1869 Princeton vs. Rutgers football game

[10] The first such game in the United States in which the ball is advanced by physically picking it up and running, where play is stopped by knocking down the ball carrier, and each team fields eleven members was played on June 4, 1875 between Tufts and Harvard colleges.

At some point early in the contest, the "flying wedge" play was first used as the team with the ball formed a wall-like formation of players, allowing them to charge at the defenders.

Ball was able to successfully use that technique to set up Dixon to score another goal which gave Rutgers a 4–2 lead.

He suggested that the Rutgers team keep the ball low on the ground to counter the much taller players on Princeton.

[14] Princeton had more size, which would normally be an advantage on a field with 50 total players, but the Tigers had trouble kicking the ball as a team which is something Rutgers did very well.

For years each had striven for possession of an old Revolutionary cannon, making night forays and lugging it back and forth time and again.

Not long before the first football game, the canny Princetonians had settled this competition in their own favor by ignominiously sinking the gun in several feet of concrete.

In addition to this, I regret to report, Princeton had beaten Rutgers in baseball by the harrowing score of 40-2.

""In every game the cool goaltenders saved the Rutgers goal half a dozen times; in every game the heavy charger of the Princeton side overthrew everything he came in contact with; and in every game, just when the interest in one of those delightful rushes at the fence was culminating, the persecuted ball would fly for refuge into the next lot, and produce cessation of hostilities until, after the invariable 'foul', it was put in straight (...) "To sum up, Princeton had the most muscle, but didn't kick very well, and wanted organization.

The Princeton students reportedly jumped in their carriages and quickly made the 20-mile trip back to their campus.

[9] Fifty years after the historic first game, members of the 1869 Rutgers football team were honored at Homecoming ceremonies in 1918.