MANSFIELD, Pa. (AP) - On a recent sunny afternoon in this small northern Pennsylvania college town, a group of students and 30-somethings locked arms and charged up the field on offense in a "V" formation before grappling and jostling with the defense.

An hour into this lighthearted but physical practice for a re-enactment of pre-1905 football, it's easy to see why the wedge formation was tossed out of the playbook 100 years ago.

"You're just basically beating each other down trying to advance the ball. There's some blood every year," said Mansfield University junior Bill Koenig, shaking his head side to side with a grin. "Last year, I got a bloody lip."

It's an odd milestone, but the end of "mass play" formations such as the flying wedge in 1905 brought about an organization now synonymous with intercollegiate athletics: the NCAA.

The re-enactment, which occurs every year in late September, actually is performed to celebrate the first night football game, played at Mansfield in 1892. The eight-play script is chock full of pre-1905 mass-formation plays.

On the play called the "V-trick," Koenig might have the toughest job _ he's the point man on the "V," or wedge formation, that hurtles toward a stationary defensive front. Koenig locked arms with teammates before screaming and charging up the field in front of the ball carrier, Jon Holtz.

In seconds, the two sides careened into each other and the good-natured chaos began. Players grunted. Arms and legs flailed. Holtz finally broke free but then was clotheslined by a defender in the open field.

"I got the safest part during the wedge," Holtz said. "But I get my butt kicked more than anybody else, I think."

The hit on Holtz from 6-foot-8 Bobby Bruce was more of a mock, WWF-style clothesline _ this is just a re-enactment, after all.

"Guys, I'd really like more definition on the wedge," Steve McCloskey, Mansfield's sports information director, interjected after most plays. McCloskey is part coach and part director of the re-enactment.

"These were all plays that, sadly, were, eliminated 100 years ago," McCloskey said sarcastically.

It wasn't funny in 1905. According to accounts from the NCAA, there were 18 deaths and 149 serious injuries that college football season and widespread doubts about the safety and future of the sport.

In 1905, there was no forward pass, no neutral zone, and no helmets or face guards. The thin pads that were worn didn't offer much protection. Only five yards were needed for a first down.

"So there was no reason to run outside or to try any risky kind of play," said Kent Stephens, curator of the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind. "You could mass your way down the field for short gains."

Stephens said plays had names like "The Horse's Neck" or "King's Tandem," while the forerunner of mass plays was the "V-trick," which debuted in 1884. It was one of the wedge-like plays practiced at Mansfield.

The actual flying wedge play was used on kickoffs. The "flying" part came about because the team with the ball would dash about 30 yards with arms interlocked and in a wedge formation to protect the ball carrier as it tried to bull rush through the opponent's line.

Even President Theodore Roosevelt urged reform in 1905. In December of that year, school officials met twice in New York _ and out of those meetings was born the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States.

The schools approved the forward pass, increased first-down yardage to 10 yards and prohibited mass momentum plays (by requiring at least six men on the offensive line), according to NCAA accounts.

"They knew they had to do something to change the game of football or the game was doomed," Stephens said.

The IAA changed its name to the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910.

These days, the outlawed plays still are run at least once a year, at the Mansfield exhibition. Most people involved in the eight-play re-enactment are from the university's track and field team; others work at the school.

They wear period uniforms _ tight football pants laced up the front and canvas-like vest tops over shirts _ that, from afar, look like outfits ballet dancers would wear. The script is filled with sight gags, like a water boy who is supposed to throw water on an injured player, or a player whose pants are supposed to be pulled down while being tackled.

The practices occur on an otherwise empty campus softball field, but thousands were expected for the actual re-enactment at a downtown park.

Holtz and other players say they look forward to running the plays, though they know it will get physical. Last year, two participants got concussions and another player needed seven stitches, he said.

"It gets more amped up every year," he said. "It never gets old."