New Jersey Plans to Build Monument Marking First College Football Game

Acting Gov. Chuck Hardwick has signed legislation creating a seven-member commission to place a monument in New Brunswick marking the nation’s first college football game 117 years ago.

The New Jersey Birthplace of Football Commission will oversee the planning, construction and maintenance of the monument, which is to be financed through private contributions.

Rutgers College and the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, played the first college football contest in 1869. The series continued through 1980, when it was discontinued because Rutgers wanted to build a big-time college football program.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to sign a bill that recognizes another first in New Jersey,” said Hardwick, who signed the bill Tuesday as acting governor in place of Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who is in the Far East, and Senate President John Russo, who also was out of state.

A sponsor of the bill, Assemblyman David Schwartz, said he hopes a museum eventually will be created to commemmorate the first college football game.

During the bill-signing ceremony, Rutgers University Athletic Director Frederick Gruninger presented Hardwick with a football autographed by the current Rutgers football team.