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In 1862, the first football club in America was organized at
Boston. Three of the original team members attended Mr. Dixwell's private
school located at Bolyston Place (opposite
Central Burying Ground on
Boston Common).
The name of the team was the Oneida Club. Sixteen year-old Gerrit Smith Miller has
been credited as the "father" or initiator of the club. Walter Camp, considered the father of American Football, is quoted in the November 7, 1923 Boston Globe as stating the
Oneidas created the first football league in America. All the
football games
were played on Boston Common. The older game was much different than
the current professional version. The object was to get a rubber ball across
the goal line of the opponent's team. The first team to score two goals
won. There weren't many rules or time limit, and the ball could be
kicked, thrown, or just handed over to other team members. According to Boston Ways
by George F. Weston Jr. (1957), a game between the Oneida Club and Boston
Latin School had lasted two hours and forty-seven minutes, without
any interruption at all.
At first, the Oneida Club challenged any on-comers, but eventually the meets were recognized locally as an inter-school sport. The club was disbanded in 1865 after
three years, presumably when the members graduated from school. Football was not invented by "Gat" Miller in 1862—Native Americans and Europeans had played many
different versions of the game—but the Oneida Club has been recognized as the first organized "league" in America.
A granite tablet is located on Boston Common commemorating the Oneida Club.
The tablet is just south of the entrance at Beacon and Spruce Streets. The tablet
reads "On this field the Oneida Club of Boston, the first organized football
club in the United States, played against all comers from 1862 to 1865 - The
Oneida goal was never crossed." The names of team members inscribed on the other side of the tablet. The memorial was unveiled at
Boston Common on November 21, 1925, with the surviving members of the team present.
Boylston Place Today
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