Happy 136th Birthday, Michigan Football!
136 years ago today at White Stockings Park in Chicago, Michigan played their first football (or foot ball back then) game against Racine.
Irving K. Pond scored the first touchdown in Michigan history as Team 1 beat Racine 1-0.
Some funny snippets from the account-
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.
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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....
The game he referenced is considered the first game of Michigan Football.
Team 1!
And how fitting is it that this date falls on the same day as the Rugby team's National Tournament Pool Play?
head up the campaign to make Rugby a varsity sport at Michigan??!
/s
Other questions for you, WD:
---Which one in the Team 1 group photo is the game's here, Irving Pond?
---Where can we find some authentic Team 1 apparel?
The first chap on the left in the middle row.
Was he British?
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Had to look up this Pond fellow after this post. He also is responsible for designing the Michigan Union (where his boyhood house used to be) and the Michigan League. This dude just oozes Michigan.
I get that it all used to be a field, and probably rocks before that and probably underwater before that, but it's kind of crazy to think someone lived in a house where the Union is.
was worth 0 points as they missed the point after. the only point of the game was scored in the second "inning" on a place kick..at least according to wikipedia
Think of it as Touchdown = 0 points, Extra Point = 1 point, Field Goal = 1 point.
Because the "extra point" was missed, Pond's touchdown had absolutely nothing to do with Michigan's win; David DeTarr scored the point for Michigan by kicking a goal in the last few minutes of the game.
Wow, that football from 1879 is in amazingly good shape.
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Northern Illinois Knitting Enterprises
Racine sucks!
Nobody smiled in photos back in those days.
The pornstache look was popular too.
in the account are not surprising. White Stockings Park, or Lakefront Park, or Lake-Shore Park,
was located in what is now MIllenium Park.
Just like the modern day team's park (Wrigley Field), it's always important to know if the wind is blowing out for the game. Since future landfill had not occurred, the lake was essentially right outside the park as shown in the top picture.
From a baseball perspective, when Michigan played this game there, balls hit over the right field fence were only ground-rule doubles as the field was so small. A few years later (after missing the pennant for the first time in 4 years), the team decided to call such balls home runs and the White Stockings led the league in homers by 142 to 39 over the second-ranked team. Surprise, surprise, the league instituted new minimums for ball parks after that year. Due to that, and the fact the ball park was built on federal land that was not supposed to have any permanent structures, the team had to move to a bigger field. More info here.
Here were the baseball dimensions in 1879:
- Left field foul pole: 186 feet
- Left field power alley: 280 feet
- Center field: 300 feet
- Right field power alley: 252 feet
- Right field foul pole: 196 feet
And here we thought the Northwestern football game at Wrigley was cramped!
What was the over/under? Did Michigan cover?