The College Widow is a 1904 American comedic play by George Ade, which was adapted to film multiple times, and also into the popular 1917 musical Leave It to Jane.

[2] Playwright George Ade first used the trope for a poem he wrote in 1900 (later published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1905), and as the inspiration for a play in 1904.

American football also drives the light plot of the play, loosely based on the football rivalry between DePauw University and Wabash College, which is now known as the Monon Bell rivalry.

[3] After initial warm up performances at the Columbia Theater in Washington, D.C.,[4] the play successfully ran at the Garden Theatre on Broadway for 278 performances, from September 20, 1904, through May 13, 1905, and then toured the United States with three different touring companies.

[5][6] The play was produced by Henry Wilson Savage and directed by George Marion.