The Game In 1881

Harvard vs Yale

The Game In 1881

As usual, the oldest rivalry in college football continued in 1881.

You can see some of the ribbing and trash talking of the day in this blurb in the local New Haven morning newspaper:

From New Haven Daily Morning Journal and Courier, November 12, 1881, page 4

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any advertisements promoting the game.

As usual, The Boston Globe had fairly good coverage of the game:

From The Boston Daily Globe, November 13, 1881, page 12

It’s interesting to note that there was no actual score in this game, aside from the four safeties that Harvard took. Of course, those four safeties turned into a goal for Yale, resulting in the 1-0 deficit.

It’s also interesting that the winner would play Princeton the following Monday, which would have been November 14. Harvard also played Princeton on November 19th at the Polo Grounds.

The other interesting thing here is the amount of attention this game got in New York City. The New York Times published this report of the action:

It’s interesting to note here that Walter Camp tried to kick a goal inside the 25 yard line, but missed.

And then there was this from The New-York Daily Tribune:

From New-York Daily Tribune, November 13, 1881, page 2

It’s also important to note here that there were no “downs” in football at this time. Teams could theoretically hold on to the ball indefinitely.