1874 College Football Summary

The touchdown becomes part of the scoring Harvard makes college football history.

Harvard traveled North to Canada, to play McGill and, playing Rugby Rules for the first time, scored 3 touchdowns and was victorious.

Among the fans watching that day was members of the Tufts College football team they liked the style of play and set out to establish this as the type of foot ball they wanted to play.

According to Evolvements of Early American Foot Ball, Tufts after playing its "B" team 5 times (1-0-4) they challenged Harvard to a game.

Tufts not only won the contest 1-goal and 1-touchdown to zero; it claims to have played the first foot ball game in America as all games prior to this time were like soccer. In other games, Yale won 3 games; allowing just Columbia to score goals, in becoming the outstanding team of the season.

Down through the years Yale and Princeton would play one another several times, the two schools didn't meet this year, even though a game was scheduled.

Princeton finished the season at 2-0, blanking Columbia by scoring 6 goals in just 58 minutes of action. And in Princeton's other game, by the same score, took 90 minutes to blank its oldest rival, Rutgers.

Princeton's rules stated: two judges and one referee. "There shall be two judges, one from each of the contesting schools, and one referee; all to be chosen by the captains. Once again, there were two types of foot ball played: Association Football and the Boston Rules Games.

Since there were two types of foot ball played, the leaders will be based on the overall single-season best of most or least goals scored.

1874 Leaders (min. of 2 games) show:

Offensive Scoring Leader (Most Scored)

Harvard (5-1) 9 Goals, 3 Toucdowns; coverterted to 42 points

Defensive Scoring Leader (Least Allowed)

Tufts (2-0-4) didn't allow its opponents to score all season

National Champions (Retroactive)

Harvard (5-1)

Princeton (2-0)

Yale (3-0)