List of the first college football games in each U.S. state
The following is a list of the first college football game in each U.S. state and the District of Columbia. Games included on this list are the earliest recorded single intercollegiate football games in each member state of the United States.
State | Date | Home | Visitor | Location | Final score | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NJ | November 6, 1869 | Rutgers | New Jersey (now Princeton) | College Avenue field, New Brunswick, New Jersey | 6–4 | First organized intercollegiate football game in New Jersey. Considered the first American football game ever played.[1][2] |
NY | November 2, 1872 | Columbia | Rutgers | Union Base Ball Club Grounds, Tremont, New York | 0–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in New York.[3] The game was essentially soccer, as a kick over the crossbar was not counted as a goal.[4] Tremont became a part of New York City in 1874, and Walter Gladwin Park in The Bronx is the approximate location where the game was played.[5][6] |
CT | November 16, 1872 | Yale | Columbia | Hamilton Park, New Haven, Connecticut | 3–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Connecticut.[7][8] First game in New England. The game is essentially soccer with 20-man sides, played on a field 400 by 250 feet. Yale wins 3–0, Tommy Sherman scoring the first goal and Lew Irwin the other two.[9] |
VA | November 2, 1873 | Washington and Lee | VMI | Lexington, Virginia | 4–2 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Virginia. First game in the south.[10]
|
MA | May 14, 1874 | Harvard | McGill | Jarvis Field, Cambridge, Massachusetts | 3–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Massachusetts.[12][13] |
ME | November 6, 1875 | Bates (ME) | Tufts JV (MA) | Rand Field, Lewiston, Maine | 1–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Maine. After the first game against Harvard, Tufts took its squad to Bates College for the first organized intercollegiate football game played in Maine.[14][15] |
PA | November 11, 1876 | Penn | Princeton | Young America Cricket Club Grounds, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 6–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Pennsylvania.[16][17] |
IL | May 30, 1879 | Michigan | Racine College | White-Stocking Park, Chicago, Illinois | 1–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Illinois. The Chicago Daily Tribune called it "the first rugby-football game to be played west of the Alleghenies" and it was advertised as the "championship of the Western Colleges."[18][19]
|
MI | November 1, 1879 | Michigan | Toronto | Detroit, Michigan | 0–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Michigan.[21] |
KY | April 9, 1880 | Kentucky University | Centre | Stoll Field, Lexington, Kentucky | 13¾–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Kentucky. Kentucky University defeated Centre.[22][23] Another claim to the first game in the south.[24] |
NH | November 17, 1881 | Dartmouth | Amherst | Hanover, New Hampshire | 1–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in New Hampshire.[25][26] |
MN | September 30, 1882 | Hamline | Minnesota | King's Fair Ground, Minneapolis, Minnesota | 4–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Minnesota.[27][28] Some secondary sources may incorrectly report September 29 as the date and the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul as the location. The correct date and location are September 30 at King's Fair Ground in Minneapolis.[29] |
MD | November 30, 1882 | Navy | Johns Hopkins | Annapolis, Maryland | 8–0 | First organized intercollegiate football in Maryland. It snowed heavily before the game, to the point where players for both teams had to clear layers of snow off of the field, making large piles of snow along the sides of the playing ground. The field was 110 yards by 53 yards, with goalposts 25 feet (7.6 m) apart and 20 feet (6.1 m) high. The first half of the game went scoreless; the Baltimore American reported that "the visitors pushed Navy every place but over the goal line in the first half".[30] During play, the ball was kicked over the seawall a number of times, once going so far out it had to be retrieved by boat before play could continue.[30][31]
|
DC | November 20, 1883 | Gallaudet | Georgetown | Kendall Green, Washington, D.C. | 13–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Washington, D.C.[32][33] |
IN | May 31, 1884 | Butler | DePauw | 7th Street Base Ball Park, Indianapolis, Indiana | 16–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Indiana.[34][35] |
CO | April 11, 1885 | Colorado College | Denver | Athletic Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado | 12–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Colorado. The CC Athletic Association responded to a challenge from the University of Denver by scheduling a game early on April 11. A severe windstorm that morning forced postponement of the game until the afternoon.[36]
|
VT | November 6, 1886 | Vermont | Dartmouth | Burlington, Vermont | 91–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Vermont.[37] |
NC | October 18, 1888 | Wake Forest | North Carolina | State Fairgrounds, Raleigh, North Carolina | 6–4 | First organized intercollegiate football game in North Carolina.[38][39]
|
WI | November 29, 1888 | Racine College | Lake Forest (IL) | Racine, Wisconsin | 6–4 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Wisconsin.[41] Lake Forest claims it was just the sixteenth team in the nation.[42] |
OH | December 8, 1888 | Miami (OH) | Cincinnati | Oxford, Ohio | 0–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Ohio. The "Victory Bell" is one of the sport's oldest rivalries.[43] The first game was played in a freezing rain.[44] |
SD | May 3, 1889 | South Dakota State | South Dakota | Sioux Falls Fairgrounds, Sioux Falls, South Dakota | 6–6 | First organized intercollegiate football game in South Dakota.[45] "The foot ball resulted in a draw and the prize of $15 was divided between Vermillion [South Dakota] and Brookings [South Dakota State]."[46] |
CA | 1889 | USC | St. Vincent's | Los Angeles, California | 40–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in California.[47] First Pacific Coast game.
|
RI | October 23, 1889 | Brown | Tufts | Pawtucket, Rhode Island | 16–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Rhode Island.[49] Brown may have played an organized intercollegiate game in Rhode Island as early as 1886 against Boston University, but it is unclear whether that game was played in Massachusetts or in Rhode Island. |
IA | November 16, 1889 | Iowa College | Iowa | Grinnell, Iowa | 24–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Iowa. First game west of the Mississippi River.[50] |
SC | December 14, 1889 | Wofford | Furman | Encampment Grounds, Spartanburg, South Carolina | 5–1 | First organized intercollegiate football game in South Carolina.[51][52] The game featured no uniforms, no positions, and the rules were formulated before the game.[53] First game in the Deep South. |
DE | October 11, 1890 | Swarthmore (Sophomores) | Delaware | Newark, Delaware | 30–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Delaware. "In Newark, when news leaked out in 1889 that the college boys were going to play football Sheriff Bill Simmons swore up and down Main Street that the first corpse carried off the field would mean the end of the game."[54]
|
KS | November 22, 1890 | Baker | Kansas | Baldwin City, Kansas | 22–9 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Kansas.[56] |
MO | November 27, 1890 | Washington (MO) | Missouri | St. Louis, Missouri | 28–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Missouri.[57]
|
TN | November 27, 1890 | Vanderbilt | Nashville (Peabody) | Athletic Park, Nashville, Tennessee | 40–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Tennessee.[59] |
WA | November 27, 1890 | Washington College | Washington | Tacoma, Washington | 0–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Washington.[60]
|
NE | February 14, 1891 | Doane (NE) | Nebraska | Field "west of the reservoir", Crete, Nebraska | 18–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Nebraska.[62][63]
|
WV | November 28, 1891 | West Virginia | Washington & Jefferson | Show Lot, Morgantown, West Virginia | 72–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in West Virginia.[66] |
GA | January 30, 1892 | Georgia | Mercer | Herty Field, Athens, Georgia | 50–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Georgia.[67] |
UT | November 25, 1892 | Utah State | Utah | Logan, Utah | 12–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Utah.[68] |
AL | February 22, 1893 | Auburn | Alabama | Lakeview Park, Birmingham, Alabama | 32–22 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Alabama.[69] |
MS | November 11, 1893 | Mississippi | Union (TN) | Oxford, Mississippi | 56–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Mississippi.[70] |
OR | November 11, 1893 | Oregon State | Albany College | Corvallis, Oregon | 62–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Oregon.[71] |
LA | November 25, 1893 | Tulane | LSU | New Orleans, Louisiana | 34–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Louisiana. The first intramural games in the state occurred at Tulane on New Year's Day, 1890 by dividing students into two teams.[72] The game was introduced to Tulane by Hugh and Thomas Bayne, who played the game at Yale University.[72] |
NM | January 1, 1894 | New Mexico | New Mexico State | Albuquerque, New Mexico | 18–6 | First organized intercollegiate football game in New Mexico.[73] First game in the southwest. |
ID | May 20, 1894 | Idaho | Washington State | Moscow, Idaho | 22–0 | First organized football in Idaho.[74] |
TX | October 19, 1894 | Texas | Texas A&M | Austin, Texas | 38–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Texas.[75] |
ND | November 3, 1894 | North Dakota | North Dakota State | Grand Forks, North Dakota | 24–6 | First organized intercollegiate football game in North Dakota.[76] |
OK | November 7, 1895 | Oklahoma | Oklahoma City Terrors | Norman, Oklahoma | 34–0 | The first organized football game in Oklahoma Territory involving a college occurred on November 7, 1895 when the 'Oklahoma City Terrors' defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 34 to 0. The Terrors were a mix of Methodist college students and high schoolers.[77] The Sooners did not manage a single first down. By next season, Oklahoma coach John A. Harts had left to prospect for gold in the Arctic.[78][79] Organized football was first played in the territory on November 29, 1894 between the Oklahoma City Terrors and Oklahoma City High School. The high school won 24 to 0.[78] |
WY | November 25, 1895 | Wyoming | Northern Colorado | Laramie, Wyoming | 34–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Wyoming.[80] |
NV | November 26, 1896 | Nevada | California JV | Reno, Nevada | 40–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Nevada.[81] |
MT | November 12, 1897 | Montana | Butte Business (MT) | Missoula, Montana | 20–4 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Montana.[82] |
AR | November 25, 1897 | Ouachita Baptist (AR) | Arkansas | Arkadelphia, Arkansas | 24–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Arkansas. |
AZ | November 30, 1899 | Arizona | Tempe Normal | Tucson, Arizona | 11–2 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Arizona.[83] |
FL | November 22, 1901 | Stetson | FAC (predecessor of Florida) |
Jacksonville, Florida | 6–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Florida in 1901.[84] A 7-game series between intramural teams from Stetson and Forbes occurred in 1894. The first intercollegiate game between official varsity teams was played on November 22, 1901. Stetson beat Florida Agricultural College at Lake City, one of the four forerunners of the University of Florida, 6–0, in a game played as part of the Jacksonville Fair.[85] A sure score by FAC was obstructed by a tree stump.[86] |
HI | October 30, 1909 | Hawaii | Oahu College | Honolulu, Hawaii | 23–0 | First organized intercollegiate football game in Hawaii.[87] |
AK | January 1, 1949 | Alaska–Fairbanks | Ladd Air Force Base | Fairbanks, Alaska[88] | 0–0 | First organized football game in Alaska involving a college.[89] Alaska has not hosted an organized intercollegiate college football game. |
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