1874 Harvard vs. McGill football game
{{Short description|Football game}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox college football game
| name = First "Boston rules" football game played in the United States
| image =
| caption =
| football_season = 1873
| visitor_name_short = McGill
| visitor_nickname = Redmen
| visitor_school = McGill Redmen football
| home_name_short = Harvard
| home_nickname = Crimson
| home_school = Harvard Crimson football
| visitor_1q = 0
| home_1q = 3
| date = May 14, 1874
| stadium = Jarvis Field
| city = Cambridge
}}
{{Infobox college football game
| name = First rugby football game played in the United States
| image = HarvardMcGill.jpg
| caption = The second game, played under the rugby rules. Harvard players at left, in white shirts
| football_season = 1873
| visitor_name_short = McGill
| visitor_nickname = Redmen
| visitor_school = McGill Redmen football
| home_name_short = Harvard
| home_nickname = Crimson
| home_school = Harvard Crimson football
| visitor_1q = 0
| visitor_2q = 0
| visitor_3q = 0
| home_1q = 0
| home_2q = 0
| home_3q = 0
| date = May 15, 1874
| stadium = Jarvis Field
| city = Cambridge
}}
The 1874 Harvard vs. McGill football game was a two-game series between the Harvard Crimson and the McGill Redmen held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 14 and 15, 1874.{{cite news |title=THIS DATE IN HISTORY: First football game was May 14, 1874 |url=https://www.mcgill.ca/channels/news/date-history-first-football-game-was-may-14-1874-106694 |access-date=18 December 2021 |agency=McGill University News |publisher=mcgill.ca |date=14 May 2012}}
With the first game being played under the Harvard's "Boston game", the second one was the first rugby-style football game played in the United States. It used three periods or "games" and ended in a scoreless tie.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2090813/boston_post/ |work=Boston Post |date=May 16, 1874 |page=3 |title=Foot Ball |access-date=March 29, 2015 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite web|url=http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_iaa/ivyleague/harvard/yearly_results.php?year=1873|publisher=College Football Data Warehouse|access-date=August 22, 2014|first=David|last=DeLassus|title=Harvard Yearly Results|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728212630/http://cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_iaa/ivyleague/harvard/yearly_results.php?year=1873|archive-date=2014-07-28|url-status=dead}}
A Princeton vs. Rutgers football game had been played five years earlier (in 1869), but under a variation of England's The Football Association rules, closer to contemporary soccer than American football.
The Boston game rules were developed by the first organized football team, the Oneida Football Club, founded in 1862. Many of its members went on to found, and play for, the Harvard team.
Overview
File:Mcgill v harvard montreal.jpg, Harvard travelled to Montreal to play a third game.]]
On October 20, 1873, representatives from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to codify the first set of intercollegiate football rules. Before this meeting, each school had its own set of rules and games were usually played using the home team's own particular code. At this meeting, a list of rules, based more on association football than on rugby football, was drawn up for intercollegiate football games.
Harvard, which played the Boston game, a version of football that allowed carrying, refused to attend this rules conference and continued to play under its own code. While Harvard's voluntary absence from the meeting made it hard for them to schedule games against other American universities, it agreed to a challenge to play McGill University, from Montreal, Canada, in a two-game series.
The McGill team traveled to Cambridge to meet Harvard. On May 14, 1874, the first game, played under Boston rules, was dominated by Harvard, which lead 3–0 after only 22 minutes when the game was ended.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/football002320mbp#page/n77/mode/2up|title=Football, the American intercollegiate game|page=64|author=Parke H. Davis|author-link=Parke H. Davis}} The next day, the two teams played under "McGill" rugby rules to a scoreless tie.{{cite web | title = No Christian End! | work = The Journey to Camp: The Origins of American Football to 1889 | publisher = Professional Football Researchers Association | url = http://www.profootballresearchers.com/articles/No_Christian_End.pdf | access-date = 2010-01-26}} The first game featured a round ball instead of a rugby-style oblong ball. McGill used a bladder covered by leather instead of a rubber ball as did Harvard, which was much more difficult to kick.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/892366/harvard_1874_spring_mcgill_announcement/ |work=Boston Post |date=May 11, 1874 |page=4 |title=Out-Door Sports |access-date=March 29, 2015 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}
The game drew about 500 attendees, most of whom were students. This series of games represents an important milestone in the development of the modern games of Canadian and American football.{{cite web|url=https://www.mcgill.ca/channels/news/date-history-first-football-game-was-may-14-1874-106694 |title=THIS DATE IN HISTORY: First football game was May 14, 1874 |publisher=mcgill.ca |date=2012-05-14 |access-date=2015-11-19}}{{cite journal|title=Parke H. Davis '93 On Harvard Football|page=583|journal=Princeton Alumni Weekly|volume=16|date=March 29, 1916|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ThJbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA583|via=Google books}} {{Open access}} A similar game was played a year later between Harvard and Tufts establishing this as the first game between two American colleges played under rules used in today's version of American football.
At this time, the try was not used in American football. The try would later evolve into the score known as the touchdown. In late 1874, the Harvard team traveled to Montreal to play McGill in rugby, and won by three tries in front of 2,000 spectators.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=X4IuAAAAIBAJ&dq=harvard%20mcgill%20football&pg=943%2C6513069|publisher=The Montreal Gazette|date=November 27, 1970|access-date=August 22, 2014|first=D.A.L.|last=MacDonald|title=Montreal's Cup Float recalls how McGill started grid mania}}{{Cite web |date=November 13, 1915 |title=Early Football |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MnMzAAAAIBAJ&dq=harvard%20mcgill%20football%201874&pg=1106%2C5266575 |access-date=August 22, 2014 |publisher=San Jose Evening News|via=Google News}}{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fEowAAAAIBAJ&dq=harvard%20mcgill%20football%201874&pg=5365%2C2850517|publisher=The Montreal Gazette|date=December 22, 1933|access-date=August 22, 2014|first=D.A.L.|last=MacDonald|title=McGill and Harvard Have Been Rivals for 59 Years}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
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{{McGill Redmen football navbox}}
{{Harvard Crimson football navbox}}
{{Historic college football games}}
{{Rugby union in the United States}}
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Category:1874 college football season
Category:History of Cambridge, Massachusetts
Category:American football competitions in Massachusetts
Category:Sports in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Category:1874 in American sports
Category:May 1874 in the United States