HR0972 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0972 LRB103 43591 MST 76932 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, A crude soccer-rugby combination game was played in Chicago as early as July 18, 1869; Northwestern University, using the rules created by Harvard and Yale in 1875, played the Chicago Football Club on February 22, 1876 on the Evanston campus to commemorate President George Washington's birthday in the first verifiable American football game and the first college football game played in Illinois, the Midwest, or anywhere west of the eastern states; and

WHEREAS, The Massasoit Convention, held in Springfield, Massachusetts on November 23, 1876 between Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia Universities, had not yet occurred; and

WHEREAS, The game was played somewhere between what is now Lunt Hall and the Jacobs Building, buildings that did not yet exist in 1876; and

WHEREAS, No sign, no marker, no plaque, and no monument currently exists on the Northwestern University campus that indicates or commemorates where the game was played; and

WHEREAS, It was agreed that the Chicago Football Club would play with 15 men and the Northwestern team would have 20 men, but by the end of the game, the Northwestern team had as many as 30 men on their side; and

WHEREAS, The Chicago Football Club developed an early version of a football uniform, which was blue with a C on their shirts, but some on the Northwestern team came to play the game with their baseball uniforms while others just wore street clothes; and

WHEREAS, The ground was frozen, and the goal posts could not be put into the ground but instead had to be held up by volunteers; and

WHEREAS, Despite the cold conditions, numerous celebrities attended the game, including Orrington Lunt, one of the founders of Northwestern University, who has Lunt Hall and the Orrington Hotel named for him, and also Francis Willard, the first Dean of Women at Northwestern University, who became an important supporter of Northwestern University sports and became president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; and

WHEREAS, The Northwestern University team captain, Frank F. Cassidy, a native of Evanston who became a physician, also played on the Northwestern University baseball team, along with Edward Kinman, another member of the Northwestern University baseball team; other Northwestern players included Walter Lee Brown, E. Monroe, and Asher; and

WHEREAS, The Chicago Football Club team captain, Gus Hornsby, a key organizer of football in Chicago since 1875, was listed on the roster, along with L.H. Sullivan, C.J. Williams, W.B. Keith, W. Wallace, Smith-Faunteroy, L.D. Williams, J.J. Flanders, R. Cleveland, C. Hilton, A.H. Sullivan, A.V. Booth, E.F. Cragin, W.B. Curtis, W. Bonner, W. Brown, and O. Miller, making this the first known naming of football players on both teams in Illinois as well as the Midwest or anywhere west of the eastern states; and

WHEREAS, No known photographs to document the game were taken, but sketches were made by newspaper sketch artists; and

WHEREAS, Various newspapers, including The Tripod, The Northwestern University student newspaper that existed prior to The Daily Northwestern, The Chicago Tribune, and The Chicago Times, reported on the game; and

WHEREAS, The game, which used a different scoring method than what fans know now, ended with a score of 3 for the Chicago Football Club and 0 for Northwestern University after three touchdowns by the Chicago Football Club; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the Northwestern University vs. Chicago Football Club game played on February 22, 1876 as the first American football game and the first college American football game played in Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge the citizens of Illinois to learn more about this historic event that took place in Illinois and helped shape American football.