History of American Football Positions - Early Canadian Football

Early Canadian Football

Around 1900, at the same time, the number of players on a Canadian football team was reduced to 14, the number of players in scrimmage (formerly packing all the forwards) was fixed at three per team. It became customary for six to eight of the other players to continue as what might be known in rugby as loose (non-packing, i.e. not binding together) forwards who in Canadian football formed "wing lines" on either side of the scrimmage. In scrimmage, each team had one centre scrimmager flanked by two side scrimmagers. The side scrimmagers bound with hands and arms to their centre scrimmager. The centre scrimmager of the side entitled (and required) to do so would put the ball down in front of him for play by scrimmage, while both sets of three bodies each ("formed into one compact body" as the rules specified) were crouched and shoving forward at each other, probably meeting at the shoulders as do the front row of forwards in rugby's set scummage. Depending on the rules, details of the time for the particular circuit of Canadian football clubs, the centre scrimmagers would either contend with their feet for the ball, or one would be entitled to foot it first (usually heeling it back), while the other team's would try to spoil the ball's delivery.

The backfield of three to five players continued to use the nomenclature (see above) of quarterback, halfback, and fullback, and sometimes included one or two flying wings (see below).

When six played on the winglines, their positions were called "inside wing", "middle wing", and "outside wing", arrayed in order away from the scrimmage. An additional player called "flying wing" could "fly", between a position on the wingline outside the outside wing, and the backfield.

However, the 14-a-side game's rules never required certain numbers of players in either the winglines or the backfield.

With the later reduction in sides from 14 to 12 players, and introduction of the thrown (not footed) snap, the positions of the three scrimmagers were replaced by a single position called "snap". The position names in the winglines were retained for a while, but eventually replaced by the USA nomenclature, although it was not until the 1960s, that Canadian rules required seven players on the offensive line, unless they were playing short handed. Before that, only five were required on plays in which no forward pass was thrown, so it is likely that in such situations, one or both ends were replaced by or became a back. "Snap" became "center" and considered a wingline or line position. "Centre" even became the rule book designation of the snapper, although as in the USA version, there is no necessity that the player who snaps the ball have equal numbers of teammates flanking him or her on the line.