Factoid #2 - 1869 - Two Champions: Rutgers and Princeton!

Princeton played Rutgers twice in 1869. Two selectors gave Princeton the championship and one gave it to them both.

The teams played consecutive Saturdays on November 6 and November 13. Rutgers won six to four in the first game, while Princeton won eight to nothing in the second game. Both home teams won, establishing the home advantage paradigm. The Billingsley Report awarded the championship to Princeton, as did the National Championship Foundation. Parke H. Davis awarded the championship retroactively to both teams in 1933; he is famous for primarily using research and statistics to validate his choices.

The original teams on the first championship probably had very little inkling of what they had begun. A mere 25 years later the landscape was already changing with teams and leagues throughout the country. Unfortunately, the precedent of no clear champion was begun.

It is time to change that and decide the champions on the FIELD!