Happy 139th Birthday, Michigan Football!
139 years ago today at White Stockings Park in Chicago, Michigan took on Racine in the first game in Michigan Football history.
Irving Pond scored the first TD in Michigan history, and captain David DeTarr scored the winning goal kick to give Michigan the 1-0 win.
TDs didn't count unless you made the goal kick.
http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/images/1879/racine1879.pdf
The heat was oppressive, but despite the heat, about 500 students of Racine and citizens of Chicago witnessed, what we may call, the finest game of Rugby foot-ball ever played this side of the Alleghanies.**********A rest of ten minutes given the teams, during which Mr. Keeler and other graduates amused themselves with a few kicks, but they only succeeded in covering themselves not with glory, but with dirt. The second inning opened by a good kick-off by Captain DeTarr.**********In a short time a touch-down was made by our team and a kick was made by Captain DeTarr for the goal, which, according to the referee's deicision, missed ; but our umpire and the whole team and the spectators declared the goal was safely made ; however, we did not wish to dispute with the referee, yet, we must suggest, he is as liable to be mistaken as anyone else.
Captain David DeTarr
The culture of this country must have been extremely different back in the Guilded Age of the 1870's
For example; DeTarr was only rated a 3* in Poor Richard's Almanack, so many telegrams were sent questioning the direction of the program.
It's either that or the entire discussion around scheduling was this:
"We can either play this on a hot, shitty day in late May or a hot, shitty day in early September. Your call."
I guess we know what they agreed on in this case.
That's an interesting counter-factual: what if football had become a Spring sport instead of a Fall sport?
The culture was actually pretty much the same in a major way: Memorial Day (then called "Decoration Day") was already a traditional day for sporting events. Baseball games and horse races were traditional at the time.
White Stockings Park in Chicago was the home of the team that is now called the Chicago Cubs. Unfortunately for the owners of the park, the White Stockings were on a road trip to the East coast on Decoration Day. Fortunately for them, though, somebody approached them about an alternate sporting event for the day--a college football game.
Uhhh... I think we're gonna need more candles.
game in the heat, makes me wonder if this was a big reason why the season moved to the fall. WD, do you know when they started playing in the fall?
Michigan played a game on May 12, 1883, plus a 2-game set against Notre Dame on April 20 & 21, 1888. Those are the only games that did not take place between late August and early January.
Even in 1879, the Eastern schools that played football had already established October & November as "football season." It wasn't really in Michigan's power to change that, especially because baseball and track had already established themselves as Spring sports for colleges.
I wrestled a guy in junior high school who looked like a carbon copy of David DeTarr. There must be no relation, becase I beat this guy, and any relative to the first touchdown scorer in Michian football history would wrestle with far more tenacity.
Correction: DeTarr was the kicker, I rescind my earlier statement.
Even guys playing in their flannel pajamas in the heat had a Spring Game 139 years ago.
We've become wimps.
I can not fathom how people survived without AC back then (obviously they did but in great discomfort!)
People take for granted the invention of AC.
It is possibly the most important invention ever.
While the air conditioner is an important invention, the three greatest inventions were beer, the microwave oven, and porn.
Proof: I only need the air conditioner in the summer.
Did toe meet leather at 1 p.m.?
Kickoff was at 4:15 pm Chicago time.