This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/eastexaslion on 2024-03-25 17:27:06.
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Click here to see previous entries in this series.
National Champions
Princeton (1-0) National Championship Foundation, Billingsley Report, Parke H. Davis
Yale (1-0) Parke H. Davis
Bold indicates main national championship selector recognized by NCAA Championship List
- Rex, the most famous parade on Mardi Gras, parades for the first time in New Orleans for Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.
- Yellowstone National Park is established as the world’s first national park
- Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for voting, she never pays the fine
- The University of Toledo (Est. as Toledo Univ of Arts & Trades) and Virginia Tech (Est. as Virginia A&M) are founded.
- Calvin Coolidge, Jimmy O’Donnell who would co-found the NFL, and CFB Hall of Famers Philip King, Pat O’Dea, and Art Wheeler were born
- Samuel Morse dies
- The Ball: Round, rubber Association Football (soccer ball).
- The field is 133 1/3 yds x 75 yds, uprights 24’ apart
- All goals count 1 pt. each
- Each team consists of 25 players
- Holding and carrying the ball is not permitted
- If a defending player catches a ball they are entitled to a free-kick
- **The game’s regulation is separated into two halves, both 45 minutes. If the game is tied at the end of regulation, the next scored goal wins the game.*
Italics denote rule change from previous season.
\Not an official rule at the time, but will be used in the playoff.)
Rule Changes
As noted above, the field dimensions have increased. This is a rule that was used in the first Yale game against Columbia. However, their version of the game had 20 men on each team as opposed to 25. The time limit is not in any rule book, and won’t appear in one until 1887, in which they will adopt the time limit from above. Although I am sure that there were time limits written down before that, I cannot find a source on it.
The Teams
Of the five teams ranked in Massey, only three teams qualified and are listed by their seeding in the bracket.
Season Breakdown
Before we talk about the 1872 season, let’s talk about what happened to football in 1871, because there are no recorded games with a final score. Some games were played by Princeton and Princeton Theological Seminary (including some before 1869), but these games scores were never written down. It’s not clear why any other school didn’t have the games played, but no evidence I could find shows that there were any other intercollegiate games played.
Now the 1872 season. When looking at these games, there is not a single game that stands out as competitive. The first game occurred with Columbia hosting Rutgers, but that game ended in a 0-0 tie. A week later Rutgers would host Columbia and beat them 5-2 (Although Columbia claims they lost 7-5 instead but I doubt it considering the other scores this season). A week later, Columbia would travel to New Haven to play Yale’s new team, probably expecting an easy first program win. However, this is the same school that two years earlier, nearly caused a riot when one of the sophomores got arrested in their intramural game, and would get shut out by Yale 3-0. The next week the last two games of the season would be played. Princeton would host Rutgers and win 4-1, and Columbia hosted another start-up program, Stevens Tech, and would shut them out 6-0 to get their first program win.
Players of Interest
Princeton has three players of interest. Captain David T. Marvel who would go to Harvard Law after graduating and be named secretary of state at Delaware and Isaac H. Lionberger, who would also become a lawyer and Assistant Attorney General. Only one player would be known for any athletic ability was Henry Moffat who would be trusted enough to take the kickoff in an important game the following year (we’ll get to that eventually). Yale had another three interesting players. First the Captain, David S. Schaff, who previously went to school at the Rugby School in England (the same school where Rugby was invented in). He was president of the Yale F.A. but never played the game vs Columbia due to an injury. The man who took his place seems to be T. T. Sherman, who would be accredited with scoring Yale’s first points in program history. And finally, P. A. Porter, where it isn’t clear what his athletic talent was, but he would later preside over an important meeting that would standardize the rules two years later.
Playoffs
Princeton has the bye, meaning the first nonchampionship playoff game would be Rutgers visiting Yale at Hamilton Park in New Haven, CT. It would be a defensive struggle at first, but Rutgers was surprisingly doing what Columbia couldn’t, keep up with Yale. The competition’s even in the first half and Yale dominates possession in the second half, but not a single shot is going through the posts. However, Yale’s Captain Schaff, still nursing an injury and coaching his players from the sidelines, saw an opening and motioned to T. T. Sherman to let him know. Sherman would take advantage of it and score the lone goal of the game. Yale advances to play Princeton in Brooklyn, NY
The Championship Game at the Capitoline Grounds, Brooklyn, NY
800 show up to the Capitoline Grounds, with the field still worn from the previous baseball games played by the Brooklyn Atlantics just months prior. No one in attendance could guess the dominance these two teams would have over the early college football landscape. The action is immediate as Yale takes advantage and scores the first goal of the match. The rest of the half is even. Princeton goes into the half shocked. They haven’t been down in a game since the first championship game. That would be the motivation, and maybe it was the Tigers’ Captain, Marvel, who remembered “Big Mike” and the strength they had, or maybe it was pure motivation that caused the next score. Whatever it was Marvel would receive a pass and power through the Yale defense knocking down two different defenders to score the first goal. With ten minutes left Yale is playing keep away with the ball near the goal, however, a bad kick by a Yale player knocked it up in the air. With Princeton’s strength, that was the opening needed for Moffat to catch the ball for a free kick 20 yards away from Yale’s goal. That would be just enough strength and accuracy to score the game-deciding goal. Princeton wins its third consecutive championship 2-1.
Champion: Princeton 1-0 Won Championship vs Yale 2-1
Runner-Up: Yale 1-0 Lost Championship vs Princeton 1-2
Third Place Finish: Rutgers 1-1-1 Lost at Yale 0-1
Other Notes:
Sources:
Retro Seasons For Stadium Reference
This post that summarizes all changes to football rules over the years
1872 college football season - Wikipedia
[“We’re Not That Kind of School” - Archived Article](https://web.a…
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