All of us watch Buckeye football every fall Saturday, but none remember the 1890 team, Ohio State's first varsity squad.
With 2018 National Signing Day in the books, Ohio State has officially inked its 128th recruiting class.
While this is the 128th, at one point, of course, there was #1. The 1890 team was the first, and today, we take a look back at the team that started it all.
The Beginning
While college football was born in 1869, when Rutgers defeated Princeton by a final score of 6-4, Ohio State did not begin officially participating in the sport until 21 years later, in 1890.
As a matter of fact, there were two distinct Ohio State football teams in 1890: a spring team, and a fall team.
The Spring Team
The Spring Team was officially the first in Ohio State history. Captained by senior center Jesse Lee Jones, the group played one game and did not have a coach. In fact, Jones asked his schoolmate George Cole to order a rule book and a ball from the Spalding Company in Chicago, as the players had to learn the game some way.
The team played just one game against Ohio Wesleyan University. The Buckeyes were forced to travel the short distance to Delaware, Ohio, because at the time, OWU prohibited athletic teams from participating in events off campus.
The Buckeyes won that game 20-14, beginning a new era for The Ohio State University and college football as a whole.
Fun Facts:
- Also on the 1890 team was right tackle Herbert Johnson, who later invented the electric mixer.
- The 1890 Spring Team was the only football team in Ohio State history to participate without a coach.
- In 2008, the Delaware Historical Society placed a marker in the place where the game was played.
Image Courtesy of The Delaware Historical Society
The Fall Team
The Fall Team was vastly different than the spring squad. For one, this group actually had a coach, Alexander Lilley. After the graduation of Jesse Lee Jones, Paul Lincoln took over at both the center position and as the captain, and, once again through teammate George Cole, recruit his friend Lilley to be the coach.
Lilley was quite a character. Just 23 years old, he was known for his unique style and quirky personality. For one, he used to ride a pony to practices, and was actually an unpaid volunteer coach. A plaque at Ohio Stadium memorializes him as "A Lone and Ardent Volunteer." He played at Princeton during the 1890 season, right before he came to Ohio State.
Image courtesy of The Ohio State University
The fall team also had vastly different results than the spring squad. While the spring group went 1-0, the fall team did not have similar success, finishing 0-4 and being shut out three times, including a 64-0 loss to Wooster in what was the first home game for Ohio State.
Lilley is officially credited with a win by the spring team, but whether he was actually there is disputed. Most historians, including Robert Roman, author of Ohio State Football: The Forgotten Dawn, believe that Lilley was actually 500 miles away in Princeton, New Jersey at the time.
The team played their home games at Recreation Park, which was shared with the Columbus Solons baseball team of the American Association.
Fun Facts:
- Frederick Douglas Patterson, the first African-American player in Ohio State history, played for the fall team
- Lilley coached at Ohio State for just two years, going 2-2 in his second and final season.
- The team was independent until 1902, when they joined the Ohio Athletic Conference.
Impact on Today
If Jesse Lee Jones did not buy a Spalding ball and a rule book 128 years ago, who knows where we are today. While there would *probably* be an Ohio State football team, you never know how these things were to turn out if even one small thing is changed.
Regardless, while they didn't exactly have ideal success on the field, the 1890 Ohio State football team set in motion the wheels that keep turning today.
