Уолтер Кэмп – «Американ футболдың әкесі»

American football player and coach (1859–1925)
the American football coach

Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American college football player and coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system of downs. With John Heisman, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Fielding H. Yost, and George Halas, Camp was one of the most accomplished persons in the early history of American football. He attended Yale College, where he played and coached college football. Camp's Yale teams of 1888, 1891, and 1892 have been recognized as national champions. Camp was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach during 1951. Camp wrote articles and books on the gridiron and sports in general, annually publishing an "All American" team. By the time of his death, he had written nearly 30 books and more than 250 magazine articles. The annual Walter Camp Award is named in his honor, recognizing the best all around collegiate football player.

Camp was born in New Britain, Connecticut, the son of Leverett Camp and Ellen Sophia (Cornwell) Camp. Walter Camp was of English descent. His first immigrant ancestor was the English colonist Nicholas Camp, who came from Nazeing, Essex, England and arrived in colonial New England in 1630, arriving first in Massachusetts and then moving to Connecticut that same year. Walter attended Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, entered Yale College in 1875, and graduated in 1880. At Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the Linonian Society, and Skull and Bones. Harvard player Nathaniel Curtis took one look at Camp, then only 156 pounds, and told Yale captain Gene Baker "You don't mean to let that child play, do you? He will get hurt."

On June 30, 1888, Camp married Alice Graham Sumner, sister of sociologist William Graham Sumner. They had two children: Walter Camp Jr. (1891–1940), who attended Yale as well and was elected as a member of Scroll and Key in 1912, and Janet Camp Troxell (1897–1987). Camp is buried with his wife and children in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven. He was an Episcopalian.

Camp served as the head football coach at Yale from 1888 to 1892. In his time with Yale, the team won 67 games and lost just 2 games. He then moved on to Stanford University, where he coached in December 1892 and in 1894 and 1895. On Christmas Day, 1894, Amos Alonzo Stagg and his University of Chicago Maroons defeated Camp's Stanford team 24–4 at San Francisco in an early intersectional contest.

Camp was on the various collegiate football rules committees that developed the American game from his time as a player at Yale until his death. English rugby football rules at the time required a tackled player, when the ball was "fairly held," to put the ball down immediately for scrummage. Camp proposed at the U. S. College Football 1880 rules convention that the contested scrum be replaced with a "line of scrimmage" where the team with the ball started with uncontested possession. This change effectively created the evolution of the modern game of American football from its rugby football origins. He is credited with innovations such as the snap back from center, the system of downs, and the points system as well as the introduction of what became a standard offensive arrangement of players—a seven man line and a four man backfield consisting of a quarterback, two halfbacks, and a fullback. Camp was also responsible for introducing the "safety," the awarding of two points to the defensive side for tackling a ball carrier in his own end zone followed by a free kick by the offense from its own 20 yard line to restart play. This is significant as rugby union has no point value award for this action, but instead awards a scrum to the attacking side five meters from the goal line. In 2011, reviewing Camp's role in the founding of the sport and of the NCAA, Taylor Branch also credited Camp with cutting the number of players on a football team from 15 to 11 and adding measuring lines to the field. However, Branch noted that the revelation in a contemporaneous McClure's magazine story of "Camp's $100,000 slush fund," along with concern about the violence of the growing sport, helped lead to President Theodore Roosevelt's intervention in the sport. The NCAA emerged from the national talks, but worked to Yale's disadvantage relative to rival (and Roosevelt's alma mater) Harvard, according to Branch.

Despite having a full time job at the New Haven Clock Company, a Camp family business, and being an unpaid yet very involved adviser to the Yale football team, Camp wrote articles and books on the gridiron and sports in general. By the time of his death, he had written nearly 30 books and more than 250 magazine articles. His articles appeared in national periodicals such as Harper's Weekly, Collier's, Outing, Outlook, and The Independent, and in juvenile magazines such as St. Nicholas, Youth's Companion, and Boys' Magazine. His stories also appeared in major daily newspapers throughout the United States. He also selected an annual "All American" team. By the age of 33, twelve years after graduating from Yale, Walter Camp had already become known as the "Father of Football." In a column in the popular magazine Harper's Weekly, sports columnist Caspar Whitney had applied the nickname; the sobriquet was appropriate because, by 1892, Camp had almost single handedly fashioned the game of modern American football. Camp was editor for several sports books published by the Spalding Athletic Library.

Camp died of a heart attack on March 14, 1925, in New York City.