PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Culminating a year-long celebration of the 150
th anniversary of the first college football game, Rutgers marked the occasion Wednesday with the Ringing of the Bells at Old Queens and the unveiling of a new plaque at the site. RU won the historic first game over Princeton, 6-4, on Nov. 6, 1869.
Starting off at Old Queens, captains
Tyshon Fogg,
Tyreek Maddox-Williams and
Zach Venesky joined Gil Greenberg, who at 97 is the oldest living Rutgers football letterwinner, chancellor Christopher Molloy and director of athletics
Pat Hobbs to ring the bell. The bell, gifted to the University from Colonel Henry Rutgers in 1826, is reserved to mark significant occasions university-wide. The Rutgers Glee Club also performed for the crowd in attendance.
The gathering then moved down to the College Avenue Gym with a Rutgers drumline procession to uncover a new plaque that commemorates the first game. Donated by Devco and the City of New Brunswick, the inscription is titled "The Birthplace of College Football."
Later on, the Empire State Building was lit up in alternating sides of scarlet and orange to celebrate the anniversary.
Fans are encouraged to visit the Alexander Library to view "
Rutgers Football from the Vault: Celebrating 150 Years," an exhibition that celebrates Rutgers' legacy as the birthplace of the first intercollegiate football game and covers the entirety of Rutgers' football history.
Walk from the first game versus Princeton on Nov. 6, 1869 all the way through Rutgers joining the Big Ten. Each case covers a decade of Rutgers history providing a window to view the teams and players as well as the campus and student fans through each time period. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
THE FIRST GAME
The first 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.
William J. 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. Leggett's proposal was accepted by Captain William Gunmere of Princeton, who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
At 3 p.m. on that memorable afternoon, the 50 combatants and about 100 spectators gathered on the field. Most of the assemblage sat on a low wooden fence and watched the athletes doff hats, coats and vests and use suspenders as belts. To distinguish themselves from the bareheaded visitors, 50 Rutgers students, including players, donned scarlet-colored scarfs which they converted into turbans.
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. Thus, the present day "sleeper" was conceived. The remaining 23 players were divided into groups of 11 and 12. While the 11 "fielders" lined up in their own territory as defenders, the 12 "bulldogs" carried the battle.
Each score counted as a "game" and 10 games completed the contest. Following each score, the teams changed direction. The ball could be advanced only by kicking or batting it with the feet, hands, heads or sides.
Events leading up to the game were described by John W. 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 two colleges were, and still are, of course, about 20 miles apart. The rivalry between them was intense. For years each had striven for possession of an old Revolutionary cannon, making night forays and lugging it back and forth time and again. Not long before the first football game, the canny Princetonians had settled this competition in their own favor by ignominiously sinking the gun in several feet of concrete. In addition to this, I regret to report, Princeton had beaten Rutgers in baseball by the harrowing score of 40-2. Rutgers longed for a chance to square things."
Rutgers got Columbia University started in the grid sport the following season and in a few years most of the colleges and universities in the East were represented on the gridiron.
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