ESCAMBIA UNIVERSITY INVENTED FOOTBALL
Pensacola Was The Center Of The Football World
Many people erroneously believe that the game of football was invented on college campuses in the late 1890's. As the theory goes, youngsters tried to invent a new game based on the European games of Rugby and Soccer. The truth is, the modern game of Football was invented in Pensacola, Florida.

Originally, the game was based on common thievery between young toughs from North Pensacola (now simply: Pensacola) and North Pensacola Light (now: Milton). Roving gangs from each town would descend on their neighbor and steal a pig and race back to their own town. Each village would try to intercept the other group and recapture their pig.



A young Pensacola area tough is depicted pursuing a pig on what would later be called Nine Mile Road. As the security camera would not be invented for years to come, wealthy people would often station sketch artists in trees to guard their property and record possible wrong doing.

Pensacola residents observed the pig theft phenomenon and in the 1880's devised a plan to acquire all of the pigs in the Escambia County area. The North Pensacola people devised an intricate scheme of maneuvers and set movements to enable them to escape with the pigs. Since pig theft was a criminal offense at the time, this group was called the "Offense" unit. A separate unit of Pensacola residents would be assigned certain schemes to defend the pig pens on the Milton side. They were called the "Defense" unit. A tremendous breakthrough occurred in 1885 when a North Pensacola raider completed the first forward pig in history. By tossing his pig ahead to another raider he was able to escape interception by the other town. Life in all of Pensacola being about as boring then as it is today, many spectators would gather to watch the encounters. Whenever a pig was successfully tossed forward,  spectators would shout: "He made a pig's ass out of you." The term for this ploy was soon called completing a "pig's ass" It was later shortened to P's Ass or pass.



A Pensacola player turns to catch a "pig's ass" or "pass" as the maneuver was eventually called. Once an inflated ball was introduced to replace the live pig, the pass and other such innovations made Pensacola the center of the new sport.

Eventually the pig thefts acquired 'game' status among the young men in the surrounding towns. By making these encounters an organized sport, young men were able to avoid the arrest records of their earlier counterparts. Pensacola residents, having the only college in the entire valley, created a set of written rules and introduced the use of an air filled ball in place of the live pig. Use of the air filled ball,  rather than a live pig, certainly made extra points and field goals easier. The first photo below is of the last team to win a championship using a live pig. The year was 1885 and you can see a live pig wiggling in the arms of the Escambia University's captain. That team went 20-0 and was regarded as the team of the century in the "Live Pig" era.

1885...The greatest team of the "Live Pig Era."


The  photo below was taken the next year when the Escambia University team inaugurated the "Pigskin" era using the air filled ball. Using the air filled ball made punts and field goals much easier to perform. That team went 20-0. Sadly, no other local college ever attempted to field a football team in the face of the great records of Escambia University.  It appears that even Florida State University has given up competitive football.


The undefeated Escambia University  Team of 1886.  The greatest team of the post live
pig era.  The letter "M" stood for meshugener—a tribute to their wild and energetic play.