How the Forward Pass Became Legal

By 4Football Staff · September 25, 2026 · 10 min read

For decades football had no forward pass. The 1906 reforms allowed it with heavy limits, and it took years of rule changes and a few famous games before passing became central.

A modern football game without throwing the ball forward is almost impossible to imagine. Quarterbacks, receivers, route trees, pass rushers and the shouting about pass interference all depend on a rule that did not exist for the first few decades of the sport. For a long time, a player who threw the ball forward was breaking the rules.

The story of how the forward pass became legal is often told as a simple tale: the game was too violent, President Roosevelt stepped in, and the pass was invented. The real story is slower and more interesting. The pass was legalized in 1906 as part of a package of reforms, but it came with so many restrictions that it was a risky tool for years. It took a series of further rule changes, some enterprising coaches and a famous game in 1913 before passing became a normal part of offense.

This article explains the reasoning behind the original ban, the 1906 decision, the early limits, the first documented passes, the rule changes that followed, and how the modern pass rule works at a basic level.

Why the pass was illegal

The early American game came from rugby, and rugby does not allow a forward pass. In rugby, a player may pass the ball only sideways or backward. The idea is that players must advance the ball by running with it or kicking it, and that a team gains ground by carrying the ball forward through its opponent. A forward pass would let a team gain ground without ever being tackled, which rugby players considered unfair.

When American colleges adopted rugby-based rules in the 1870s, they kept the ban. By the time Walter Camp and his colleagues created downs and a line of scrimmage, the ban was just part of the rule book. Plays could include a lateral toss to a teammate, which is a backward or sideways pass and remains legal. Forward throws were not.

You may read about earlier throws in games before 1906. Some stories attribute a forward pass to specific players in the 1870s or 1890s. These claims are hard to verify, and where a pass did occur it was typically unusual or illegal at the time. Treat any such story as a curiosity.

The pressure to change

As the previous articles in this series describe, by the early twentieth century football was dominated by mass plays: players bunched together and pushed the ball carrier forward a few yards at a time. Without a way to threaten the defense across the field, offenses relied on force, and injuries mounted. After the 1905 season the crisis reached the point where reformers had to act. The article on the 1905 crisis covers that process.

Rule makers looked for ways to open the game. They wanted to spread the players out, which would reduce the pile-ups and reward speed and skill alongside power. A forward pass seemed to fit. If a team could throw the ball, then the defense could not pack itself near the line of scrimmage, and the offense would have more room to work.

A number of coaches argued for the pass. John Heisman, who coached at several colleges and for whom the Heisman Trophy is named, and Amos Alonzo Stagg, a long-time coach at the University of Chicago, are among those often credited with urging rule makers to adopt it. It would be a mistake to treat the idea as belonging to any one person. By the winter of 1905 to 1906, the case for allowing a forward pass had many supporters, and the newly combined rules committee approved it.

The 1906 rule and its restrictions

The forward pass became legal for the 1906 season. But the rule makers were cautious, and the original rules made passing difficult and risky. The details are told somewhat differently in various sources, so the following should be read as the main outlines.

• Penalties for failure. An incomplete pass brought a significant penalty. That discouraged teams from trying, since a failed throw cost far more than a failed run.
• Limits on where the pass could be thrown from. The rules set conditions on the passer's position that made it harder to use the pass on every down.
• Limits on receivers. Only certain players were allowed to catch a forward pass, and the rules were strict about who could touch the ball.
• No touchdown passes for several years. For some time a pass that ended in the end zone did not count as a score in the way a run did. That restriction was removed later.
• Other reforms at the same time. Rule makers also lengthened the distance needed for a first down, created a neutral zone and required a minimum number of players on the line, which together were meant to reduce mass plays.

With rules like these, you might wonder why anyone threw the ball. The answer is that some coaches saw the opportunity. The pass was legal, and a team willing to take the risk could catch a defense by surprise.

The first passes

Which was the first legal forward pass in a game? The most common answer points to a game on September 5, 1906, between Saint Louis University and Carroll College of Wisconsin. Saint Louis's coach, Eddie Cochems, had worked on a passing game with his players, and quarterback Bradbury Robinson threw to teammate Jack Schneider for a touchdown. This is frequently cited as the first completed forward pass under the new rules. Robinson's first attempt in the game fell incomplete, and under the rules of the time that meant a turnover. The later completion is the one history remembers.

Other schools also experimented in 1906, and several claim early passes. Because record keeping at the time was uneven, it is wise to say "often cited as the first" rather than "was the first." The main point is not which team threw first, but that coaches such as Cochems realized the new rule offered an opportunity.

Passing remained an occasional weapon for a few seasons. Many teams used it only in desperation, and the dominant style of play continued to be running the ball. One reason was the ball itself: the football of that era was fatter and rounder than today's, which made it harder to throw accurately. A later article covers how the ball changed over time.

1910 and 1912: loosening the limits

Rule makers kept modifying the pass rule. Two sets of changes matter most.

1. 1910. Rules about where the passer could throw from were relaxed, so that a quarterback could throw from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage under the college rules. The same rules introduced a limit on how far a pass could travel past the line of scrimmage, which kept the pass a short-range tool. In the same year the reforms that created four quarters and required seven players on the line were also adopted.
2. 1912. The limit on the length of a pass was removed, and a pass caught in the end zone could be a touchdown. The field was set at one hundred yards between goal lines with ten-yard end zones, the touchdown was set at six points, and a team received four downs to gain ten yards.

After 1912 the structure of the game looked much more like the one we know. A team could throw deep, receivers could score through the air and a defense had to worry about space behind it. The change in the 1912 rules was not just about the pass: it was a general redesign of the field and scoring. But the pass was a major part of it.

The 1913 game that changed minds

If one game is credited with showing the country what a forward pass could do, it is the contest on November 1, 1913, between Notre Dame and the United States Military Academy at West Point. Notre Dame, a school from Indiana that was not yet a national power, used a passing attack led by quarterback Gus Dorais and end Knute Rockne against Army, which had a strong team. Notre Dame won, 35 to 13.

Historians sometimes warn against calling this the invention of the forward pass. Passes had been thrown for seven seasons by then, and by the usual telling Notre Dame's passers and receivers had spent the previous summer practicing. But the game was played on a big stage against a respected opponent, and the combination of accurate throwing and quick receivers made a strong impression. Sportswriters wrote about it, coaches studied it and the idea that a team could win with a balanced attack spread.

So the right way to think about 1913 is as a demonstration. The pass was already legal and already used, but this game helped persuade skeptical coaches that it could work against a top team.

The ball, the rules and the long road to a passing game

Even after 1913, football remained a running game for many years. Several things held back the pass.

• The shape of the ball. The early ball was thick in the middle, and it was easier to run with or kick than to throw. In the 1930s, rule makers narrowed the ball, which made it easier to grip and throw.
• Restrictions that lingered. In the professional game, a passer had to throw from at least five yards behind the line of scrimmage until the NFL changed the rule in 1933 to allow passing from anywhere behind the line.
• Coaching conservatism. Many coaches thought passing was a gamble, and they preferred to run the ball and kick.
• Defensive adjustments. Defenses had to learn how to cover receivers, and early coverage was crude, so offenses could not always count on easy completions.

Over the next decades, new formations changed how teams used the pass. The article on the T formation and the modernization of the quarterback covers one of the biggest shifts.

How the modern pass rule works

The detailed rules differ at the NFL, college and high school levels, so check the rule book for the level you care about. Several basic ideas are common to all of them.

• A forward pass is thrown from behind the line of scrimmage toward the opponent's goal line. A team is allowed one forward pass per play.
• The passer must be behind the line of scrimmage when the ball leaves his hand.
• Only eligible receivers may legally catch a forward pass, and rules identify who they are by position and number.
• A backward or lateral pass is a pass thrown sideways or backward, and it is legal to throw them from anywhere on the field, any number of times. If a backward pass hits the ground it is a live ball, like a fumble. The article on telling forward passes, backward passes and fumbles apart explains the distinctions in detail.
• Defenders may not interfere with a receiver's chance to catch a pass, and a related set of rules protects the quarterback and receivers. Some of those rules are covered in the article on pass interference.

Those rules are the descendants of the 1906 decision. The original rule had many limits, and almost all were removed or rewritten, but the central idea, that a team may throw the ball forward once per play from behind the line, remains.

Common questions

Was the forward pass legal before 1906?

No. Under the rules of most of the nineteenth century, throwing the ball forward was prohibited. Backward and sideways passes were allowed.

Did the forward pass make football safer?

It was introduced in the hope of reducing mass plays, but the effect was gradual, and football remained dangerous for years. Safety improved through a long series of rule and equipment changes, not through a single rule.

Who threw the first forward pass?

There is no single agreed answer. A pass by Bradbury Robinson of Saint Louis University in September 1906 is often cited as the first completed pass under the new rule, but other schools have claims, and the records are incomplete.

Does the pass rule differ today by level?

Yes. The NFL, the college rules and the high school rules differ in details such as how pass interference is penalized and what counts as a catch. Check the current rule book for your level.

Seeing the pass today

Every pass you see in a game traces to the 1906 rules. You can follow how teams throw the ball on our scores page, compare passing production on the leaders page, and see the quarterbacks on a team through the teams page. Fantasy managers who rely on passing yards and touchdowns, a topic covered at our fantasy page, are working inside a scoring system that would have been impossible to imagine in 1900.

The short version

• Forward passes were illegal in American football's first decades because the game inherited rugby's rule that the ball can only be passed sideways or backward.
• The pass was legalized in 1906 as part of reforms after the 1905 injury crisis, but with heavy penalties and restrictions that made it a risky choice.
• A game on September 5, 1906, between Saint Louis University and Carroll College is often cited as featuring the first completed legal forward pass.
• The 1910 and 1912 rule changes loosened the limits, allowed touchdown passes and set the field and scoring structure we recognize today.
• Notre Dame's 1913 win over Army demonstrated passing to a national audience, but it did not invent the pass.
• The modern rule allows one forward pass per play, thrown from behind the line of scrimmage, to an eligible receiver, with details that vary by level.