Unofficial Games Page
Created
8/10/01;
Updated
1/1/26

 



NU Unofficial Games
NU's official football results (which can be found in the media guide)  include the dates of each game, the opponent played, the location and the score. 

This page used to provide a list of "unofficial" games, games NU played that the program did not include in its official records as listed in the media guide. It also listed game locations and results for games with details included in historical primary sources which differed from the official records. However, the program went through several waves of improving its historical records, first in the 2010s and, most recently, during the summer of 2025, when NU student Caden Greco was tasked with cleaning up much of the team's records. Greco corrected games, dates, and locations throughout the records.

Several of the "unofficial" games once listed on this page are now considered official and recognized in the program's history. These games include:
  • 1876: Game with the Chicago Foot-Ball Club.  See separate page.
  • Sept. 30, 1892 vs. Lake View H.S. at Sheppard Field.  NU won 14-10.
  • Oct. 8, 1892 vs. Chicago Athletic Association, played on the Club's grounds in Chicago.  NU lost 10-0.
With one exception, the games still listed below on this page are games that should rightfully remain unofficial. The exception is the 1899 game vs. Lake Forest Academy, which should be added to NU's official records.

Unofficial Games:

1879: Game vs. Evanston H.S. (the forerunner to Evanston Township H.S.)  Date and score unknown.  Played at NU, Evanston H.S. won.  NU used the game as a practice for an upcoming game vs. Racine College, which was canceled. [source: Robert Pruter, Ill. High School Assoc.]. Too few details are known about this game to make it official.

1879: According to an article by Janne Carle in the Oct. 29, 1943 Daily Northwestern, NU's newly-formed varsity squad played a game with the alumni at NU.  Varsity won, 25 to 0. As with the other 1879 game, too little is known about the game to include it in NU's records, nor is there any primary source documentation.

1880: Game vs. Lake View H.S. Date, outcome and score all unknown.  Only one half played [source: The Story of Northwestern, by Ward, 1924]. Since the Ward book is the only source and so little is known about the game, it rightfully remains unofficial.

1881: Also according to Carle, the varsity and the alumni played a game in 1881 at NU.  This time the alumni won, 8 to 0. This game is only mentioned by Carle, and it might be a mistaken reference.

1892: In addition to the Lake View game, there is mention of one other possible game with a high school in September.  Opponent and score not known, but was an NU win [source: NU football programs; however, not shown in contemporary sources.]. Since there is no primary evidence for this game, it remains unofficial.

1899: Northwestern had a prep school that occasionally played Lake Forest's prep school (Lake Forest Academy). In addition, NU's college varsity team also played Lake Forest Academy on several occasions. One of these occasions was a Wednesday game, on October 11, 1899, during which NU's varsity played and beat LFA. While NU's official records do not include this game, it should be recognized: it was a full game, played by the NU varsity team, and well-documented by primary sources (including the Chicago Tribune). HTP includes this game in its historical data.

    1903: The Sept. 19 game vs. N. Division H.S. was actually the first game of a double-header.  The second game was with the Marshall Field Wholesalers team, and the final score was  0-0.   NU would occasionally play early season double-headers, with the varsity taking one game and the "scrubs" taking another  (an example of this occured on Sept. 30,1903,  when the varsity took on the Alumni in an official game, and the scrubs played W. Division H.S.).  However, for the two Sept. 19 games, Coach McCornack divided his teams equally; in other words, there was arguably no "scrubs team," but two equal varsity squads playing.  The Marshall Fields Wholesaler game does not appear in the records. The evidence that this was also considered a varsity game at the time is weak, so it should remain unofficial.

    Early 1900's and early 1990's: Several other games with alumni teams are (rightly) not kept in NU's official records, since they were considered scrimmages at the time they were played and were never meant to be counted as official.


    Game-By-Game Results:

    Click the following link to view the current "work in progress" list of official NU games (Note: this file is NOT a Web page, but an Adobe Acrobat file, which may be downloaded or simply invoked to view online.) history.pdf.