Football Daily

The gridiron history at Dartmouth is almost as old as the sport itself. In its early form, the game was played on the campus as early as 1876. A field with goalposts was erected on the green, where they stood for several months before being removed for the 1877 commencement. It was an on-campus thing, intramural by today's standards. The first intercollegiate game occurred on November 17, 1881, when Amherst traveled to Dartmouth. The program grew in size and popularity, and in 1925, they were crowned the retroactive mythical national champions 1925 by both Park H. Davis and the Dickinson System when they posted an 8-0 record under coach Jesse Hawley. They are known as the Big Green now, but the College's sports teams used to be unofficially known as "the Indians." In 1971, a group of Native Americans at Dartmouth released a statement declaring that "various traditions and symbols used by the Dartmouth Community are based upon insensitivity to the culture of Native American Peoples." The administrators and students responded and formally announced that the school's mascot would be the Big Green. Some top-notch players have donned the Big Green uniform, including Ed Healey, Murray Bowden, Frank Cavanaugh, Myles Layne, Clarence Spears, and Reggie Williams. Enjoy this collection of Dartmouth football history from among the top posts that tell their story.