The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-11-25

Harvard College Kicked the
First Ball on the Delta.
EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC GAME
Some OF the Great Contests Between
Gov. Russell an Enthusiast.

Gov. Russell an Enthusiast.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass, Nov. 19-rSpecial
Correspondence. From one end of the
country to the other the thing the coll
legemen-and many others, for that mat
ter-are most interested in is the closing
contests Of the football field. While va
rious minor championships are being
settled, attention has been mainly drawn
tothe struggle between Yale and Princeton
at New York on Thanksgiving day.
Though football is now pre-eminent
among the college sports, it has taken q
long time in reaching this position.
Since the history of footb Ill at Harvard
is. in one sense. the history of football in
America, a sketch of the game as it has
been played there will show the develop
ment of the sport on this side of the
Atlantic.
A century or more ago. in the colony
time. football was. as now. the popular
game. But then the whole college INDUCED
in 1t. Each day, just before the supper of
porridge and milk. al! the classes would
come out on the green in front OF old Hol-
lis hall, and have a rough and tumble foot
ball game. The bail then used was moth
ing more than a bladder filled with air,
and what is now called science" was I'M
known.
During the first half of this century lit
tie or nothing was heard of the game, put
In the '40s or sos the sport again sprang
into prominence. At that time the play
ground was big field called the delta"
This lot is now occupied by Memorial hall,
which contains Sanders theater and the
students dining commons. Just at the
center of the Delta, where the hottest scrim-
ages were, sits at peace the bronze statue
of John Harvard. looking at the setting
sun. Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
in writing of those days, says:
Football was the first game into which the
undergraduates were initiated, for on the first
evening o! his college life, the freshman must
take part in the defense of his class against the
soohomores. 1t was then a manly, straight
forward game. rough and vigorous. but with
none OF the unnecessary brutality to which the
game afterward descended, and which led TO
its temporary prohibition. After the first even.
ing the match game ceased ana the sides divided
themse yes almost at random, the mora players
the better. But how celebrating was it to PASS
by the Delta" with the game at its height
the Joyous shouts, the thud OF the bali, the
sweet smell of the crushed grass-how glorious
was it all.
During the years which followed. when
the playground was moved over to
Holmes field and Jarvis field. football
did not languish, but it did not grow.
There were occasional class matches, but
no regular organization was perfected
until 1873, when the Harvard University
Football Association was formed. At that
time the teams were composed of fifteen
instead of eleven men, and the game was
exactly what its name indicates. The
ball must be kicked, and running with il
was absolutely prohibited. During the
fall the Harvard team would play several
games with the fifteen from McGill uni
versity in Montreal. Though the Cana
dams really knew the game somewhat
better, Harvard was generally victorious
But football did not rouse much interest
among the students, chiefly because there
was no annual match as in baseball and
rowing, with Harvard's traditional rival,
Yale. The one thing needed to
get up enthusiasm was supplied in
the spring of 1875, when an agree
ment Was made for an annual
game Of football between Harvard and
Yale. The plan was to play the game in
alternate wears at New Haven and CAM
bridge or Boston. The series then begun
has continued, with but two breaks, until
the present day. Though Harvard has
often had more and better material. Yale
has understood the game better, and so
has generally won.
Harvard made a good beginning. The
first game with Yale was played Novem-
Der Is, 1875, at Boston. Then the fact that
Harvard not only had a stronger team,
but was more familiar with the game, re-
suited in Yale's overwhelming defeat.
Harvard made four goals and four touch
downs to Yale's nothing. Herbert Leeds,
1877, was the captain of this team, and he
has ever since been among the strongest
supporters of football at Harvard. He is
always sure to be at the annual game. The
next year the game was at New Haven,
November Is. The contest was close. but
Yale won by one goal 10 Har-
Yards three touch-downs-the sys-
TEN of scoring was then different.
At that time each side had an umpire to
claim its points, and Harvard was repre-
sented by the present governor of Massa-
chusetts, William E. Russell. IL Even
in these busy times his interest in the
game does not flag. and be occasionally
rides over to JARVIS field to watch the
football practice.
In the following spring. April q, 1877.
Harvard and Princeton met for the first
time. The game, played by teams with
fifteen men on q side. was AT Cambridge.
Harvard won by touchdown and q goal
70 Princeton's single touchdown. In the
fall Princeton rallied, and IN game with
Harvard at Hoboken beat by making one
goal and one touchdown to Harvard's two
touchdowns. In this same fail OF 1877
Harvard was also beaten by Yale. The
only notable football success for Harvard
that season was won by the freshmen,
who. in tine first game of the freshman
series, beat Yale by three goals and two
touchdowns TO nothing. The game was
on Boston Common, which was covered
with slush and ice.
The Harvard and Yale game Of 1878 was
on November ~. in Boston. After an ex-
citing contest Yale won by scoring a goal
Just before time was called. Since the
week before the orange and black (Prlnce-
toni mad won on the same field by one
touchdown, the year was disastrous for
the crimson.
In 1919 Harvard had rs her football cap
tain Robert Bacon, who has the distlnc-
;lon Of being the youngest of Harvard's
overseers. Bacon got together q good
team, which went down 10 New Haven,
hoping for victory. Bu; after hard
Eight the contest was drawn, with no score