Bill Text: IL HR0972 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Recognizes 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.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Passed) 2025-01-04 - Resolution Adopted [HR0972 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HR0972-Introduced.html

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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

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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

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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

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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