page_title: 1885 Navy Midshipmen football team
section_title: Prelude
hierarchical_section_title: 1885 Navy Midshipmen football team / Prelude
caption_attribution_description: English: A portrait of the 1879 United States Naval Academy football team.
context_page_description: The 1885 Navy Midshipmen football team represented the United States Naval Academy in the 1885 college football season. The team was the fourth intercollegiate football squad to represent the United States Naval Academy, and marked the first time that the school played a multiple-game season. The squad was captained by halfback Cornelius Billings. The year began with a blowout victory over St. John's College, but was followed by close losses to Johns Hopkins University and the Princeton Tigers reserves squad. The season continued a seven-season, eight game rivalry between the Naval Academy and Johns Hopkins, and began a ten-game, seven-year rivalry with St. John's.
context_section_description: According to Ellsworth P. Bertholf's biographer C. Douglas Kroll, the first evidence of a form of football at the United States Naval Academy came in 1857, but the school's cadets lost interest in the game shortly afterward. The Naval Academy's first ever football team was fielded in 1879. The squad was entirely student-operated, receiving no official support from Naval Academy officials. The team was entirely funded by its members and their fellow students. The 1879 team participated in just one game, which resulted in a scoreless tie. It was played against the Baltimore Athletic Club, apparently on the Academy superintendent's cow pasture. Navy would not field a football team in 1880 or 1881, due to the lack of support from officials. When football returned to the academy in 1882, the squad was led by player-coach Vaulx Carter, and won 8–0 in a match with Johns Hopkins, starting a seven-year rivalry between the schools. The 1883 season resulted in Navy's first ever loss, a 2–0 defeat by Johns Hopkins. Navy returned the favor the following year, defeating Hopkins in a close 9–6 game.
caption: The 1879 team was the Academy's first to play an outside team
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