The gridiron gallery.

What institution symbolizes America's competitive spirit better than the game of football? Ah, football. Where the delicate spiral of a perfect pass, or the nimblefooted magic of a runmug back zigging and zagging through the forest of lusting arms, contrasts with the huddled masses on the scrimmage line yearning to heat their opponents to the punch when the ball is snapped.

Through football's origins go back some 2,500 years, the modern game is uniquely American. At the turn of the century, Ivy League schools were playing formally scheduled contests, though they resembled nothing more than a loosely controlled brawl similar to rugby.

To tame this mayhem, President Theodore Roosevelt scheduled a roundtable discussion in 1906 with the presidents of Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. Out of it came the rules that pretty much define football today.

Strategy, training, and talent replaced the mob rules of early games. And with this change m competition from "kill" to skill. eager participants and enthusiastic fans began flocking to the games in greater numbers.

Over the decades. Post covers have celebrated this love affair with the pigskin--which we now illustrate with our gridiron gallery of scenes from yesteryear.