Tufts did not play in first football game

This past week my family visited Tufts and took part in the orientation and campus tour. There was an official brochure handed out in which it was stated that Tufts played Harvard in the first ever football game in 1875 ("Tufts won!"). This Tufts factoid was repeated by the Admissions Office tour guide at the rather dramatically painted cannon. Apparently the cannon was donated to commemorate this "first."

The problem is that Rutgers played Princeton in the first ever football game in 1869. Rutgers won 6 to 4. Columbia was the third school to join the fray, and was Princeton's second opponent. Columbia lost and has regrettably continued the tradition. Columbia, Princeton, Rutgers and Yale all met to set up the first formal set of rules and to establish the first football league.

A one-hundredth anniversary game was played in 1969 and again Rutgers won. This received extensive press coverage in all media forms.

You can easily verify all the above with a simple Google search under "first intercollegiate football game." No where will you find Tufts or Harvard cited and the latter school claims just about everything.

As a graduate of Columbia (class of 1974), we were always taught to question various claims and representations. I hope someone at Tufts will do some scholarship on this subject and set the record straight.



Dr. Peter J. Zegarelli

Sleepy Hollow, NY