Yale’s first
intercollegiate football game took place on Saturday, November 16, 1872 at
Hamilton Park in New Haven, against Columbia College. Only inter-class games had taken place previously. The game took place among the
team’s “Picked Twenties”, a term used on all the advertising broadsides plastered across New Haven, which simply meant that each school had chosen twenty players to compete against one another. Of the twenty members of the Yale team, ten were from
the class of 1873. Since there was not a photographic record of Yale’s football
team until the following year (1873) our only documentation of and appreciation of most of
these individuals is through their rarely seen or identified individual cabinet photos. Photos of each of
these players from the class of 1873 are pictured below.
John Punnett
Peters, ‘73 - After graduation he
continued his studies for three years
and played for Yale in 1872, 73, 74 and 75. He played in the 1872 picked
twenties game against Columbia, the first Princeton – Yale game on November 15,
1873 and also in the first Harvard – Yale game on November 13, 1875, all three of these games taking place at Hamilton Park in New Haven. From a football
historical perspective, extraordinary.
Simeon
Leonard Boyce, ‘73 – Played in the 1872 Columbia game
Charles
Samuel Hemingway, ’73 – Although listed on the Yale Columbia game program
roster and earning his Y in 1872, he is the only member of ’73 in this posting
that I have not verified played in the game. Involved with crew, he rowed against the Atalantas of New York in 1871.
Lewis
Whiteman Irwin, ’73 – Scored two of the three goals in Yale’s 1872 win over
Columbia
Willis
Fisher McCook, ’73 – Member and acting captain of Yale’s picked twenty. McCook
also rowed crew four years and rowed against the Atalantas of New York in 1871.
From our early rowing collection, 1871 program listing both McCook and Hemingway
From our early rowing collection, 1871 program listing both McCook and Hemingway
Schuyler P.
Williams, ’73 – Played in the 1872 Columbia game
Henry Adgate
Strong, ’73 – Played in the 1872 Columbia game. Known as “Big Strong”.
S.M. Elder, '73, an early organizer of Yale Football, a member of the 1872 team
A period
account of the game was published in The Yale Record four days after the game
that I am including as it is the most accurate as well as a fascinating account
of the game. It reads as follows:
"Two weeks ago, Yale sent Columbia
college a challenge to play a match game of football, to take place in one week
at Hamilton park, with twenty men on a side. The challenge was accepted with
the exception of the date, which was put off one week later, to the 16th. A
part of the Columbia twenty, with their friends, arrived by the morning boat,
the rest coming on the eleven o'clock train. After dinner the Columbia men were
taken to the grounds in the Nightingale. The Yale men being on hand,
preparations were made to commence at once. While the players were stripping
for the contest, we took a look over the field, and found that the committee
had perfected all arrangements for the match to the minutest detail. According
to agreement, the field was 400 feet long by 250 broad, the goal posts being 6
paces apart. Stakes were driven into the ground and a rope stretched, serving
to mark the boundary line and keep the spectators from encroaching on the
grounds and interfering with the play. The list of judges and players as we
published them last week was, in the main, correct. A few changes, however,
were made. Mr. Marshall took Mr. Ogden's place and H. DeF. Weeks, Yale '74,
took Mr. Munroe's place as judges for Columbia. Schaff, '73, was injured last
Wednesday, and was succeeded by Sherman, '74. Dunning, '74, also played
Williams', '73's, position, who was prevented by sickness from playing.
"Yale won the toss and chose the south goal. As the sides took their
positions and awaited the word, there was a marked contrast in the individual
appearance of the men of the two colleges. Columbia's looked large and stocky,
and were of a uniform size, while Yale's players seemed to be picked in
reference to their agility, speed or strength, according to the qualities which
their respective positions required. The manner of placing the men was equally
marked. Columbia had four men guarding the goal, and the rest were collected in
an irregular crowd in the middle of the field, showing that they intended to
play a forcing game, relying entirely upon their superior strength to drive the
ball through the opponent's goal. Yale, on the contrary, had her men scattered
over the field, but in an evidently systematic arrangement. She had two men to
keep goal, four more to support them about two paces in advance; then five
more, called center fielders, arranged in the form of a crescent in front of
these. The rest of the twenty, with the exception of two 'pea-nutters,' who
play near the opposite goal and kick over the keepers' heads, were ' rushers, '
who follow the ball into any part of the field. The game opened at 2^ by
Piatt's giving a very long cant. The differ- ence in the system of playing was
at once manifest. Columbia got the ball in their midst and forced it toward the
opposite goal with such rapidity that it seemed as if they would end the inning
at once, but here the better arrangement of Yale proved of advantage. The ball
was taken by the goal keeper, kicked to a player on the side, who passed it
around the crowd of Columbia men to a center-fielder, and he to another, and so
on to the * pea-nutters,' so that Columbia found the ball down at their goal
almost before they could realize that they had lost it. The four goal keepers
who had 279 been left behind sustained the contest until the rushers came back
over the length of the field, when the ball was again returned rapidly toward
Yale's goal, but with the same result ; again Columbia drove it back, but it
was returned as before and kicked high over the keepers' heads by Sherman of '74
— ending the inning in fifteen minutes. Columbia made a strong fight in the
second inning. They covered the field better than in the first, and the ball
flew from one point to another for a full hour. At this point the excitement
among the four hundred spectators was very great and found vent in loud cheers
or laughter, according as some man made a fine play or upset an opponent. Again,
Yale won, virtually securing the game, as it was evident that not more than one
additional inning could be played before dark. The Columbia men went into the
third inning with evident fatigue, resulting from their all playing rushers and
chasing the ball, whilst the Yale men saved themselves by playing in their
positions and kicking into each other's hands. This inning the ball hovered
continually about Columbia's goal, but their keepers guarded it so finely as to
baffle Yale's efforts to get it through for forty minutes. The game was to be
best five out of nine or the greatest number of innings at dark; and as it was
past five o'clock, Yale was declared victor. The characteristics of the game,
as we observed them, were that Columbia worked and kicked harder than Yale and
were faster runners. Yale showed discipline. Her men sup- ported each other,
excelled in dodging and were more accurate kickers. Columbia aimed to bump into
and knock men over. Yale played to dodge by and get fair kicks. It is difficult
to specify among individual players where all did so well, but the playing of
Moore and King at goal, Reid at the side and McMahon and Cornell as rushers,
deserve mention. All deserve praise on Yale's side. Yet it seems injustice not
to speak of the play of Peters, Miller, J. Scudder, Avery, and Irwin, the
latter kicking the ball over the goal twice out of the three innings. To the
spectators it was the most interesting spectacle we have had for years,
although compelled by cold to keep up continual motion. Returned to the city
the Columbia men were entertained with a supper at Lockwood’s and left for New
York by the late train and boat, we hope, feeling as we do, that in this
friendly rivalry the bonds of attachment between Columbia and Yale have been
strengthened."
