May 15, 1874 - Harvard versus McGill...

The May 16, 1874 edition of the Boston Post had an excerpt that read "Foot-Ball." The last of the football games between Harvard and McGill University was played yesterday afternoon at Jarvis Field. As the first day's play had been according to Harvard rules, McGill's play was adopted yesterday. Three games of half an hour each were played, time being called at each expiration, without either club being able to force the ball over the opposite goal. There was a large crowd and much enthusiasm.

The image shown was taken on May 15, 1874, and captures the moment of the second Harvard-McGill football game, played under the rugby rules. The Harvard players are on the left (in white), and the McGill players on the right. They flank the game officials. (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Parke H. Davis, in his book from 1911 titled Foot Ball: The Intercollegiate Game, states that McGill University's captain in 1874 was a player by the name of David Rodger and that he sent the invitation for the game to Harvard. The first was suggested to be played during this May 1874 time period in Cambridge, Massachusetts, under the Rugby All-Canada code rules, and a second game was proposed to be played in Montreal that fell under the Harvard rules, thus introducing each school's style of play to the fans of the host school. These proposed plans, of course, morphed into something even better. There was a lot of enthusiasm on both sides, and Harvard accepted the challenge.  

The American Heritage website gives us more insight. They played two games—one on May 14 under Harvard's rules and one on May 15 under McGill's. Harvard won the first game 3-0, while the second was a scoreless tie. After a return match in Montreal that October, Harvard adopted the McGill version for good.

In June 1875, Tufts defeated Harvard in the first football game between American teams. That fall, Harvard met Yale for the first time under "concessionary rules" that blended the two games but leaned toward Harvard's version. A year later, when Harvard, Rutgers, Princeton, Columbia, and Yale formulated the first standard set of college football rules, they abandoned soccer entirely in favor of the Harvard-McGill game. Thus, the ultra-American sport of football has been invented in Quebec, Canada.