An American Football field from 1903 would look vaguely familiar to a modern fan of football. The playing area is 110 yards wide, just 10 yards more than today’s 100 yards. The goal posts are still 18′ 6″ wide with a 10 foot high crossbar. And, there are yard lines marking every 5 yards across the field, albeit without numbers.
However, at the end of each field is the goal line. There was nothing beyond it. What we know as the End Zone and the End Line wouldn’t arrive until 1912. There was no forward passing, so the only way to score a touchdown was by running the ball past the goal line.
An offense that was backed up deep into their side of the field could, theoretically, run backwards as far back behind their goal line as they wished. A touchback or safety required the ball to become dead behind the goal line. This would happen by being tackled, shouting “down”, or running out of bounds through the infinite sideline.
The biggest difference, at least visually, would be the yard lines running along the length of the field between the 25-yard lines. These lines were used to help officials with new rules in place for the 1903 season.
Between the 25-yard lines, the offense could no longer have more than 7 players on the line of scrimmage. The older style of play was permitted closer to the goal line.
Additionally, the quarterback was now allowed to run with the ball. Prior to 1903, the “snapper-back” (modern day Center) and the quarterback were not allowed to advance the ball until after a third person handled it. For the 1903 season, the quarterback could now run with the ball between the 25-yard lines IF and only IF they crossed the line of scrimmage more than 5 yards from where the ball was snapped. To help the officials determine if the 5 yard rule was followed, these additional lines were added giving the middle half of the field a checkerboard appearance. It was allowed by the rules for these new lines to be smaller dashes, a forerunner to the hashmarks that exist on the field today.
Finally, this would be the final year that a “Goal from Field” would be the same as or worth more than a touchdown. From 1898 through the 1903 season, the scoring system was:
| Name | Points |
| Touchdown | 5 |
| Goal after Touchdown | 1 |
| Goal from Field | 5 |
| Safety | 2 |