The First Time Harvard Banned Football

Back to 1885

The First Time Harvard Banned Football

In January 1885, the faculty of Harvard decided to take action against the game of football:

From Boston Evening Transcript, January 7, 1885, page 6

This decision, of course, came on the heels of Harvard’s worst ever loss to Yale to date:

From The Boston Globe, November 23, 1884, page 1

Of course, the “52-0” final score was largely influenced by the scoring rules of the time. Field goals were worth 5 points, touchdowns 4, the conversion after touchdown another 4, and safeties 2 points back in those days.

I’m not certain that Harvard’s embarrassment against Yale had anything to do with the ban. However, one thing that is certain is that talk of a ban was on at the same time this game was being played.

Rumors of a ban on football at Harvard started around December 1st:

From Buffalo Courier Express, December 2, 1884, page 3

From The Chicago Tribune, December 2, 1884, page 3

There was a brief reprieve:

From The Daily News-Dealer (Wilkes-Barre, PA), December 4, 1884, page 3

And that led to strenuous efforts to prevent the game from being banned:

From The New York Times, December 6, 1884, page 3

But, as we’ve already seen, the protest was to no avail.

Now, there were football games at Harvard in 1885. However, there were no game with other teams. Sometimes the newspapers still reported on the games that were played:

From Boston Evening Transcript, November 11, 1885, page 2

Interestingly enough, the ban on games with other schools also did not prevent a fatality:

From New Haven Daily Morning Journal and Courier, November 12, 1885, page 3

And, in the end, the naysayers were convinced enough by the performance of Yale and Princeton in their 1885 match that they decided to bring football back to Harvard after all:

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 30, 1885, page 5

So much for banning the sport for the safety of the players!