Genealogy of American Football – When were “End Zones” invented?

**Originally, the End Zone was missing**

The end zone on every American football field is quite a common exemplar. In fact, it has become an adornment of the home team with huge bright lettering with the team’s city, university or team name emblazoned in paint. In the early development of American Football, the end zone wasn’t a part of the field. With the game of soccer, there is a playing field with sideline striping and goal line striping. American Football adopted these same characteristics. The only differences are, in soccer the ball is still in play if any part of the ball remains on the sideline markings or the goal line markings; plus a goal is not counted as long as any portion of the ball has not gone fully into the goal and left the goal line. Whereas in American Football, the play ends when a player steps on the sideline, and a touchdown is scored when the football touches any portion of the goal line or breaks the imaginary plane of the goal line.

**The invention of the End Zone**

By 1929, the forward pass had finally become a regular part of any American Football game, although few were actually attempted. The ball was still a rugby ball which was an air-filled pig’s bladder covered with pig hide and stitched inside, then laced up with the final panel. It was a common occurrence for holes to appear. The usual remedy was to simply plug something into the opening with straw, leather or pieces of clothing. Those early footballs were like a watermelon in shape, and became heavy with sweat or any type of precipitation. Mostly, the ball was tossed with two hands or slotted between the wrist and elbow and heaved forward.