Rutgers Football Honored for 150th Anniversary at New Jersey Statehouse
Dec 17 | Football
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers and Princeton football were honored on Monday at the New Jersey Statehouse as the state legislature unanimously approved a proclamation that honored the two schools for their role in having played in the first college football game on Nov. 6, 1869.
Rutgers was represented by Rutgers Board of Trustees member and 1967 alumnus Ron Garutti and former Scarlet Knight All-America tight end and current Assistant Athletic Director for Development Marco Battaglia. Garutti addressed the 80-member New Jersey General Assembly as the lower house voted unanimously to recognize Rutgers and Princeton for their roles in launching intercollegiate football in 1869.
The Senate & General Assembly of New Jersey today acknowledged the 150th anniversary of the 1st college football game, paying tribute to @rfootball & the tradition of sporting excellence established. @marcobatt81 & @rgarutti represented @RutgersU at the resolution. #TheBirthplace pic.twitter.com/BYOR1lGY2t
— Rutgers Scarlet Knights (@RUAthletics) December 17, 2019
The University's year-long celebration of the Birthplace of College Football culminated on Nov. 6, the 150th anniversary of the first game. As part of the anniversary, Rutgers rang the Bells at Old Queens and unveiled a new plaque at the historic site commemorating the 6-4 victory over Princeton.
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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