Intercollegiate Football Begins - February 10

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I never said it was American intercollegiate football !

Princeton and Rutgers kicked off American intercollegiate football on November 6, 1869. England didn’t get around to its first intercollegiate football game until Oxford defeated Cambridge 1-0 on February 10, 1872.

How did American football get under way BEFORE England where many of the football rules of association football and rugby football were developed? Well, the English versions of football and their unique qualities (kick the ball at that school, run with the ball over at that school, etc.) actually got started at several of the secondary schools of England. Each slightly different version of football was unique to the school. So the competition remained within the walls of that school. They never played competitively against each other until AFTER Princeton played at Rutgers in 1869. And when football eventually moved into the colleges in the United Kingdom, over 27 months had passed since the first intercollegiate game.

And that's why Princeton at Rutgers on November 6, 1869 may very well have been the first intercollegiate football game - not only in America - but quite possibly in the world.

 

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"...It’s the biggest rivalry in the country. Crisp, baby-blue uniforms on one side, dark, majestic blue on the other. There’s nothing like it. The hearty, drunken screams of undergrads in the stands. Alumni who’ve rearranged their business schedules to stop by the university. Players who’ve waited all year to play on the biggest stage.

Except I’m not referring to Duke-Carolina; I’m talking about Oxford-Cambridge...."

And Bill Bradley of Princeton and the Knicks played an important role:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/sports/ncaabasketball/01varsity.html