An illustration of the first football game held on Nov. 6,
1869 (Photo: Special Collections and University Archives)

On November 6, 1869, Rutgers beat Princeton, 6-4, in the first
college football game. The game, played with a soccer ball before roughly 100 fans in New Brunswick, New Jersey,
resembled rugby instead of today’s football.

Even off the playing fields, the rivalry between the New Jersey
schools, located 20 miles apart, was heated. At the time,
Princeton was known as the College of New Jersey.