NFHS Holding Penalty Distance

[Robert Goodman]

I don't have an exact answer, but it was a little after NCAA did in the 1980s.

At various times there were distance penalties ranging from 3 to 25 yards in the American game. NCAA for a long time advertised the gain in simplicity after they'd eliminated all but the 5- and 15-yard penalties, and so it stood for a long time. In 1924 (before Fed existed and before NFL had its own rules) the Football Rules Committee touted its elimination of the last 10-yard penalty, but for illegal use of hands I think they might've been reintroduced some time between then and the early 1950s before being increased again to 15.

NFL was the first to depart from that scheme, first differentiating between offense (15 yards) and defense (5 yards from previous spot + AFD), then marking the offense's penalty on pass plays (before the pass) from the previous spot, and finally reducing it to 10 yards. That series of changes started in the 1960s and continued into the 1970s.