Origin of Touchdown

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Tim Kraft from Indianapolis.

What’s on your mind language-wise?

Well, I wanted to find out about the origin of the word touchdown in football.

Are you a football player yourself?

Actually, no, I’m a referee for the sport that I think the word touchdown came from.

Oh.

Hockey?

Basketball?

Lawn bowling?

Lawn bowling.

No, I’m not a lawn bowling referee.

Curling?

So that’s another ball-based sport.

Maybe, what is it?

Rugby.

Really?

Yes.

You’re a rugby referee?

I’m the head referee for Indiana for rugby.

Hello.

Well, Tim, I would love for you to educate me for a minute.

At rugby, you can’t throw forward, right?

You have to throw back.

That’s right.

But the goal, like American football, still is to get the ball across that line at the far end of the field, right?

That’s right.

But the trick is in rugby, instead of just crossing the line, you must ground it or touch it down.

Right.

So your question is, does the touchdown that we know from American football actually derive from rugby?

Exactly.

Well, yeah, we may be the language experts.

I don’t know about the…

Yeah, the closest I come to know anything about sports…

I mean, is biscuit baking a sport?

I can make buttermilk biscuits until the sun comes up, but I don’t know anything about rugby or football.

You were in the chess club, weren’t you?

No, I was nerdier than that still.

I was doing anagrams, you know, in study hall.

Well, I tell you what, Tim, neither one of us is an expert about rugby,

But our chit-chat has given me enough time to at least look in the Oxford English Dictionary here.

And the first reference I see to touch down is a sentence in 1864,

And it’s talking about the old rugbyans.

Let’s see.

The old rugbyans soon touched the ball down in the school goal.

That sounds like rugby to me, and I think that 1864, that may even be before American football, Grant.

That would predate American football.

It depends on how you define American football because there were numerous sports that went by that name.

The rules overlapped somewhat but not completely, and it’s all about your starting point.

I see.

Well, Tim, I have a question for you.

How many people are on a rugby team?

Well, there are 15 players from each team on the field at the same time.

Wait, there are 30 people on the field at a time?

There are 30 people on the field and one referee.

Holy cow.

Okay, so you’ve anticipated my question, Tim.

How does it feel to have 15 big sweaty guys and all their friends mad at you?

You just have to make sure that they’re not mad at you.

You make the right call and they shouldn’t be mad at you, right?

Oh, sounds like a referee to me.

You always make the right call.

I see.

Okay, I get the picture.

And it looks like you’re…

Law seven in rugby is that the referee is the sole judge of fact on the field on the day.

So I’m out all the time.

So you could walk out there and say, you know, today, gentlemen, the sky is purple.

It’s not blue.

And you’re the law, right?

I’m the sole judge of fact.

That’s right.

Black is white and white is black.

And I’m your daddy.

So listen to me.

And we’re going to shoot at hoops today.

That’s just what we’re doing.

Well, Tim, as far as I can tell, you’re right about touchdown as well.

Perfect.

All right.

Thank you, Tim, for giving us a call.

Good luck out there with the season.

All right.

Thanks, guys.

Yeah, be careful out there.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Couldn’t do it, Martha.

Put that on my list of jobs that I’ll never have.

Rugby referee.

I wonder if the referee has his own bodyguard or his own locker room.

Can you imagine the towel snapping when the referee shows up?

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

Well, if you’ve got a question about language or language related to sports,

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