Preliminary football at Notre Dame
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The University of Notre Dame did not play rugby-style football until the rules were introduced in the spring of 1887, ahead of their inaugural game against the Michigan. Prior to this, "football" at Notre Dame was more closely related to the more archaic "mob" football games. Old-style football was the predominant style of play, although its possible that association football and other odd variants were employed over the years given the informal, unregulated nature of the games.
The old-style was a term created in the 1880s to describe games that includes upwards of a hundred players per team and usually lasted several hours. The goal of these games was to move a ball from one side of the field to the other, and after crossing a rudimentary goal line the scoring team earned a single point. No set of rules are known to have been written to govern the contests, but the players were likely allowed to use their hands, and any other parts of their body, to move the ball across the field. This was the principle difference between the old-style game and association football.
Association football, better known as soccer in the United States, may have also been played at the University as early as the 1860s. It is incredibly difficult to differentiate the association game from old-style football, particularly in older accounts that do not provide apt descriptions of the rules or regulations.
During the latter half of the 19th century, All games by the name of "football" between the University's establishment in 1842 to 1886 will be included, although the state of many contests will be left unclear.
Association football era[edit]
All known games played between 1869 and ___ were most likely related to soccer. The type of "foot-ball" variety during the era was only mentioned in a kicking capacity, and so it can be assumed that no elements of old-style or modern football were present.
1869[edit]
The first mention of football, or foot-ball (the terms were interchangeable), was written in the Notre Dame Scholastic on September 13th, 1869, in an article titled "Homesickness".[1] Given the vagueness of the excerpt, it's possible that "Foot-Ball Clubs" existed at Notre Dame prior to 1869, or they may not have existed at all if taken from a general point-of-view.
Later that year, kicking footballs was mentioned as a particular form of exercise for students during the wintertime. The exercises were conducted on St. Joseph's Lake once it had iced over.[2]
1870[edit]
The first mention of a foot-ball game was recorded in the Scholastic on November 19, 1870. The winner of the two picked teams of twenty to twenty-five men was unknown.
Date | Team | Score | Team | Score | Location | Notes | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
November 11 | Senior picked team | unknown | Senior picked team | unknown | Senior campus | [3] |
The Minims and Juniors were first mentioned as participants in campus foot-ball during the winter of 1870[4]
1871[edit]
Football, excluding the hyphen between "foot" and "ball", was first used in the Scholastic on October 21, 1871.[5]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Homesickness" (PDF). The Scholastic. September 13, 1869. p. 2.
- ↑ "Amusements" (PDF). The Scholastic. November 27, 1869. p. 45.
- ↑ "A GAME" (PDF). The Scholastic. November 19, 1870. p. 4.
- ↑ "Here and There" (PDF). Notre Dame Scholastic. December 17, 1870. p. 5. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
- ↑ "Eric a Boarder" (PDF). The Scholastic. October 21, 1871. p. 2.
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