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The 1869 Princeton vs. Rutgers football game was played between
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
and
Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and w ...
on November 6, 1869. The rules governing play were based on the London
Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...
's 1863 rules that disallowed carrying or throwing the ball.Best of the 1870s: The defining players and teams of college football’s first decade
by Matt Brown on The Athletic, 28 Jan 2019
For spectators, therefore, the game more closely resembled
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
than
gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...
. Moreover, the match was played with a soccer ball. As a result, it is considered the first
collegiate soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United King ...
match and the birth of soccer in the United States. Because gridiron football developed from the rules of association football and
rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...
, many also consider the game played on November 6 to be the first gridiron game and the first collegiate football game. Rutgers won the game 6–4.


Details and rules

Part of the first season of college football, the game took place on November 6, 1869 at a field on College Avenue (now the site of the College Avenue Gymnasium) in
New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city in and the seat of government of Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...
's rules of the time, in which two teams of 25 players attempted to score by kicking the ball into the opposing team's goal. The teams played 10 "games" against each other. When a team scored a goal, it counted as the end of that game, and the team with the most goals after 10 games was the winner. It is clear that this format did not resemble the game of
college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...
as known today.''THE BOSTON GAME''
article by Michael T. Geary at academia.edu
The first such game in the United States in which the ball is advanced by physically picking it up and running, where play is stopped by knocking down the ball carrier, and each team fields eleven members was played on June 4, 1875 between
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
and
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
colleges."THE FOOTBALL H: A CRIMSON H ON A BLACK SWEATER ''The H Book Of Harvard Athletics 1852 1922''
(archived, 21 Ago 2010)
and then
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
on November 13. That game caused Yale to drop association football in favour of rugby. William J. Leggett, later a distinguished clergyman of the
Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...
, was the Rutgers captain; William Gummere, who later became chief justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, captained the New Jersey squad. The game was played in front of approximately 100 spectators. The players from Rutgers wore scarlet-colored
turban A turban (from Persian دولبند‌, ''dulband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Communities with promin ...
s and
handkerchief A handkerchief (; also called a hankie or, historically, a handkercher or a ) is a form of a kerchief or bandanna, typically a hemmed square of thin fabric which can be carried in the pocket or handbag for personal hygiene purposes such as wi ...
s to distinguish themselves from the Princeton players. The scarlet of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights came from this episode.


Gameplay

As the first of the 10 games began, two players from each of the teams positioned themselves near the opponent's goal. This was presumably because the participants were hoping to easily score when the ball reached their territory on the field of play. On each team, there were eleven so-called "fielders" who were assigned to defend their own territorial area. There were 12 participants on each team that they named "bulldogs" who were the ones playing in the other team's territory. Rutgers was the first to score a goal, as S. G. Gano and G. R. Dixon successfully kicked the ball across the Princeton goal. At some point early in the contest, the " flying wedge" play was first used as the team with the ball formed a wall-like formation of players, allowing them to charge at the defenders. This flying wedge tactic was successful early on for Rutgers because of their size disadvantage over Princeton . However, Princeton countered the tactic when J.E. Michael, better known as "Big Mike", broke up the Rutgers' flying wedge during the fourth game. Princeton took advantage and tied the score at 2–2. A Rutgers player named Madison M. Ball, a wounded veteran of the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
, used his quickness and kicking the ball with the heel of his foot to again take the lead in the contest. Whenever the ball entered Rutgers territory, Ball would get in front of it and use a heel-kick to prevent Princeton from scoring. Ball was able to successfully use that technique to set up Dixon to score another goal which gave Rutgers a 4–2 lead. Rutgers then allowed Princeton to score a goal as one of their players, whose identity is not known, had kicked a ball towards their own goal. It was blocked by a Rutgers player, but Princeton soon was able to take advantage to cut the lead down to 4–3. The Tigers scored on their next possession when they used a flying wedge play of their own led by Big Mike to march down the field to score to tie the game again at 4. Rutgers
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
John W. Leggett had a strategy for his team at this point. He suggested that the Rutgers team keep the ball low on the ground to counter the much taller players on Princeton. This strategy appeared to work as Rutgers easily scored the final two goals of the contest to win the first intercollegiate football game played 6 games to 4. Princeton had more size, which would normally be an advantage on a field with 50 total players, but the Tigers had trouble kicking the ball as a team which is something Rutgers did very well. In a 1933 account, a Rutgers player from the game named John W. Herbert said that he thought Rutgers was the smaller team, but that they had more speed than Princeton .


Reports


Aftermath

In what might be considered a beginning to college football
rivalries A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...
, immediately after Rutgers won this game, Princeton's players were literally run out of town by the winning Rutgers students. The Princeton students reportedly jumped in their carriages and quickly made the 20-mile trip back to their campus. Fifty years after the historic first game, members of the 1869 Rutgers football team were honored at Homecoming ceremonies in 1918. The last surviving player of Princeton, Robert Preston Lane (b. 1872) died in November 1938, while the last surviving Rutgers player, George H. Large (b. 1872) died in 1939.The first game
at Rutgers (archived, 4 Oct 2017)
In 1968,
Arnold Friberg Arnold Friberg (December 21, 1913 – July 1, 2010) was an American illustrator and painter noted for his religious and patriotic works. He is perhaps best known for his 1975 painting ''The Prayer at Valley Forge'', a depiction of George Wa ...
was commissioned by
Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ou ...
to create a painting commemorating the game. His work '' The First Game'' was one of four works that he created to celebrate 100 years of college football.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Princeton vs. Rutgers football game 1869 1869 college football season vs. Rutgers 1869 vs. Princeton 1869 1869 in sports in New Jersey November 1869 sports events History of soccer in the United States