The team was the 1st season intercollegiate football squad to represent the United States Naval Academy.

The contest more closely resembled soccer, with teams scoring by kicking a ball into the opponent's net, and lacked a uniform rules structure.

[3] Even though the number of teams participating in the sport increased, the game was still effectively controlled by the College of New Jersey, who claimed eight national championships in ten years.

The team played the sport under rules that made it much closer to soccer, where the players were permitted only to kick the ball in order to advance it.

Maxwell met with two of his friends, Tunstall Smith and Henry Woods, who played for the Baltimore Athletic Club and officially challenged their team to a game with the Naval Academy.

The squad received encouragement from some of the faculty, who allowed them to eat a late dinner and skip final drill for additional practicing.

[9][11] The Naval Academy hosted the Baltimore team on a temporary field drawn on part of the superintendent's cow pasture.

[9][11] The Baltimore American and Chronicle, which covered the contest, described it as such:[12] The game was closely fought and was finally declared a scoreless tie by the referee about an hour after it began.

Using his knowledge of sailing, he decided to design a sleeveless canvas jacket which would make his players "difficult to grasp when they began to sweat".

[12][15] He presented the design to the academy's tailor, who created the double-lined jackets which "were laced down the front and drawn tightly to fit snugly around a player's body".

[19] According to statistics compiled by the National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis, and the Billingsley college football research center, Yale was declared the 1882 season champion, giving them their eighth overall.