| 1869 college football season | |||
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Drawing from the first football game played between Rutgers and Princeton. |
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| Total # of teams | 2 | ||
| Regular season | November 6 - November 13 | ||
| Number of bowls | 0 (Rose Bowl began in 1902) | ||
| Champions | Rutgers Scarlet Knights & Princeton Tigers (split title) |
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| Heisman | Not awarded until 1935 | ||
College football seasons
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The 1869 college football season was the first season of intercollegiate football. It is considered to be the inaugural college football season, and consisted of only two total games, both of which occurred between the Rutgers University and Princeton University. The first was played on November 6 at Rutgers' campus, and the second was played on November 13 at Princeton's campus.
The first ever college football national championship awarded (retroactively) was split between the only two participants in 1869, Rutgers and Princeton. Princeton was named the champion by the Billingsley Report and the National Championship Foundation, while college football research historian Parke H. Davis named the two teams co-champions. Various other ratings and retrospectives have rated the teams differently.
The two games played were played under much different rules than what is currently understood as the game of football, and also, played under different rules from each other. However, what developed into a more rugby-style play and eventually into the football known by current fans had its beginnings in 1869.
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In what some regard as the very first game ever played of intercollegiate football, a contest was held between teams from Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).[1][2] The 1869 game between Rutgers and Princeton is important in that it is the first documented game of intercollegiate game called football between two American colleges. The Princeton/Rutgers game was undoubtedly different from what we today know as American football, as there was no running with the ball, each team included 25 players, and the ball was perfectly spherical. The first game which included running with the ball, 11-man sides, an oval-shaped ball, and tackling to end a play occurred on June 4, 1875, between Harvard University and Tufts University.[3][4]
A rematch was played at Princeton a week later under Princeton rules. 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 eight to zero.
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 college football national championship awarded (retroactively) for the 1869 season.
Rutgers players from the first ever game were honored fifty years later in a ceremony at their home-coming. The last surviving member of this Rutgers team was George H. Large, who died in 1939. The last surviving member for Princeton was Robert Preston Lane, who died in 1938.
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