Closing Shot: College Football Turns 150

These Rutgers players defeated Princeton “six goals to four goals” in that first college football game. The event was described above as a battle to “seize all opportunities to kick the ball between the enemy’s goal posts.” There was no seating and no admission was charged.Rutgers University

A well-known college football coach, John Heisman, didn’t like the direction the game was headed in the early 1900s. Teams continuously ran the ball up the middle, using dangerous blocking techniques like the flying wedge to create running room.

Heisman, who coached six different college teams over 36 years, complained to the governing body, the Rules Committee, saying that college football needed the forward pass, which previously was against the rules. Passing the ball would open up the field and spread out defenses.

That offensive strategy — spreading the field — sounds a lot like the game played today, only it was Heisman making that point instead of Lincoln Riley.

After nearly three years of contemplation, the Rules Committee made the forward pass legal in 1906.

Those stories and many more like them are what the stakeholders in college football intend to celebrate all season, starting this week, with the 150th anniversary of the first game — Princeton vs. Rutgers on Nov. 6, 1869. From the National Football Foundation to ESPN, the initiative is being called CFB150.

ESPN has put as much production muscle behind college football’s 150th anniversary as any previous programming initiative. John Dahl, the network’s vice president and executive producer of original content, said his group has produced 35 hours of college football storytelling that will air across all of ESPN’s platforms this season.

Those themes, which began running last weekend, will touch on the subjects of rivalries, recruiting, TV, Notre Dame and games of the century. Notre Dame is the only individual school to be profiled.

“We need to have a presence wherever our college football fans go across the networks and platforms,” Dahl said. “So, we will have a weekly presence on ‘College GameDay,’ absolutely.”

On the field, specially designed jersey patches and helmet stickers have been created by a group known as College Football 150, a nonprofit funded by the NFF and the NCAA to celebrate the anniversary this season.

Former Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg was hired as executive director and he is working with 800 schools across multiple divisions to promote the 150th. It’s up to the schools whether they will activate all season or if they will pick a particular game to use CFB150 assets, such as creative produced for in-venue LED boards.

Miami (Ohio) will play at Ohio U. on the actual anniversary, Nov. 6. Later that week, Princeton will play Dartmouth in Yankee Stadium.