1881 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1881 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1881 college football season . While the University of Michigan had fielded " football " teams in 1879 and 1880 , those teams played a game that was more in line with traditional rugby , and many consider the 1881 team to be the first at Michigan to play American football . The team finished with a record of 0 – 3 after playing the top teams in the country – , and . Season overview . The 1881 season was only the third during which Michigan fielded a football team . Prior to 1881 , Michigan had played only three games , two against the University of Toronto and one against Racine College in Chicago . Moreover , the game played by Michigan was more in the nature of British rugby rather than American football . One author has observed : " When the Michigan rugby team went East in November of 1881 they were playing a more traditional rugby game than their eastern counterparts . " The players on the Michigan team came from throughout the western states , including Illinois ( Frank Wormwood and team captain and quarterback Walter Horton ) , Iowa ( Richard Dott ) , North Dakota ( the DePuy brothers ) , the Upper Peninsula ( fullback William Olcott ) , and even Florida ( Purl Woodruff ) . In 1881 , Michigan scheduled games against the top American football teams — the Eastern powerhouses of Harvard , Yale and Princeton . Either Yale , Princeton or Harvard has been credited with every college football national championship from 1869 – 1894 , and retrospective historical power ratings have ranked them as the top three college football teams of 1881 . The Michigan - Harvard game , which was played on Halloween 1881 , was the first time any of the elite Eastern teams had played a team from the West . In his history of college football , David M . Nelson cites Michigan ' s 1881 Eastern trip as the origin of intersectional football : " In 1881 football became an intersectional game with the University of Michigan invading the East to play Harvard , Princeton and Yale . " Michigan played all three games in the East over a five - day period between October 31 , 1881 , and November 4 , 1881 . While Michigan lost all three games , the games were close , and the Michigan team earned the respect of the Eastern press . Having lost all of its games and being outscored 28 – 4 , the 1881 Michigan team holds the distinction of having the worst record in the school ' s history — a record that has not been matched in the more than 125 years of football that followed . After the 1881 season , Michigan did not schedule any intercollegiate games in 1882 and did not return to intercollegiate play until 1883 . Press accounts of the games . October 31 : Harvard 3 , Michigan 0 . " The Boston Journal " carried a lengthy article about the Michigan - Harvard game , which it summarized as follows : " Yesterday afternoon , in a drenching rain , for the first time an Eastern foot - ball eleven played with a Western eleven . The Western college boys have long wished a chance to try their powers with Eastern opponents , and , to effect this , the University of Michigan this fall have sent on a representative eleven to play the largest of the Eastern colleges . Their first opponent were the Harvard team . They were beaten but with fair weather the result would have been very uncertain . As it was , Harvard won more by luck than by superiority in strength or skill , for with the exception of the first ten minutes they were forced to play a defensive game . . . . At 3 : 15 , in the midst of a drenching rain , the game began . Perhaps a hundred spectators had by this time gathered . " Harvard scored the only points of the game in the first half on a play that was disputed by Michigan ' s players . " The Boston Journal " noted : " Individual players kept losing their temper , and much time was wasted in upclose quarreling over little questions of no account . If the Westerners hadn ' t talked so much they might have won , or at least tied the game . . . . During the second half hour the ball was near the Harvard line constantly . Once it came within three feet of the chalk , but the most desperate fighting on the Harvard forced it back foot by foot until the immedate danger was over . . . . The Michigan team excelled in running , and their tackling was very fair . As to passing , they did very little . It was by all odds the best game seen in Boston this fall . " Another Massachusetts paper , " The Fitchburg Sentinel " , reported : " The Harvard university football team won one touch - down at Cambridge , Monday , and the Michigan university team won nothing . " November 2 : Yale 11 , Michigan 0 . Michigan ' s worst defeat on the Eastern trip was an 11 – 0 defeat against Yale . The next day , the " New Haven Evening Register " carried the following account of the game : " The Yale foot ball team easily defeated the players from the University of Michigan at Hamilton Park , yesterday afternoon , in the presence of 500 people . The Yales outplayed their opponents in every particular , and kept the ball near their goal during the greater part of the game . . . . The score was : Yale , 2 goals , University of Michigan , no goals , Touchdowns for safety : Yale none , University of Michigan 8 . Olcott and DePuy played a good game for the visitors . " November 4 : Princeton 13 , Michigan 4 . The final game of the trip was a 13 – 4 loss to Princeton . One New Jersey newspaper reported : " The Princeton College team were victorious Thursday in a football match with the team of the University of Michigan after an exciting struggle . " New Jersey ' s " Daily State Gazette " wrote : " A finely contested game of football at the University grounds Friday , between Princeton and University of Michigan resulted in a victory for the home team , Princeton 1 goal , 2 touchdowns ; University of Michigan 0 . " Players . The following players were members of the 1881 football team according to the roster published in the 1882 edition of " The Palladium " , the University of Michigan yearbook . Rushers Quarterback Halfbacks Three - Quarter - back Goalkeeper Substitutes