 The monument photographed in 2017 | |
 Interactive map of Oneida Football Club Monument | |
| Location | Boston,Massachusetts, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°21′22.5″N71°4′1.8″W / 42.356250°N 71.067167°W /42.356250; -71.067167 |
| Designer | Robert Day Andrews,Joseph Coletti andHowland Jones |
| Type | Monument |
| Material | Marble |
| Length | 2.5 ft |
| Width | 7 in |
| Height | 6.5 ft |
| Opening date | November 1925; 100 years ago (1925-11) |
| Dedicated to | Oneida Football Club |
TheOneida Football Club Monument, sometimes calledFootball Tablet, is a monument made byJoseph Coletti; which was installed on theBoston Common, inBoston,Massachusetts, United States.
It was built as a remembrance to theOneida Football Club, the first organized team to play any kind offootball in theUnited States.[1] The game played by the club, known as the "Boston game", was an informal local variant that predated the codification of rules forassociation football,rugby football, orAmerican football.[2][3] The team, made up of students of Boston's elite preparatory schools, played onBoston Common from 1862 to 1865, during which time they reportedly never lost a game or even gave up a single point.[4][5]
The marble tablet was donated by seven members of theOneida Football Club and installed in 1925. It measures approximately 6.5 ft. × 2.5 ft. × 7 in.
An inscription on the front reads:
ON THIS FIELD THE ONEIDA
FOOTBALL CLUB OF BOSTON
THE FIRST ORGANIZED FOOTBALL
CLUB IN THE UNITED STATES
PLAYED AGAINST ALL COMERS
from 1862 to 1865. THE ONEIDA
GOAL WAS NEVER CROSSED
This monument is placed on Boston Common
November 1925 by the seven surviving members of the Team"
An inscription on the back can also be found which reads, "MEMBERS OF THE ONEIDA TEAM", under this was the list of the 16 members of the original team.[6][4]
The monument was unveiled on Saturday November 21, 1925, and was attended by the six surviving members of the team including its founder and captain Gerritt Smith Miller.[4] It was designed by architectsRobert Day Andrews andHowland Jones of the Boston architecture firm Andrews, Jones, Biscoe & Whitmore and executed by sculptorJoseph Coletti.[7][6]
It was surveyed by theSmithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program in 1997.[6]
The initial purpose of the monument was to commemorate the role of the Oneida team in the creation ofAmerican football. Accordingly, the sculpture depicted afootball, although the "Boston game" was actually played with a round ball (one of the Oneida balls still survives and is held byHistoric New England). In the 1980s, the American soccer community paid for the monument to be renewed with a depiction of asoccer ball, which more closely matched the real ball of the "Boston game". In 2014, the football was restored to the monument, inaccurate to the actual game of 1863-5 but more accurate to the original erection of the tablet in 1925.[8]
Media related toOneida Football Club Monument at Wikimedia Commons| Public art | |
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