![]() "The two colleges were, and still are, of course, about 20 miles apart. Herbert, Rutgers '72, who was one of the players: "To appreciate this game to the full you must know something of its background," Herbert wrote in 1933. The ball could be advanced only by kicking or batting it with the feet, hands, heads or sides.Įvents leading up to the game were described by John W. Following each score, the teams changed direction. While the 11 "fielders" lined up in their own territory as defenders, the 12 "bulldogs" carried the battle.Įach score counted as a "game" and 10 games completed the contest. The remaining 23 players were divided into groups of 11 and 12. Thus, the present day "sleeper" was conceived. The teams lined up with two members of each team remaining more or less stationary near the opponent's goal in the hopes of being able to slip over and score from unguarded positions. ![]() To distinguish themselves from the bareheaded visitors, 50 Rutgers students, including players, donned scarlet-colored scarfs which they converted into turbans. Most of the assemblage sat on a low wooden fence and watched the athletes doff hats, coats and vests and use suspenders as belts. on that memorable afternoon, the 50 combatants and about 100 spectators gathered on the field. Leggett's proposal was accepted by Captain William Gunmere of Princeton, who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.Īt 3 p.m. ![]() Leggett, captain of the Rutgers team who later became a distinguished clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church, suggested that rules for the contest be adopted from those of the London Football Association. The game was played with two teams of 25 men each under rugby-like rules, but like modern football, it was "replete with surprise, strategy, prodigies of determination, and physical prowess," to use the words of one of the Rutgers players. 6, 1869, on a plot of ground where the present-day Rutgers gymnasium now stands in New Brunswick, N.J. ![]() Rutgers University and its neighbor, Princeton, played the first game of intercollegiate football on Nov. ![]()
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