Factoid 242 - College Football in 1865

College football began in 1869 with the first college football game between Rutgers and Princeton, so in 1865 there was no champion. However, the tradition of football can actually trace its roots as far back as the 17th century when a mob of people would challenge another mob of people to push around and fight for an inflatable ball. There were few rules to this game.

Harvard had a tradition of “Bloody Mary”: a ball game between the freshman and sophomore classes. This tradition began in 1827. The violence associated with this game and others throughout the “Ivy League” colleges prompted officials to ban these mob football games in the early 1860s.

However, these mob football games were still very popular in East Coast prep schools, and it was only a matter of time until colleges allowed them again, which they did with the first game in 1869. Twenty-five years after the end of the Civil War and 21 years after the first college football game there would already be 18 teams playing college football, with significant crowds watching these games, and perhaps a tradition called “tailgating” had already begun.

National Champions

• Zero - College football was not yet established as an official sport.

• The New York Stock Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.
• The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (conditional prohibition of slavery and involuntary servitude) was passed in the House of Representatives by a narrow margin.
• The U.S. Secret Service was founded.
• April 9 – American Civil War: Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, which effectively ended the American Civil War.