The shape of a modern football was never purposefully engineered. It was a gradual evolution driven by happenstance and necessity. One eyewitness account of the sport's first intercollegiate game back in 1869 claims the ball was spherical, but breathless players tasked with puffing it back up between plays left the job half-done and the ball lopsided. It turns out that an oval shape is easier for carrying and catching, so the ball slimmed and tapered over the decades. The invention and eventual proliferation of the forward pass necessitated even more streamlining. By the time Hunter Henry turned to heave a desperation lateral on the final drive of last season's Ole Miss-Arkansas game, the football had reached its current shape: what technical nomenclature refers to as a prolate spheroid.
Ole Miss looks to make its own luck against Arkansas on Saturday
