Tufts was not known as an athletic powerhouse in the latter half of the twentieth century. However, it has since evolved into a dominant NESCAC force, winning numerous national championships and the NACDA Directors’ Cup in 2021–22 as the most successful Division III program in the country. This relatively recent success has roots stretching back more than 150 years, including what may be the first ever game of American collegiate football.
How It All Began
“It was the first time football in this country really looked like football — running, tackling, scrimmages. Not just soccer by another name.” — Rocky Carzo
The intertwined stories of American college football and Tufts Athletics often surprise even long-time sports fans. Many journalists and historians cite a game between Princeton and Rutgers on November 6, 1869, as the “first,” but that contest more closely resembled a rough version of soccer — no tackling, no carrying the ball, and twenty-five players a side. The first showdown between Tufts and Harvard in 1875, by contrast, brought several defining elements of football to American soil: tackling, scrimmage lines, running plays, and eleven-man teams. Based on extensive research, long-time Tufts Athletics Director Rocky Carzo argues that the first true football game between two American colleges took place on June 4, 1875, when Tufts College beat Harvard 1-0 at Jarvis Field in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Tufts students likely first learned of the new game during a rugby match between Harvard and McGill University in May 1874. The game was played with rugby rules, but was seen as an early version of football. Several Tufts students attended the game, and challenged Harvard to a match the following year. Using recently established "Boston rules" for football, Tufts handed Harvard its first ever football loss. Although there are few existing records of the game, players recount that Scott Campbell scored the game's only touchdown behind a block from Austin Fletcher with Francis Harrington kicking the extra point. After the completion of the match, Tufts players reportedly ran all the way back to the hill, rang the bell at Ballou Hall, and celebrated with a buffet supper, toasts, and speeches.
Football had been present on the Tufts campus informally since at least 1864. The first issue of Tuftonian reported that football was becoming quite popular, and by 1875, it had almost superseded baseball as the most popular sport on campus.
Rocky Carzo: Guardian of the Legacy
This remarkable chapter in Tufts and Football history might have remained hidden if not for the tireless research of Rocky Carzo, Tufts’ Athletics Director for more than three decades. Carzo conducted archival research and interviews, spearheaded the publication of Jumbo Footprints, a history of Tufts Athletics, and spoke about the Tufts/Harvard game in the press, leading to articles in the Boston Globe and the story of the game’s inclusion in the New England Patriots Hall of Fame at Patriot Place.
As Tufts marks 150 years since that historic first game, please visit or get in touch with TARC to further explore the connections between early athletics at Tufts and America’s most popular sport.
