Wednesday, November 06, 2019

History - 150 Years ago the first College Football Game was played in New Jersey - Rutgers versus Princeton


The first college football game


College football generates billions of dollars each year in the U.S. But the game looked very different 150 years ago.

Rutgers and Princeton, two New Jersey colleges, faced off in the first match on Nov. 6, 1869, in front of about 100 spectators. Each team had 25 men on the field, and the ball couldn’t be carried or thrown — players advanced by kicking or batting it with their hands and feet.


On the field in 1869.  Rutgers University

The rules had been established a few years earlier by the London Football Association — meaning they were a lot closer to what the rest of the world would call football and Americans would call soccer. The game also featured elements of rugby.


The play was frantic and rough, and the men wore no padding or helmets. At one point, a distressed professor waved his umbrella and shouted, “You will come to no Christian end!”
Princeton had more muscle, but Rutgers was faster and better organized, according to an account in the Rutgers student newspaper. Rutgers won, 6-4.

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