Texas A&M Football: The History of how Aggie football came to be

Texas A&M football has come a long way since the first rickety stands of Kyle Field were erected. How did this storied program get to where it stands today?

Did you know that November is the birth month for football? While the first football game ever played isn’t something you or I would recognize as football today, the sport got its American start in the late 1800’s.

Here is a brief history of the sport of football, with the timeline of Texas A&M football along side it.

November 6, 1869 – The first football game is played

The first ever football game was played on November 6, 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton (then New Jersey). Rutgers won 6-4, although it wasn’t a football game the way we know it today.

Late 1800’s

1894

Texas A&M has its first team and first head coach. F. D. Perkins leads the Aggies to a 1-1 record. The Aggies were shut out 48-0 at Texas and defeated Ball High School 14-6.

February 8, 1896

The Big Ten Conference is formed, the first of its kind. One of the first things they did was to create a rule for eligibility. They came up with this: collegiate athletics were reserved to “bonafide, full-time students who were not delinquent in their studies.”

Originally known as the Western Conference, it included Purdue, the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and the University of Wisconsin.