The1873 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with theOfficial NCAA Division I Football Records Book listingPrinceton as having been selectednational champions.[1]
Organized intercollegiate football was first played in the state ofVirginia and theSouthern United States whenWashington & Lee defeatedVMI 4 to 2.[2] Some industrious students of the two schools organized a game for October 23, 1869 – but it was rained out.[3]
Students of theUniversity of Virginia were playing pickup games of the kicking-style of football as early as 1870, and some accounts even claim it organized a game against Washington and Lee College in 1871, but no record has been found of the score of this contest. Due to scantness of records of the prior matches some will claimVirginia v. Pantops Academy November 13, 1887, as the first game in Virginia.
