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It
was 145 years ago this week, on Tuesday, February 22, 1876, that
students from Northwestern University took to the school's athletic
field to play a game of American football against the Chicago Foot-Ball
Club. Chicago won that afternoon game, three touchdowns and three goals
to nothing, giving Northwestern the distinction as the first midwestern
university to have played a full game of football.
The teams had originally intended to play the game in Chicago, at the
old Chicago White Stockings (Chicago Cubs) athletic grounds. However,
they eventually decided to play in Evanston. The area where the teams
played was a field located a few yards north of the present-day Deering
Meadow.
While
Northwestern will not be observing the anniversary this year, HTP has
decided to commemorate the occasion by presenting this mock-up of the
first game's program. The game did not actually feature a souvenir
program (although it did feature a band and nearly 200 fans), but we
thought it would be fun to create a program similar to programs from
1875 and 1876. This mock-up is based on a blend of the Harvard-Yale
programs from their 1875 and 1876 games, as well as the one known
Chicago Foot-Ball Club program, from the club's summer 1876 field day
in downtown Chicago.
Congratulations to NU football, the oldest (football) game in town!
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