Monday Night Football, 1863 - a photo on Flickriver

Carte de visite by Harley, Metcalf & Winter of Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass. A young student sprinting across Harvard's campus carrying an old football on Sept. 7, 1863, caught the attention of two upperclassmen, who heard the student utter "Bloody Monday night" as he passed them by with coattails whipping behind him. He soon disappeared around a corner headed to the Delta, a spacious field for athletics and other activities.

The curious upperclassmen followed and soon arrived at the Delta, where opposing football teams were drawn up lines on the field of battle and a number of carriages filled with excited bystanders had arrived on the scene to watch the warring teams in action.

As the upperclassmen took in the scene, they glimpsed the old football that had passed them by a short time earlier. They also saw a banner—the very banner pictured here.

So the story goes, according to the editors of Harvard Magazine, the old football "having been kicked a long time by its friends, was finally kicked to death by its enemies" three years earlier in 1860. The remains were place inside a coffin and carried on the shoulders of students in a mock funeral, then buried on the Delta.

The remains were disinterred—a "Resurrexit" from its grave noted the editors—to watch the September 7 game. The contest went so long into the night that it had to be suspended to resume the following day.

The two students pictured here likely played a role in the football and banner. An inscription in period ink on the back identifies them as "Willard and Lawrence, Class '66—Harvard.

Neither boy graduated with their class.

Joseph Henry Willard left Harvard less than year later to attend West Point, where he graduated in 1868 and received an assignment with the engineers. He retired in 1908 as a full colonel, and the army recalled him to active service in 1917 to command military defenses along the coast of southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island during World War I. He died at age 89 in 1933.

Nesbitt Lawrence left at the beginning of his sophomore year and went into business in New York City and Boston. He died in 1868.

I encourage you to use this image for educational purposes only. However, please ask for permission.

Taken on: November 14, 2020

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carte de visite

civil war

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1863

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Cambridge

Massachusetts

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