University of Pennsylvania

the rugby union rules. Princeton and Penn played their November 1876 game per a combination of rugby (there were 20 players per side and players were able to touch the ball with their hands) and Association football codes. The rugby code influence was due, in part, to the fact that some of their students had been educated in English public schools. Among the prominent alumni to play in a 19th-century version of rugby in which rules then did not allow forward passes or center snaps was John Heisman, namesake of the Heisman Trophy and an 1892 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Heisman was instrumental in the first decade of the 20th century in changing the rules to more closely relate to the present rules of American football. One of Heisman's teammates (who was unanimously voted Captain in the fall after Heisman graduated) was Harry Arista Mackey, Penn Law class of 1893 (who subsequently served as Mayor of Philadelphia from 1928 to 1932).
In 1906, Rugby per Rugby Union code was reintroduced …