About the Program
John Miller, national correspondent for National Review, recounts President Theodore Roosevelt’s involvement in the reimagining of football, which saved the sport from being banned and ultimately led to the creation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The author reports that football of the late 19th century was a violent game that incurred numerous deaths (18 people died playing the sport in 1905) and was the focus of a ban on play led by Harvard University president Charles Eliot. President Roosevelt, a fan of the sport, invited the coaches of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to meet in 1905 to draft new rules that allowed the continuation of play. John Miller discusses his book at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.