The 1939 Waynesburg vs. Fordham football game was a

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 rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

game between the

Fordham Rams The Fordham Rams are the varsity sports teams for Fordham University. Their colors are maroon and white. The Fordham Rams are members of NCAA Division I and compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference for most sports. In football, the Rams play in t ...

and the played on September 30, 1939. The game was played at

Triborough Stadium Downing Stadium, previously known as Triborough Stadium and Randall's Island Stadium, was a 22,000-seat stadium in New York City. It was renamed Downing Stadium in 1955 after John J. Downing, a director at the New York City Department of Parks a ...

on New York City's

Randall's Island Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Islands, in New York County, New York City,

. Fordham won the game 34–7. Broadcast by NBC, the contest was the first American football game ever televised.

Game play

Fordham entered the game a pre-season pick for the national championship, but the first score was completed by Waynesburg when Bobby Brooks completed a 63-yard run for a touchdown on the third play of the game. Waynesburg only scored in the first quarter but managed to keep Fordham within reach during the early part of the game. Fordham scored in every quarter, leaving the final score at 34–7. Fordham's offense managed sixteen first downs and 337 yards, while Waynesburg managed only five first downs for a total of 157 yards. Fordham blocked a punt in both the first and second halves of the game and recorded an interception in the fourth quarter that the offense was able to turn into a touchdown.

Sports broadcasting firsts

NBC broadcast the game on station

W2XBS WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...

with one camera and Bill Stern was the sole announcer. Estimates are that the broadcast reached approximately 1,000 television sets. The game came just one month after the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

hosted the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

in the first-ever televised professional baseball game, and five months after the Princeton and

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

baseball teams played the first televised sporting event. Sports broadcasting continued less than one month later on October 22 with a telecast of a game between the now-defunct Brooklyn "Football" Dodgers and the Philadelphia Eagles at Ebbets Field. Brooklyn won 24–14 in what became the first televised professional football game. On February 28, 1940, the University of Pittsburgh played Fordham at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

in the first televised basketball game. College football on television continued with the second televised college game just one month later, on October 28, when the

Kansas State Wildcats The Kansas State Wildcats (variously "Kansas State", "K-State", or "KSU") are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are generally used as c ...

hosted the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

for their homecoming contest.

Other claims

Sources have cited a University of Pennsylvania home football game from 1938 as the first televised football game. This is likely due to the 1981 NCAA Television Briefing Book, which said However, this game occurred before the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

, which marked the beginning of regularly scheduled television broadcasts."Television in the World of Tomorrow"
Retrieved December 5, 2010. This, along with the fact that the game was broadcast to the Philco laboratories, likely means the game was used as a field test. The University of Pennsylvania hosted the first full schedule of televised college football games—seven in all—in 1940.
Retrieved December 5, 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waynesburg vs. Fordham football game 1939 1939 college football season vs. Waynesburg 1939 vs. Fordham 1939 History of television in the United States September 1939 sports events 1939 in sports in New York City Football on NBC Randalls and Wards Islands

Game play

Sports broadcasting firsts

Other claims

See also

References