MONTREAL -- This week marks the 145th anniversary of the first intercollegiate football game played in Canada, a contest featuring visiting Harvard at McGill University which took place on Oct. 23, 1874.

What was unique about this game was that touchdowns were counted in the scoring for the first time. Harvard won the matchup by three TDs, which was reported then as a 3-0 final.

It was the third game played between the two teams that year as they had earlier hooked up for a historic two-game series at Cambridge, Mass., May 14 and 15, 1874, which were the first organized games of North American-style football.

These contests were preceded by a Princeton-Rutgers football game in 1869 but that event was actually played with a round ball under England's "Football Association" rules, better known in North America as soccer.

McGill's game, which featured an oval ball, permitted kicking the ball as in soccer, but the participants could also pick the ball up and run with it whenever they pleased.

Harvard's syle of play incorporated a round ball and a kicking style of play known as "the Boston game" and was also closely related to what we today call "soccer". However, a curious feature of that game was that a player could run and throw or pass the ball only if he were being pursued by an opponent. When the opposing player gave up pursuit he called out to the runner, who had to stop and kick the ball.

The 1874 McGill-Harvard series, which featured 11 men per side, was played with a round ball and "Boston" rules in the first game. The next day, they played under McGill rules, which included McGill's oval ball and the ability to pick up the ball and run with it.

Teams were generally composed of 15 men to a side, but now and then games were played with as few as 22 men on the field.



The game was far from uniform. Each locality introduced strange rulings of its own. The Canadians had remained loyal to the sport as it had been imported from England. The Americans had already begun to effect certain changes. Of these one of the most confusing was that a man could run with the ball only as long as someone chose to pursue him. When a tackler abandoned the ball-carrier, the latter was forced to kick, pass or even throw away his burden.

HARVARD'S LIFETIME RECORD AGAINST McGILL (5-0-2):

Oct 30, 1882 AT Harvard McGill University (W) 2 - 0 Nov 01, 1879 Harvard AT McGill University (T) 0 - 0 Nov 10, 1877 Harvard AT McGill University (W) 1 - 0 Nov 11, 1876 AT Harvard McGill University (W) 1 - 0 Oct 23, 1874 Harvard AT McGill University (W) 3 - 0 May 15, 1874 AT Harvard McGill University (T) 0 - 0 May 14, 1874 AT Harvard McGill University (W) 3 - 0

===========================================

Playing Rules of the McGill University Football Club

(reprinted from the McGill University Gazette, April 1874)

===========================================



Until a few years ago, the methods of playing football were varied and numerous, but the game has finally settled into two distinct styles – the Rugby rules and the Association rules.



The object of the Association code is to encourage "dribbling", and simplicity has also been carefully studied by the abolition of all clauses and technicalities calculated to prevent the easy comprehension of the rules; the Rugby laws are much more extensive and elaborate, and the main idea is to encourage speed of foot with a minimum of kicking, besides, there being an atmosphere of danger in the "hacking" and "mauls" so dear to every player more Rugbeinsi.



We today publish a copy of the College rules, revised and amended up to April, 1874, and these will make the chief features of our game apparent to everyone. They disagree very materially with the rules of the Canadian Association, and while we regret our exclusion from playing for the Champion Cup, yet we feel bound, both by honour and inclination, to stick to our own game, which seems always to have suited our men peculiarly well.



i. Each goal shall consist of two upright posts, 16 feet high and 15 feet apart, with a cross-bar at a distance of 10 feet from the ground. The maximum length of the ground shall be 150 yards; the maximum breadth shall be 75 yards.



ii. The number of players on each side shall be not more than 20, or less than 10. The definite number too be settled by the Captains before each match.



iii. The winners of the toss shall have the option of kick off or choice of goals. The game shall be commenced by a place kick from the centre of the ground, and the opposite side shall not come within 10 yards of the ball.



iv. The ball shall be kicked off (i.) at the commencement of the game, (ii.) after a goal has been obtained, or (iii.) at the end of each half hour.



v. After a goal is won, ends shall be changed, and the losing side shall kickoff. In the event, however, of no goal having fallen to either side at the lapse of half an hour, ends shall then be changed.



vi. The ball may be caught on the bounce and carried; the player so carrying the ball may be "tackled" or "shouldered", but not hacked, throttled, or pommelled. No player may be held unless in actual possession of the ball.



vii. In the event of any player holding or running with the ball being tackled, and the ball fairly held, he may at once cry "have it down"; but he need not do so until his own side comes up.



viii. A goal can only be obtained by kicking the ball from the field of play direct (i.e. without touching the dress or person of any player of either side) over the cross-bar of the opponent's goal, whether it touch such cross-bar, or the posts, or not: but if the ball goes directly over either of the goal posts it is called a poster, and is not a goal. A goal may be obtained by any kind of kick except a punt.



ix. A match shall last for three half hours -- it shall be decided by the majority of goals, or in the event of no goals being obtained by the majority of touch-downs; three touchdowns counting as one goal.



x. Every player is on side but is put off side if he enters a scrummage from his opponents' side, or being in a scrummage, gets in front of the ball, or when the ball has been kicked, touched, or is being run with by one of his own side behind him (i.e. between himself and his goal line). Every player when off side is out of the game, and shall not touch the ball in any case whatever, or in any way interrupt or obstruct any player, until he is again on side.



xi. A player being off side is put on side when the ball has been kicked by or has touched the dress or person of any player of the opposite side, or when one of his own side has run in front of him either with the ball or having kicked it when behind him.



xii. It is lawful for any player who has the ball to throw it back towards his own goal, or pass it back to any player of his own side who is at the time behind him, in accordance with the rules of on side.



xiii. If a ball goes into touch, the first player, on his side, who touches it down must bring it to the spot where it crossed the touch line; or if a player, when running with the ball, cross or put any part of either foot across the touch line, he must return with the ball to the spot where the line was so crossed, and then either (i.) bound the ball in the field of play, and then run with it, kick it, or throw it back to his own side, or (ii.) throw it out at right angles to the touch line.



xiv. The goal line is in goal, and the touch line is in touch.



xv. If the ball be sent beyond the side-bounds and put behind the goal line, it shall be touched down and thrown in from the corner in a diagonal direction by whoever touches it down.



xvi. It is not lawful to take the ball from off the ground for any purpose whatever, unless it be in touch.



xvii. No hacking or hacking over, or tripping up, shall be allowed under any circumstances. No one wearing projecting nails, iron plates, or gutta percha on any part of his boots or shoes, shall be allowed to play in a match.



xviii. In case of any distinct and wilful violation of these Rules of Play, a free kick shall be forfeited to the opposite side from the spot where the infringement took place, but in no case shall a goal be scored from such free kick.



xix. Continued transgressions of Rules by any player, the side to which he belongs shall lose him.



xx. All disputes to be settled by the Umpire, whose decision shall be final.



Definition of terms

---------------------



1. A "drop kick" is made by letting the ball fall from the hands and kicking it the very instant it rises.



2. A "place kick" is made by kicking the ball after it has been placed in a nick made in the ground for the purpose of keeping it at rest.



3. A "punt" is made by letting the ball fall from the hands and kicking it before it touches the ground.



SOURCE :



Earl Zukerman

Communications Officer

McGill Athletics & Recreation

514-398-7012