The Scottish and English teams met in an official match for the first time on the green of the Hamilton Crescent stadium in Partick (Scotland) on November 30, 1872. The duel, attended by 4,000 people, ended in a dull 0-0 draw but It went down in history for being the first international football match of all time.
The center forward Cuthbert Ottaway (1850-1878) was in his final year as a classical literature student at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford when he became “the first football captain of England”, according to the English federation itself ( FA) in your files.
Just a few months after this match, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge agreed to start a football competition that has already become common and which in 2024 reaches its 150th edition. Covid had to be the only one (beyond the two fateful World Wars) that was able to avoid, in 2019, the dispute of this famous meeting.
Ottaway himself was already in the ranks of the University of Oxford as captain after a successful career as a cricket star (he actually participated in five different types of Oxbridge: cricket, football, athletics, tennis and rackets). His team took this opening match against Cambridge by a tight 1-0.
Keep in mind that what may now seem like a match between students, back then it was a very high-level duel. The Oxford university team, for example, was a finalist in the prestigious FA Cup twice in a row at that time. In 1873 they lost (2-0) against Wanderers and, a year later, managed to lift the title against the Royal Engineers (2-0) again with Cuthbert Ottaway in their ranks.
But back to Oxbridge. This Friday, March 15, the 150th match will be played, marking one of the oldest rivalries in the history of football. Much more than a Barça-Madrid, an Inter-Milan or a City-United. That is why the University of Cambridge has released for the first time a rare cache of photographs to celebrate this anniversary.
All the material now disseminated belonged to the archive of its library but had never before been digitized or published. The images show some of the footballers who are already part of the history of this duel, team sheets and programs from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Competitions between Cambridge and Oxford began in 1827 when Charles Wordsworth played a two-day cricket match against Cambridge at Lords. Two years later the first of its famous regattas was held, in which just 3.2 kilometers (two miles) were rowed. In the second, for which they had to wait until 1836, the rowers had to travel more than twice the distance on the Uncle Thames.
The Abbey Stadium, home of Cambridge United of League One (English third division), will host the important university football match in 2024, which also coincides with the 175th anniversary of the creation of the first 11 rules of this sport, made by students of the University of Cambridge in 1848 and then mostly adopted by the English federation in 1863 (and added three more).
This Friday, a match will be played first between the women’s teams, which began competing in 1987, and then the men’s teams. “Images of players from 131 years ago offer a fascinating insight into the rich history of football and the importance the sport has had in the lives of our students for decades,” said Nick Brooking, director of sport at the University of Cambridge. .
It has been more than “a century of changes in uniforms, styles and the welcome addition of women,” adds Brooking. In a joint statement, the current Oxford and Cambridge captains said it is “incredible to look back at the players who preceded and the incredible legacy we can all be a part of.
