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In 1862, the first football club in America was organized at
Boston. Three of the original team members attended Mr. Dexwell's private
school located at Bolyston Place (opposite
Central Burying Ground on
the Bolyston Street side of the Common).
The name of the team was the Oneida Club. Sixteen year-old Gerrit Miller has
been credited as the "father" or initiator of the club. 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
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 placed on
Boston Common in 1925 by the surviving members of the team.
Boylston Place Today
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