he new ideas and proposals from the12 January 1906 meeting had really changed the brutal fisticuff style of play to a more wide open game. That very meeting and the ones shortly thereafter laid the foundation for the game of today by introducing the forward pass.

Strangely enough, the saying that "the more things change, the more they stay the same" describes the impact of the forward pass on American football; for it had been the most important aspect of the ancient Spartan game of harpaston. Most authorities agree that football evolved from that game. Parke H. Davis tells us in his book Football: The American Intercollegiate Game that the very word harpaston was derived from the long forward pass that started every game.