Northwestern
kicked off the first complete game of American football in the Midwest
on Tuesday, February 22, 1876. As we near the 150th anniversary of this
(until recently) forgotten milestone, HailToPurple.com is posting a
series of articles about the game. This information uses research from
the 2023 book Gus Hornsby's Gamble, which describes that first game in detail.
Soon
after Northwestern opened its doors, its students began using a meadow near the
main classroom building (the structure later called "Old College") for athletics.
The building was initially located at the corner of Davis Street and Hinman
Avenue, a still-existing intersection several blocks south of the main campus
area.
It was on this south-campus field, near an old grove of trees, that Northwestern played its
first crude baseball games during the Civil War and later staged early versions
of field days. There are no known photographs of these athletic grounds.
In the early 1870s, students began using athletic grounds closer to University
Hall, built in 1869. The new grounds were just north of the Campus Meadow
(later named Deering Meadow). The athletic field was bounded on its west side
by Chicago Street (later called Sheridan Road); on its south boundary, as
mentioned, was Campus Meadow, along with Heck Hall and-- farther south,
University Hall; on its north by another field and then Dempster Hall (the area
now occupied by the Garrett campus), and on the east by the trees lining Lake
Michigan.
For an overhead view of exactly where these fields were, please see the HTP page
describing the locations.
Alexander
Hester took the above photo from the roof of University Hall in early 1875,
looking north. It shows the 1870s athletic grounds in the distance. This is one
of only two known photographs of the field.
Heck Hall, roughly where Deering Library is now, was used by Garrett in 1875.
Confusingly, Dempster Hall on the current Garrett campus was used in 1875-1876
as dorm housing for Northwestern students. Because of this arrangement, Garrett
students had a good view of NU's first football game and comprised a large part
of the crowd.
Here is the only other known view of this field:
This
photograph is believed to show an 1875 baseball game on the grounds. The image
gives away little about its location: it is taken near the street, looking east
toward the grove of trees on the lakefront. Dempster Hall on the left and Heck
Hall on the right are out of range.
Unfortunately, there are no photographs or contemporary drawings of
Northwestern's football team using this field.
...So what would the view have looked like during Northwestern's 1876 game with
the Chicago Foot-Ball Club? Here is a rough idea:
I
am not a fan of generative AI images, and the AI image here is one of only a
few that I have ever used on this site. However, trying to get a sense of
location on campus seemed like a rare instance when AI could help. There are
discrepancies with the teams' and spectators' styles of dress, but this image
gives a decent view of how the game would have looked relative to Heck Hall and
University Hall to the south.
