| 1869 college football season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total No. of teams | 2 | |||
| Regular season | November 6–13, 1869 | |||
| Champion(s) | Princeton Rutgers | |||
| ||||
The1869 college football season was the first season ofintercollegiate football in the United States. The teams played using improvised rules more closely resemblingsoccer andrugby than moderngridiron football, it is traditionally considered the inauguralcollege football season. The 1869 season consisted of only two games, both between Rutgers College, now known asRutgers University, and the College of New Jersey, now known asPrinceton University. Thefirst game was played on November 6, 1869 at Rutgers' campus, and the second was played on November 13, 1869 at Princeton's campus. Both games were won by the home team.
The firstcollege football national championship was awarded retroactively to the two teams. Princeton was named the champion by theBillingsley Report and theNational Championship Foundation, while college football research historianParke H. Davis named Rutgers and Princeton co-champions. Various other ratings and retrospectives have rated the teams differently.
The two games were played with rules very different from what is currently understood asAmerican football today, and also played under home field rules that differed from each other. In both games there was no running with the ball, each team included 25 players, and the ball was perfectly spherical.
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Modern folklore places the very first game ofcollege football as a contest between teams from Rutgers College, now Rutgers University, and the College of New Jersey, commonly known asPrinceton College.[2][3] Rutgers won the game by a score of 6–4.[4] The rules of the game were much different back then than in modern football. Rutgers was represented by theQueensmen and Princeton by theTigers.
A rematch was played at Princeton a week later under Princeton rules.[1] One of the biggest differences in rules was the awarding of a "free kick" to any player that caught the ball on the fly. This rule seriously affected the speed advantage of Rutgers that had allowed them to win the first contest. Princeton won the second game by a score of 8 to 0.[1]
The two schools had originally scheduled to meet three times in 1869, but the third 1869 game never took place, reportedly because of the officials at both programs who complained about more emphasis being put on the contests rather than academics and studying.[5] Other sources claim that it may have been canceled due to disagreement over what set of rules to play under.[6] Due to each team winning one game, the inaugural football season ended with Princeton and Rutgers each tied at 1–1, and therefore each received a partial share of the 1869college football national championship awarded retroactively.
Rutgers players from the first game were honored 50 years later in a ceremony at their homecoming. The last surviving member of this Rutgers team wasGeorge H. Large, who died in 1939. The last surviving member for Princeton was Robert Preston Lane, who died in 1938.
| Team | Former conference | New conference |
|---|---|---|
| Princeton Tigers | Program established | Independent |
| Rutgers Queensmen | Program established | Independent |
