pass fell incomplete and resulted in a turnover under the 1906 rules.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://daily.phanaticmag.com/2007_08_01_archive.html| title = ''Courtesy of the National Football Foundation'', "This week in college football history", The Phanatic Magazine, August 31, 2007| access-date = June 14, 2009| archive-date = April 15, 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140415080635/http://daily.phanaticmag.com/2007_08_01_archive.html| url-status = dead}}</ref> In the same game, Robinson later completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to [[Jack Schneider]]. The 1906 Saint Louis University team, coached by [[Eddie Cochems]], was undefeated at 11–0 and featured the most potent offense in the country, outscoring their opponents 407–11. Football authority and [[College Football Hall of Fame]] coach [[David M. Nelson]] wrote that "E. B. Cochems is to forward passing what the [[Wright brothers]] are to aviation and [[Thomas Edison]] is to the electric light."<ref name= nelson />

While Saint Louis University completed the first legal forward pass in the first half of September, this accomplishment was in part because most schools did not begin their football schedule until early October.

In 1952, football coach [[Amos Alonzo Stagg]] discounted accounts crediting any particular coach with being the innovator of the forward pass.  Stagg noted that he had [[Walter Eckersall]] working on pass plays and saw Pomeroy Sinnock of Illinois throw many passes in 1906.  Stagg summed up his view as follows: "I have seen statements giving credit to certain people originating the forward pass.  The fact is that all coaches were working on it.  The first season, 1906, I personally had sixty-four different forward pass patterns."<ref>{{cite book|author=Allison Danzig|title=The History of American Football|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofamerica00danz|url-access=registration|publisher=Prentice-Hall, Inc.|year=1956|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofamerica00danz/page/37 37]}}</ref>  In 1954, Stagg disputed Cochems' claim to have invented the forward pass:{{blockquote|Eddie Cochems, who coached at [Saint] Louis University in 1906, also claimed to have invented the pass as we know it today ... It isn't so, because after the forward pass was legalized in 1906, most of the schools commenced experimenting with it and nearly all used.<ref name=Stagg>{{cite news|title=Stagg Disagrees on Origin of Forward Pass Play|newspaper=Wilmington Sunday Star|date=1954-01-24|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tswmAAAAIBAJ&pg=5352,627286}}</ref>}}
Stagg asserted that, as far back as 1894, before the rules committee even considered the forward pass, one of his players used to throw the ball "like a baseball pitcher".<ref name=Stagg/>

On the other hand, [[College Football Hall of Fame|Hall of Fame]]  coach [[Gus Dorais]] told the [[United Press]] that "Eddie Cochems of the [Saint] Louis University team of 1906–07–08 deserves the full credit."<ref>Casserly, Hank, "Hank Casserly Says", ''The Capital Times'', page 1, September 17, 1952</ref>  Writing in ''[[Collier's]]'' more than 20 years earlier, Dorais' Notre Dame teammate [[Knute Rockne]] acknowledged Cochems as the early leader in the use of the pass, observing, "One would have thought that so effective a play would have been instantly copied and become the vogue. The East, however, had not learned much or cared much about Midwest and Western football. Indeed, the East scarcely realized that football existed beyond the Alleghanies ..."<ref>Rockne, Knute K. "Beginning at End", ''[[Collier's]]'', October 25, 1930</ref>

[[File:Bradbury Robinson forward pass.jpg|thumb|[[Bradbury Robinson]], who threw the first legal forward pass in 1906]]
Once the 1906 season got underway, many programs began experimenting with the forward pass. On September 26, 1906, Villanova's game against the Carlisle Indians was billed as "the first real game of football under the new rules".<ref name=NYT/> In the first play from scrimmage after the opening kicks, Villanova completed a pass that "succeeded in gaining ten yards".<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|title=First Real Football Tests the New Rules: Spectators Divided as to the Success of Experimental Changes|work=The New York Times|date=1906-09-27}}</ref>  Following the Villanova-Carlisle game, ''The New York Times'' described the new passing game this way:{{blockquote|The passing was more of the character of that familiar in basket ball than that which has hitherto characterized football.  Apparently it is the intention of football coaches to try repeatedly these frequent long and risky passes.  Well executed they are undoubtedly highly spectacular, but the risk of dropping the ball is so great as to make the practice extremely hazardous and its desirability doubtful.<ref name=NYT/>}}

Another coach sometimes credited with popularizing the overhead [[Spiral (football)|spiral]] pass in 1906 is former [[Princeton University|Princeton]] All-American [[Howard R. Reiter|"Bosey" Reiter]].  Reiter claimed to have invented the overhead spiral pass while playing professional football as a player-coach for [[Connie Mack]]'s [[Philadelphia Athletics (NFL)|Philadelphia Athletics]] of the original [[National Football League (1902)]].<ref name=Pass>{{cite news|title=First Forward Pass Coach To Be Honored|work=North Adams Transcript|date=1955-11-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Forward Pass Pioneer Dies|work=Chester Times|date=1957-11-12}}</ref>  While playing for the Athletics, Reiter was a teammate of [[Hawley Pierce]], a former star for the [[Carlisle Indian School]].  Pierce, a [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]], taught Reiter to throw an underhand spiral pass, but Reiter had short arms and was unable to throw for distance from an underhand delivery.  Accordingly, Reiter began working on an overhand spiral pass.<ref name=Pass/>  Reiter recalled trying to imitate the motion of a baseball catcher throwing to second base.  After practice and experimentation, Reiter "discovered he could get greater distance and accuracy throwing that way".<ref name=Pass/>  In 1906, Reiter was the head coach at [[Wesleyan University]].  In the opening game of the 1906 season against [[Yale University|Yale]], Reiter's quarterback Sammy Moore completed a forward pass to Irvin van Tassell for a thirty-yard gain.  ''The New York Times'' called it "the prettiest play of the day", as Wesleyan's quarterback "deftly passed the ball past the whole Yale team to his mate Van Tassel".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90222305/yale-scores-four-times/ |title=Yale Scores Four Times: Centre Plays Yield Three Touchdowns |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |location=New Haven |page=11 |date=1906-10-04 |access-date=2021-12-07 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  Van Tassel later described the historic play to the [[United Press]]:{{blockquote|I was the right halfback, and on this formation played one yard back of our right tackle.  The quarterback, Sam Moore, took the ball from center and faded eight or 10 yards back of our line.  Our two ends angled down the field toward the sidelines as a decoy, and I slipped through the strong side of our line straight down the center and past the secondary defense.  The pass worked perfectly.  However, the quarterback coming up fast nailed me as I caught it.  This brought the ball well into Yale territory, about the 20-yard line.<ref>{{cite news|author=Irwin van Tassel (as told to the United Press)|title=First Forward Pass Thrown By Wesleyan Team in 1906|work=Bridgeport Post|date=1955-11-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90222471/bosey-reiter-dies/ |title=Bosey Reiter Dies |newspaper=[[Bridgeport Post]] |page=44 |date=1957-11-13 |access-date=2021-12-07 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>}}

The football season opened for most schools during the first week of October, and the impact of the forward pass was immediate:
* On October 3, 1906, the ''[[Des Moines Daily News]]'' reported "probably the first use" of the "long forward pass" in the [[Missouri Tigers football|University of Missouri]]'s 23–4 win over [[Truman Bulldogs football|Kirksville Normal School]].<ref>{{cite news|title='Mon' Gets Good Start: Use a Long Forward Pass with Good Effect|work=Des Moines Daily News|date=1906-10-03}} ("The game was probably the first use of the long forward pass, as originated by Coach Monlaw, and the general opinion after the game was that this play would be hard to stop.")</ref>
* On October 4, 1906, [[1906 Princeton Tigers football team|Princeton]] opened its season with a 22–0 win over [[Stevens Institute of Technology|Stevens]].  Press accounts indicate that Princeton put the forward pass to good use, as "old-time football gave way to the new game".<ref>{{cite news|title=Tigers Brilliant Against Stevens: New Rules Seem To Please Princeton Players|work=The Trenton Times|date=1906-10-04}}</ref>
* On October 4, 1906, the [[1906 Carlisle Indians football team|Carlisle Indians]] beat [[Susquehanna University]] 40–0, as "the forward pass was used for a number of good gains".<ref>{{cite news|title=Indians Swamp Susquehanna|work=The Trenton Times|date=1906-10-04}}</ref>
* On October 4, 1906, [[1906 Harvard Crimson football team|Harvard]] defeated [[Bowdoin College|Bowdoin]] 10–0 "in a hard-fought contest that was featured by a newfangled and daring forward pass that Crimson worked in the closing minutes of play".<ref>{{cite news|title=Kicking Wins for Harvard|publisher=The Trenton Times|date=1906-10-04}}</ref>
* On October 4, 1906, [[Williams Ephs football|Williams College]] defeated the [[UMass Minutemen football|Massachusetts Agricultural College]], scoring the game's only touchdown on a forward pass by Waters.<ref>{{cite news|title=Williams Wins With Forward Pass|publisher=The Trenton Times|date=1906-10-04}}</ref>

Some publications credit [[Yale Bulldogs football|Yale]] All-American [[Paul Veeder]] with the "first forward pass in a major game". Veeder threw a 20- to 30-yard completion in leading [[1906 Yale Bulldogs football team|Yale]] past [[1906 Harvard Crimson football team|Harvard]] 6–0 before 32,000 fans in [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]] on November 24, 1906.<ref>{{cite news|author=John Powers|title=The 100th Game: Fads, Wars, Even Centuries Change, and Harvard-Yale Is Still the Constant|work=[[The Boston Globe]]|date=1983-11-18}} ("1906—The first forward pass in a major game—20 yards from Yale's Paul Veeder to Clarence Alcott—sets stage for only touchdown in 6–0 decision over unbeaten Crimson.")</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Al Morganti|title=A Century of the Game: Yale-Harvard Is a Matter of Pride|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=1983-11-18}} ("the first significant use of the forward pass in a major game, a 20-yard gain on a Paul Veeder-to-Clarence Alcoft pass in The Game of 1906")</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Sally Jenkins|title=Carlisle Indians Made It A Whole New Ballgame|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=2007-05-13|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201395_pf.html}}(identifying Veeder's 30-yard pass as one of the few significant forward passes thrown in the first season of the forward pass)</ref>  However, that Yale/Harvard game was played three weeks after St. Louis completed 45- and 48-yard passes against [[Kansas Jayhawks football|Kansas]] before a crowd of 7,000 at [[Sportsman's Park]].<ref>"St. Louis U. Scores 12 Points in First Half of Great Game with Kansas", ''St. Louis Star-Chronicle'', November 3, 1906</ref><ref>Nelson, The Anatomy of a Game, p. 129</ref>