List of the first college football games in each U.S. state

The following is a list of the first college football game in each U.S. state and the District of Columbia. Games included on this list are the earliest recorded single intercollegiate football games in each member state of the United States.

State Date Home Visitor Location Final score Notes
NJ November 6, 1869 Rutgers New Jersey (now Princeton) College Avenue field, New Brunswick, New Jersey 6–4 First organized intercollegiate football game in New Jersey. Considered the first American football game ever played.[1][2]
NY November 2, 1872 Columbia Rutgers Union Base Ball Club Grounds, Tremont, New York 0–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in New York.[3] The game was essentially soccer, as a kick over the crossbar was not counted as a goal.[4] Tremont became a part of New York City in 1874, and Walter Gladwin Park in The Bronx is the approximate location where the game was played.[5][6]
CT November 16, 1872 Yale Columbia Hamilton Park, New Haven, Connecticut 3–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Connecticut.[7][8] First game in New England. The game is essentially soccer with 20-man sides, played on a field 400 by 250 feet. Yale wins 3–0, Tommy Sherman scoring the first goal and Lew Irwin the other two.[9]
VA November 2, 1873 Washington and Lee VMI Lexington, Virginia 4–2 First organized intercollegiate football game in Virginia. First game in the south.[10]


Some industrious students of the two schools organized a game for October 23, 1869 – but it was rained out.[11] Students of the University of Virginia were playing pickup games of the kicking-style of football as early as 1870, and some accounts even claim it organized a game against Washington and Lee College in 1871. But no record has been found of the score of this contest. Due to scantness of records of the prior matches some will claim Virginia v. Pantops Academy November 13, 1887 as the first game in Virginia.

MA May 14, 1874 Harvard McGill Jarvis Field, Cambridge, Massachusetts 3–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Massachusetts.[12][13]
ME November 6, 1875 Bates (ME) Tufts JV (MA) Rand Field, Lewiston, Maine 1–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Maine. After the first game against Harvard, Tufts took its squad to Bates College for the first organized intercollegiate football game played in Maine.[14][15]
PA November 11, 1876 Penn Princeton Young America Cricket Club Grounds, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 6–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Pennsylvania.[16][17]
IL May 30, 1879 Michigan Racine College White-Stocking Park, Chicago, Illinois 1–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Illinois. The Chicago Daily Tribune called it "the first rugby-football game to be played west of the Alleghenies" and it was advertised as the "championship of the Western Colleges."[18][19]


The first organized intercollegiate football game in Illinois played by teams from the state occurred November 11, 1882, when Lake Forest defeated Northwestern 1-0 on the Campus Meadow in Evanston.[20]

MI November 1, 1879 Michigan Toronto Detroit, Michigan 0–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Michigan.[21]
KY April 9, 1880 Kentucky University Centre Stoll Field, Lexington, Kentucky 13¾–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Kentucky. Kentucky University defeated Centre.[22][23] Another claim to the first game in the south.[24]
NH November 17, 1881 Dartmouth Amherst Hanover, New Hampshire 1–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in New Hampshire.[25][26]
MN September 30, 1882 Hamline Minnesota King's Fair Ground, Minneapolis, Minnesota 4–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Minnesota.[27][28] Some secondary sources may incorrectly report September 29 as the date and the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul as the location. The correct date and location are September 30 at King's Fair Ground in Minneapolis.[29]
MD November 30, 1882 Navy Johns Hopkins Annapolis, Maryland 8–0 First organized intercollegiate football in Maryland. It snowed heavily before the game, to the point where players for both teams had to clear layers of snow off of the field, making large piles of snow along the sides of the playing ground. The field was 110 yards by 53 yards, with goalposts 25 feet (7.6 m) apart and 20 feet (6.1 m) high. The first half of the game went scoreless; the Baltimore American reported that "the visitors pushed Navy every place but over the goal line in the first half".[30] During play, the ball was kicked over the seawall a number of times, once going so far out it had to be retrieved by boat before play could continue.[30][31]


The first organized football game in Maryland involving a college occurred December 11, 1879 when Navy and the Baltimore Athletic Club played to a scoreless tie on the "superintendent's cow pasture" in Annapolis.

DC November 20, 1883 Gallaudet Georgetown Kendall Green, Washington, D.C. 13–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Washington, D.C.[32][33]
IN May 31, 1884 Butler DePauw 7th Street Base Ball Park, Indianapolis, Indiana 16–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Indiana.[34][35]
CO April 11, 1885 Colorado College Denver Athletic Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado 12–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Colorado. The CC Athletic Association responded to a challenge from the University of Denver by scheduling a game early on April 11. A severe windstorm that morning forced postponement of the game until the afternoon.[36]


The first organized football game in Colorado involving a college occurred December 25, 1882 when Colorado College defeated Sigafus Hose Company 10-8 on a field near the college campus in Colorado Springs.

VT November 6, 1886 Vermont Dartmouth Burlington, Vermont 91–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Vermont.[37]
NC October 18, 1888 Wake Forest North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Raleigh, North Carolina 6–4 First organized intercollegiate football game in North Carolina.[38][39]


The first "scientific game" occurred on Thanksgiving of the same year when North Carolina played Duke (then Trinity) at Raleigh Athletic Park. Duke won 16 to 0.[40]

WI November 29, 1888 Racine College Lake Forest (IL) Racine, Wisconsin 6–4 First organized intercollegiate football game in Wisconsin.[41] Lake Forest claims it was just the sixteenth team in the nation.[42]
OH December 8, 1888 Miami (OH) Cincinnati Oxford, Ohio 0–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Ohio. The "Victory Bell" is one of the sport's oldest rivalries.[43] The first game was played in a freezing rain.[44]
SD May 3, 1889 South Dakota State South Dakota Sioux Falls Fairgrounds, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 6–6 First organized intercollegiate football game in South Dakota.[45] "The foot ball resulted in a draw and the prize of $15 was divided between Vermillion [South Dakota] and Brookings [South Dakota State]."[46]
CA 1889 USC St. Vincent's Los Angeles, California 40–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in California.[47] First Pacific Coast game.


The first organized football game in California involving a college occurred December 2, 1882 when Cal lost a rugby football game to Phoenix Club 7-4 in San Francisco. The first organized American football game in California involving a college occurred January 16, 1886 when Cal defeated a club team called the Wasps 20-2 at West Field in Berkeley.[48]

RI October 23, 1889 Brown Tufts Pawtucket, Rhode Island 16–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Rhode Island.[49] Brown may have played an organized intercollegiate game in Rhode Island as early as 1886 against Boston University, but it is unclear whether that game was played in Massachusetts or in Rhode Island.
IA November 16, 1889 Iowa College Iowa Grinnell, Iowa 24–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Iowa. First game west of the Mississippi River.[50]
SC December 14, 1889 Wofford Furman Encampment Grounds, Spartanburg, South Carolina 5–1 First organized intercollegiate football game in South Carolina.[51][52] The game featured no uniforms, no positions, and the rules were formulated before the game.[53] First game in the Deep South.
DE October 11, 1890 Swarthmore (Sophomores) Delaware Newark, Delaware 30–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Delaware. "In Newark, when news leaked out in 1889 that the college boys were going to play football Sheriff Bill Simmons swore up and down Main Street that the first corpse carried off the field would mean the end of the game."[54]


The first organized football game in Delaware involving a college occurred October 26, 1889 when the Delaware Field Club defeated Delaware 74-0 at Union Park in Wilmington.[55]

KS November 22, 1890 Baker Kansas Baldwin City, Kansas 22–9 First organized intercollegiate football game in Kansas.[56]
MO November 27, 1890 Washington (MO) Missouri St. Louis, Missouri 28–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Missouri.[57]


The first organized football game in Missouri involving a college occurred in 1887 when Washington (MO) defeated the University Club 14-4 in St. Louis.[58]

TN November 27, 1890 Vanderbilt Nashville (Peabody) Athletic Park, Nashville, Tennessee 40–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Tennessee.[59]
WA November 27, 1890 Washington College Washington Tacoma, Washington 0–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Washington.[60]


The first organized football game in Washington involving a college occurred November 28, 1889 when a team of Eastern College Alumni defeated Washington 20-0 at Jefferson Street Park in Seattle.[61]

NE February 14, 1891 Doane (NE) Nebraska Field "west of the reservoir", Crete, Nebraska 18–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Nebraska.[62][63]


The first organized football game in Nebraska involving a college occurred November 27, 1890 when Nebraska defeated Omaha YMCA 10-0 at "the base ball park, North Twentieth street" in Omaha.[64][65]

WV November 28, 1891 West Virginia Washington & Jefferson Show Lot, Morgantown, West Virginia 72–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in West Virginia.[66]
GA January 30, 1892 Georgia Mercer Herty Field, Athens, Georgia 50–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Georgia.[67]
UT November 25, 1892 Utah State Utah Logan, Utah 12–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Utah.[68]
AL February 22, 1893 Auburn Alabama Lakeview Park, Birmingham, Alabama 32–22 First organized intercollegiate football game in Alabama.[69]
MS November 11, 1893 Mississippi Union (TN) Oxford, Mississippi 56–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Mississippi.[70]
OR November 11, 1893 Oregon State Albany College Corvallis, Oregon 62–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Oregon.[71]
LA November 25, 1893 Tulane LSU New Orleans, Louisiana 34–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Louisiana. The first intramural games in the state occurred at Tulane on New Year's Day, 1890 by dividing students into two teams.[72] The game was introduced to Tulane by Hugh and Thomas Bayne, who played the game at Yale University.[72]
NM January 1, 1894 New Mexico New Mexico State Albuquerque, New Mexico 18–6 First organized intercollegiate football game in New Mexico.[73] First game in the southwest.
ID May 20, 1894 Idaho Washington State Moscow, Idaho 22–0 First organized football in Idaho.[74]
TX October 19, 1894 Texas Texas A&M Austin, Texas 38–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Texas.[75]
ND November 3, 1894 North Dakota North Dakota State Grand Forks, North Dakota 24–6 First organized intercollegiate football game in North Dakota.[76]
OK November 7, 1895 Oklahoma Oklahoma City Terrors Norman, Oklahoma 34–0 The first organized football game in Oklahoma Territory involving a college occurred on November 7, 1895 when the 'Oklahoma City Terrors' defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 34 to 0. The Terrors were a mix of Methodist college students and high schoolers.[77] The Sooners did not manage a single first down. By next season, Oklahoma coach John A. Harts had left to prospect for gold in the Arctic.[78][79] Organized football was first played in the territory on November 29, 1894 between the Oklahoma City Terrors and Oklahoma City High School. The high school won 24 to 0.[78]
WY November 25, 1895 Wyoming Northern Colorado Laramie, Wyoming 34–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Wyoming.[80]
NV November 26, 1896 Nevada California JV Reno, Nevada 40–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Nevada.[81]
MT November 12, 1897 Montana Butte Business (MT) Missoula, Montana 20–4 First organized intercollegiate football game in Montana.[82]
AR November 25, 1897 Ouachita Baptist (AR) Arkansas Arkadelphia, Arkansas 24–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Arkansas.
AZ November 30, 1899 Arizona Tempe Normal Tucson, Arizona 11–2 First organized intercollegiate football game in Arizona.[83]
FL November 22, 1901 Stetson FAC
(predecessor of Florida)		 Jacksonville, Florida 6–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Florida in 1901.[84] A 7-game series between intramural teams from Stetson and Forbes occurred in 1894. The first intercollegiate game between official varsity teams was played on November 22, 1901. Stetson beat Florida Agricultural College at Lake City, one of the four forerunners of the University of Florida, 6–0, in a game played as part of the Jacksonville Fair.[85] A sure score by FAC was obstructed by a tree stump.[86]
HI October 30, 1909 Hawaii Oahu College Honolulu, Hawaii 23–0 First organized intercollegiate football game in Hawaii.[87]
AK January 1, 1949 Alaska–Fairbanks Ladd Air Force Base Fairbanks, Alaska[88] 0–0 First organized football game in Alaska involving a college.[89] Alaska has not hosted an organized intercollegiate college football game.

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