Lesson plan
Burnside rules
and Toronto Argonauts, 1924 The Burnside rules were a set of rules that transformed Canadian football from a rugby-style game to the gridiron-style game it has remained ever since. The rules were first adopted by the Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1903, and were named after John Thrift Meldrum Burnside, captain of the University of Toronto football team (although he did not originate them). The Burnside rules introduced sweeping changes to the way football was played. The rules included: *a reduction from 15 to 12 players per side *a reduction from 8 to 6 men allowed on the line of scrimmage when the ball was put into play *the "snap-back" system in which the ball was passed backward from a static line of scrimmage by the centre *a requirement for a team to make ten yards in three successive downs or lose possession of the ball Although similar, Burnside rules had many differences and evolved separately from the American football rules already in place at the time. The American code had been developed by Walter Camp in the 1880s (later on, it made some modifications to its rules). Although these rules are standard today, at the time they were considered radical. Other teams outside the Ontario Rugby Football Union refused to adopt them until 1921. For the 1906 season they did adopt the Inter-Collegiate rules of 10 yards to gain in 3 downs.…
Article summary
and Toronto Argonauts, 1924 The Burnside rules were a set of rules that transformed Canadian football from a rugby-style game to the gridiron-style game it has remained ever since. The rules were first adopted by the Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1903, and were named after John Thrift Meldrum Burnside, captain of the University of Toronto football team (although he did not originate them). The Burnside rules introduced sweeping changes to the way football was played. The rules included: *a reduction from 15 to 12 players per side *a reduction from 8 to 6 men allowed on the line of scrimmage when the ball was put into play *the "snap-back" system in which the ball was passed backward from a static line of scrimmage by the centre *a requirement for a team to make ten yards in three successive downs or lose possession of the ball Although similar, Burnside rules had many differences and evolved separately from the American football rules already in place at the time. The American code had been developed by Walter Camp in the 1880s (later on, it made some modifications to its rules). Although these rules are standard today, at the time they were considered radical. Other teams outside the Ontario Rugby Football Union refused to adopt them until 1921. For the 1906 season they did adopt the Inter-Collegiate rules of 10 yards to gain in 3 downs.…
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
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