Antedating of American "Football"

[Shapiro, Fred]

I posted this citation some years ago, but let me do so again in response to Victor's recent post about the word "football."  The following antedates the OED for the American sense of the word "football":


football (OED, 2.b., 1881)

1873 _Forest and Stream_ 30 Oct. 189  The game of Foot Ball is truly pleasing, not only for the spirit and amusement which it affords to the mind, but the good results which the constitution derives from such active exercise.  There is no game, not even base ball, which combines so much bustle, so much "hurrying to and fro," or heathful [sic] pastime for the young men of our Universities and Colleges, as foot ball. ... The Foot Ball season opened on October 18th.  The following Colleges sent delegates to the convention which was held in this city, namely -- Rutgers, Yale and Princeton.  Harvard College having adopted rules of their own, it was useless for them to send any members to the convention.  Columbia College was not represented.  The first match of the season was played on October 25th at Hamilton Park between Rutgers and Yale.


Fred Shapiro
Editor
YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)

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