1869, November 6 - Rutgers and Princeton universities met in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for the first intercollegiate football game. Rutgers won by a score of six goals to four. Each team used 25 players at a time. By 1873 the number was reduced to 20 players, in 1876 to 15 players, and in 1880 to 11 players, where it has remained.
1873 - Representatives from Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, and Yale met in New York City to formulate the first intercollegiate football rules. These four teams established the Intercollegiate Football Association, and set as fifteen the number of players allowed on each team. Walter Camp wasthe coach at Yale and a dissenter from the IFA over his desire for an eleven-man team. The IFA�s rules committee, led by Camp, soon cut the number of players from fifteen to eleven, and also instituted the size of the playing field, at one hundred ten yards.
1882 - Camp also introduced the system of downs, allowing three attempts to advance the ball five yards.
1888 - Tackling below the waist was legalized.
1892 - On November 12 William "Pudge" Heffelfinger, a former Yale guard and three time All American, became the first "professional" football player when he openly accepted $500 for one game from the Allegheny Athletic Association in Pittsburgh. The AAA defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club 4-0. Touchdowns at the time were worth two points.
1895 - Professional football was first played soon after the demise of the Intercollegiate Football Association.
1905 - Concern over the increasing brutality of the game led to its ban by some colleges. Nearly180 players had suffered serious injuries, and 18 deaths had been reported from the brutal mass plays that had become common in practice. President Theodore Roosevelt called upon Harvard, Princeton, and Yale to help save the sport from demise. At a meeting between the schools, reform was agreed upon, and at a second meeting, attended by more than sixty other schools, the group appointed a seven member Rules Committee and set up what would later become known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or the NCAA.
1906 � Legalization of the forward pass, which resulted in a more open style of play on the field. The committee prohibited the rough mass plays, which once caused so many serious injuries, and even deaths. Also prohibited was the locking of arms by teammates in an effort to clear the way for their ball carriers. The length of the game was shortened, from seventy to sixty minutes, and the neutral zone, which separates the teams by the length of the ball before each play begins, was also established. Downs were changed to ten yards.
1912 - The fourth down was added.
1917 � The first Cocke County team was formed consisting of 13 players. Reports of the first games referred to the team as "Central High" although no information is available to explain why.
1920 - American Professional Football Association was formed. The admission fee was $100 per team. The teams pledged not to use any student player who still had collegiate eligibility left, as the good will of the colleges was believed to be essential to survival. The teams also agreed not to tamper with each other's players. Jim Thorpe, a player-coach for one of the teams, became president of the league during its first year.
1922 - The American Professional Football Association gave way to the National Football League (NFL). Unlike the APFA, which handed out franchises far and wide with little discretion, the NFL, from 1946-49, was limited to ten teams. The APFA, on the other hand, consisted of 23 teams in the year between its inception and the changeover in becoming the NFL.
1934 - On September 28, the Central (now Cocke County) team was traveling by truck to Pennington Gap, VA for a game. During the trip, the truck went out of control on Stickleyville Mountain, plunged down a steep bank and overturned six times. Two players were fatally wounded and many others were injured.
1967 � On September 15, the first game was played at the newly built and dedicated field. The facility was named Cocke County Stadium � Hedrick Field.
1970 - A merger combined sixteen NFL teams with ten AFL teams to comprise one league with two conferences. In the 1980�s, further expansion was proposed and by the 93-94 NFL season, approval was given for a 30-team league. The next step towards growth of the league would be to realign the NFL into eight different divisions, each with four teams.
1946-49 - All-American Football conference.
1960 � 69 American Football League.
1966 - On November 27, the highest scoring game in NFL history was played by the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants. The Redskins won 72 - 41.
1974 -75 World Football League.
1974 � A new weight training facility was added and dedicated to the memory of Coach Gene Phillips.
1987 - Arena Football debuted, an indoor league played in the spring with eight man teams.
1997 - On Ocotber 3, The five surviving members of the Central High team involved in the accident of 1934 were honored at half-time of the CCHS - Morristown West game and presented a plaque in honor and in memory of the team and coach.
1999 - On January 4th, the Tennessee Volunteers closed out a perfect 13-0 season with a 23-16 win over the Florida State Seminoles to become the National Champions of college football for 1998.