The first legal forward pass in the history of football was thrown 120 years ago this month by Saint Louis University’s Bradbury Robinson. It fell incomplete (which was a turnover under the rules of the day), but it marked the beginning of football’s transition from a ground-and-pound, rugby-style slog to the wide-open game that has become the country’s most popular sport.
And it might have never happened if not for a concrete structure in Massachusetts.
