The 1880 Princeton Tigers football team represented the College of New Jersey, then more commonly known as Princeton College, in the

1880 college football season The 1880 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing Princeton and Yale as having been selected national champions. On April 9, college football was first played in the st ...

. The team finished with a 4–0–1 record and was retroactively named co- national champion by the

National Championship Foundation The National Championship Foundation (NCF) was established by Mike Riter of Hudson, New York. The NCF retroactively selected college football national champions for each year from 1869 to 1979, and its selections are among the historic national ch ...

and

Parke H. Davis Parke Hill Davis (July 15, 1871 – June 5, 1934)"PARKE H. DAVIS BURIED.; Many Prominent Men at Funeral of Football Authority", special to ''The New York Times'', June 9, 1934 was an American football player, coach, and historian. Shortly befo ...

. This season was Princeton's tenth national championship and one of 11 in a 13-year period between

1869 Events January–March * January 3 – Abdur Rahman Khan is defeated at Tinah Khan, and exiled from Afghanistan. * January 5 – Scotland's oldest professional Soccer, football team, Kilmarnock F.C., is founded. * January 20 & ...

and

1881 Events January–March * January 1– 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans. * January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The ...

. The captain of the team was

Francis Loney Francis may refer to: People * Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome * Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places *Rural ...

. On November 13 at the

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

in New York City, Princeton defeated

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

with between 3,000 and 4,000 in attendance. Princeton scored two goals and held Harvard to one goal. Princeton also had five touchdowns for safety to two for Harvard. ''The Sun'' of New York reported that the game, played under the new 1880 rules of the

Intercollegiate Football Association The Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA), also known as the American Intercollegiate Football Association, was one of the earliest college football rules-making and scheduling organizations in existence; it was active from the 1873 to 1893 ...

, was football in name only, but "in reality a series of wrestling encounters for possession of a large leather globe." Princeton ended the season as it did in

1879 Events January–March * January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War. * January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins. * Janu ...

, with a 0–0 tie against

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

at a neutral site near New York.

Schedule

References

{{College Football National Champion pre-AP Poll navbox

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

Princeton Tigers football seasons College football national champions College football undefeated seasons

Princeton Tigers football The Princeton Tigers football program represents Princeton University and competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level as a member of the Ivy League. Princeton's foot ...