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PHOTO: EVERETT COLLECTION (FOOTBALL TEAM PRACTICE, CIRCA 1908-15)
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The First Down, Ever
By ALLEN BARRA
On a bright November morning 140 years ago, a “jerky little train,” as someone later described it, left Princeton, N.J., at 9 a.m., bound for New Brunswick, about 20 miles to the north. The “foot ball” players from the College of New Jersey—some just called it “Princeton,” but that official designation was 27 years away—stepped off the train and greeted their Rutgers hosts. After a midday stroll around town and some friendly games of billiards, the players from the two teams walked over to College Avenue and Sicard Street to a field that today is behind the Rutgers gymnasium. They then played a game of something vaguely resembling today’s football, and from there it’s pretty much been a straight line to tailgate parties, bowl games and million-dollar halftime shows. NO TRIPPING Well, perhaps not so much a straight line. Nothing is beautiful at birth, and the modern college-football fan might not find much to recognize in that so-called first game. The two captains, William J. Leggett of Rutgers and William S. Gunmere of the College of New Jersey met before the game to discuss the rules, among which were “Goals must be 24 feet wide,” “No tripping or holding of the players,” and “Each side will be limited to 25 players.” Another rule was that there were just two ways to advance the ball: kicking it and slapping or punching it. (Picking up the ball and running with it was a Harvard innovation that came a few years later.) The players varied in age from Rutgers’s William James Hill, age 29, born in Ireland and a future seminary student, to John Herbert, age 16, later to become a lawyer and a Rutgers trustee. Rutgers men wore turbans of scarlet cloth; hence the football team’s current nickname, the Scarlet Knights. One player, D.B. Williamson, misunderstood the pregame instructions and began a college tradition by wearing a scarlet sweater. Princeton men dressed in sloppy street clothes—or pretty much as Princeton students dress today. The captains initiated yet another tradition by flipping a coin to see who would kick off. Princeton won the coin toss, and the game began at about 3 p.m. After perhaps 90 heart-pounding minutes, interrupted a few times for repairs to the small round rubber game ball—no one thought to bring a back-up ball—the game came to what one player later recalled as a “crashing end.” Rutgers won, six goals to four. (You scored by kicking the ball between the posts.) CHEERLEADERS Baseball historians have never been able to agree on the “first” baseball game, but most football historians are comfortable pinpointing the start of their game with Rutgers-Princeton in 1869. Some have called that contest “primitive football,” some describe it as “primitive soccer,” and still others as “nascent rugby.” In truth, claims can be made for all these descriptions. But as Bob Boyles, co-author of the USA Today College Football Encyclopedia, says: “There are a great many traditions that started on that field in New Brunswick. The kicking factor, the goal posts, the physical contact—the men allowed to run ‘interference,’ an early term for what we call blocking—that pull that game towards the direction of American football and away from soccer or rugby.” Rutgers archivist Tom Frusciano notes the number of off-the-field football traditions that began with that game. “There were students along the sidelines rooting their team along with college songs and cheers. That was probably the origin of the cheering sections you see at football games today.” The 1869 Rutgers-Princeton game was also the origin of one very important staple of college football: bragging rights. The following week, Princeton won the rematch, 8-0, and in fact Rutgers would lose the next 31 contests. To date, in 71 games against Princeton, Rutgers’s record is just 17-53-1. “But we won the first one,” says Mr. Greene, “and nothing can ever change that.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
