Posted
8/24/25

 






After years of consideration, the Northwestern University Athletic Department has finally recognized Northwestern's 1876 game against the Chicago Foot-Ball Club as an official NU football game. With that recognition-- combined with the State of Illinois's earlier recognition of the game-- the Northwestern Wildcats are now officially the oldest football team at any level in the Midwest.

Earlier this year, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill recognizing the Northwestern University football game played on February 22, 1876 as the first American football game held in Illinois. That bill acknowledged Augustus "Gus" Hornsby as the man who introduced American football to both Chicago and the students at Northwestern.
 
The NU Athletic Department has featured the game in its recently-published 2025 Football Media Guide. According to the guide, "[The game between the Chicago Foot-Ball Club and NU] marks the first recognized, true American football game, at any level, played in the Midwest."

In its description of the game, Northwestern also states, "Until now, Northwestern had acknowledged the 1876 game but didn't consider it an official result. However, as the Athletic Department updated the 2025 Media Guide, newly evaluated evidence made it clear that the game should be added to the school's official record book. The game, as played, was verifiably American football under the 1875 Concessionary Rules. It should also be noted that ESPN's College Football Encyclopedia has recognized this game as an official result since 2005."

With the game's recognition, Northwestern will also be able to open the new Ryan Field next year and celebrate the 150th anniversary of NU Football at the same time!

In addition to making the 1876 game official, NU now lists two other previously-unofficial games in its records, both played in 1892: a win against Lake View High School and a loss to the Chicago Athletic Association (a spinoff of the Chicago Foot-Ball Club). NU student Caden Greco deserves credit for researching and working to correct NU's football records this summer.

THE TIMELINE TO AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN THE MIDWEST
  • 1860s: Loose kicking games called "football" are played throughout the country, including Chicago, but are rules-free affairs, simply kicking a ball about. The earliest such known games in Chicago date to the late 1860s.
  • November 6, 1869: Rutgers and Princeton stage a football game-- the first intercollegiate game and the first game typically considered American football. The rules are modified association football (soccer) rules.
  • 1873: Harvard plays its first American football season, using modified rugby (the Boston game) rules.
  • June 4, 1875: Harvard plays Tufts University, using modified rugby-style rules, a game considered to have altered the sport to one dramatically more similar to modern American football.
  • October 1875: Harvard and Yale, wishing to play a football game in November, create the new "Concessionary Rules," which the teams craft as a compromise. The rules, which favored Harvard's more rugby-influenced style of American football, became the blueprint for the new sport.
  • Late October 1875: Augustus Hornsby, a former English rugby player living in Chicago as a sports journalist, learns of the Concessionary Rules via correspondence with Harvard, before the Harvard - Yale game is played. Hornsby immediately begins drafting players in Chicago to field a team that could also play using the Concessionary Rules.
  • November 12, 1875: Hornsby's newly-formed Chicago Foot-Ball Club (CFBC) practices American football for the first time at the home field of baseball's Chicago White Stockings.
  • November 20, 1875: The CFBC meets members of the Chicago Barge Club at the White Stockings' field to stage the first football game in Chicago. However, too few Barge Club members showed up, and the teams instead practiced plays and formations.
  • Thanksgiving 1875: The CFBC arranges a game with students at Northwestern for a game at the White Stockings' grounds. NU failed to field a team in time, so the CFBC hastily invited back members of the Barge Club for another practice session.
  • December 9, 1875: The CFBC stages another practice scrimmage in Chicago, this time using several students from nearby St. Ignatius College (present-day Loyola). The CFBC still has not succeeded in putting together an entire game with an outside team.
  • February 22, 1876: Northwestern and the CFBC finally meet, on Washington's Birthday on NU's campus. The CFBC considers the game its "first outside match." The CFBC wins, three goals and three touchdowns to nothing.
  • 1876 - 1878: The CFBC stages a few additional games in Chicago, with none matching the notoriety of the February match with Northwestern. NU would not play another game with an outside opponent until scrimmages in 1879, deciding instead to rely solely on interclass games within the student body.
  • May 30, 1879: Michigan and Racine College meet at the White Stockings' grounds in Chicago and play what has become known as the first football game in the Midwest. Michigan won, one goal to nothing.
  • Fall 1879: Multiple schools throughout Chicago participate in American football games.
  • November 1882: NU plays its first intercollegiate games, with Lake Forest College.