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As enthusiasm for the new rugby game grew at Harvard there awakened a desire to play Yale. On Oct. 16, 1875, representatives of the 2 colleges met at Springfield, Mass., and agreed upon the "Concessionary Rules." Under these the first game in what was to become and remain for many years the classic of the gridiron was played on Nov. 13, 1875. The game was largely rugby, with Harvard agreeing to certain changes of a soccer nature and Yale conceding to play 15 men on a side instead of the 11 it advocated. Yale had fielded elevens since it met a visiting English team from Eton in the first international football match played in this country in 1873, winning by 2 goals to 1. The game marked the first time 11 men had played on a side.

Harvard defeated Yale, 4 goals to 0, and Yale,won over to the rugby game, adopted it in 1876. In their meeting that year Harvard agreed to Yale's request for 11-man teams but finally the number was changed to 10. This time the Elis won, 1 goal to 0.

Two Princetonians were observers at the first Harvard-Yale game and became sold on rugby. With much effort they persuaded their college to switch to this game and Princeton adopted it in early November, 1876. More than that, it sent invitations to Yale, Harvard, Rutgers and Columbia, inviting them to join Princeton in a convention at Springfield. There, at Massasoit House, on Nov. 23, 1876, the code of the Rugby Union was adopted with some changes and a new Intercollegiate Football Association was formed.

So the die was cast for rugby rather than soccer, and shortly the evolution from rugby into the American game was to get under way. It started in 1880 with the appearance of the quarterback and the substitution of scrimmage for the English scrum, the reduction of the players from 15 to 11 to a side and the naming of the team positions. Then came the establishment of downs and the origin of the use of signals in 1882. These were the forerunners of the far-reaching changes and innovations having to do with blocking, tackling, forward passing, shifts and formations that were to bring forth a game of such speed, skill and clever strategic maneuvers as to establish football as by far the king of intercollegiate sports throughout the land and bring millions of spectators into the stadiums annually.