Illinois high school football kickoff

[Robert Goodman]

BTW, the penalty options for this have been one of the most tinkered-with in the history of football.

There was a time in the NCAA when the option to make them kick again 5 yds. back did not exist, and Spalding's Foot Ball Guide noted (in reporting the reason for the addition of that option) that teams did kick out of bounds deliberately, noting that with practice time being limited, kickoff coverage was sometimes sleighted.

For a while in the 19th Century, the penalty for kicking off out of bounds (which IIRC could not be declined) was to repeat the kickoff at the same spot (center of the field). For the 2nd consecutive offense, the right to kick off went to the other team. If they too kicked off out of bounds twice consecutively, I forgot whether the first team got 1 or 2 chances again, but eventually one team would scrimmage at the spot. Can you imagine the tedium of that ritual?

Robert