OT: 169th Birthday

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Many people have visited the Rutgers College Avenue Gymnasium along College Avenue and not been aware they were standing over the site of America’s first intercollegiate football game. But the Rutgers players involved in any one of the three Madison Square Garden football games at 26th Street and Madison Avenue probably weren’t aware they were standing over another historic spot from a different American sport. According to the January 9, 1887 Sun of New York, “It was not until 1842-43 that set rules were made to govern the game of rounders or base ball. During those years a number of young men fond of field sports played ball on the grounds formerly occupied by the Harlem Railroad depot, and now by the Madison Square Garden. It was the beginning of base ball, as these gentlemen afterward organized the Knickerbocker Club, which was, as nearly as can be learned, the first real base ball club in the country. Their organization bears the date of Sept. 23, 1845…” After the future Knickerbockers were forced to leave to make room for the Harlem Railroad, they took the ferry across to Hoboken and made American sports history. They took the game of townball they were playing, altered and modernized certain key elements and codifed their rules. Beginning on October 6, they spent the fall of 1845 trying out their new rules in a series of intra-squad games and then played the first modern game of baseball the next spring on June 19, 1846 against the New York “Nine.” In a game where first to 21 in even innings would be the winner, the Knickerbockers lost 23 to 1 in four innings.