No Time For Rest

College football schedules from the early 1880s

No Time For Rest

One thing we tend to underestimate about the days of football in the early 1880s is how grueling the schedules were.

Contemporary newspapers didn’t comment much about the lack of rest players got. However, a look at the results will tell the story.

Look at Harvard’s 1881 schedule, for example:

Not only did Harvard play three games between October 31 and November 5, but one of those games was down in New York City. This must have been a considerable hike for the players.

Yale had a similar challenge:

Michigan, which only played 3 games in the east in its first season of traveling to play, wound up with all 3 games within the space of a single week:

Rutgers, meanwhile, had a slightly more sane schedule, though there was still more short turnarounds than would be acceptable today:

I’m not entirely sure why this is the case. The game clearly was not a Saturday only game back in those days. Based on contemporary game accounts, it certainly was not a relaxing and easy game to play. Not only was there no load management at that time, but there were also no substitutions at all.