Today in College Football History: Rutgers and Princeton Commemorate 1st College Football Game

It all began on an autumn afternoon in 1869. Of course, when students from Princeton and Rutgers collided on a field then, “football” was nothing like the game played today. The reforms Theodore Roosevelt helped bring about were still nearly 40 years away. Nevertheless, the sport we so know and love can trace its roots back to here; no word if the Rutgers side was receiving improper benefits, or if President Grant was advocating a playoff.

A century later, on Sept. 27, 1969, Rutgers and Princeton reconvened in Piscataway to commemorate the first college football game. RU shutout its Ivy League visitor, 29-0, and there were no artist renderings of the game like the one above, depicting the players as musclebound, heroic types. No word on if Tommy Craggs plans a take-down piece of this 1869 Princeton-Rutgers artwork as folksy hero worship that “sucks.”

Also on Sept. 27, just five years after Oklahoma was embroiled in a 1 vs. 2 showdown against the eventual Heisman Trophy winner, the Sooners got to do so again. Lucky them, right?

Eh, not so much.

Sept. 27, 1986, OU dropped its second 1 vs. 2 match-up in as many attempts when it faced Vinny Testaverde and the eventual national champion Miami Hurricanes. As Marcus Allen had in 1981, Testaverde fortified his Heisman resume with an impressive showing against Barry Switzer’s team when he threw for all four of the Hurricanes’ touchdowns in a 28-16 win.

Staying in the Sunshine State and taken from a more recent place in history, Dexter McCluster became a household name on Sept. 27, 2008, when he ran for a crucial 40-yard touchdown in Ole Miss’s 31-30 defeat of fourth ranked Florida.

McCluster flourished in Houston Nutt’s “WildRebel” set, and exhibited the same speed and elusiveness that have made him a success with the Kansas City Chiefs. Of course, McCluster’s performance on this September day in Gainesville can also be indirectly blamed for this:

Thanks a lot, Dex.