This is the fascinating story of how class rivalry, economics, education, religion, the industrial revolution, and a few critical rules affected the various forms of football popular today. For many centuries people in societies all around the world engaged in activities that might be considered the forerunners of the various football games popular today. While it is true that people engaged in some form of a competitions involving two teams, a ball and goals, the modern games of soccer, rugby and American Football evolved in Great Britain in the last half of the 19th Century. They sprang from the various forms of “folk football” that had been played in Britain for nearly 1000 years. The games we are familiar with were ultimately created, however, over a few years by young men affiliated with a handful of elite schools in England and the United States.