The velvet cap is a 'following up' cap. These were always, and are still, a school distinction but, as there is no school football cap, awarded in house colours. The origin is that when football was played with teams of unlimited numbers only the competent players were allowed to 'follow the ball up' - i.e. play in the centre field. The smaller and weaker boys kept goal in vast numbers. Players wore caps and goalkeepers wore top hats. When team numbers were reduced to twenty and later (just when Arthur Neville Chamberlain was at Rugby) to fifteen, the practice continued of awarding caps to all footballers of merit regardless of whether or not they played for the school in 'foreign' matches. [Extract of letter written by Mrs J Macroy, Rugby School Librarian.1988 c.]