Charter Member of the Hall of Fame
Wooster's First Football Coach
Played First Game against Denison Nov. 23, 1889
Team scored the 1st Points in the state of Ohio
Kinley McMillan '86 had made a name for himself while an
undergraduate at
McMillan returned to
The squad with which McMillan was working consisted, for the most part, of men who were also playing fall baseball in the inter-fraternity league. An aroused Athletic Association empowered a committee to purchase suits and caps for the football team. Millan's reflections on a starting line-up were limited by the 15 people making themselves available for his practice sessions.
In addition to the needed practice, he was confronted with
the problem of whom to play against and where.
He discovered that
"The
Two exhausted teams must have been grateful for the final
gun with the score
Two weeks later, on December 6, 1889, the teams met again. The final score was Wooster 50 and Denison 0
The University of Wooster rules did not allow the team to travel home on the Sabbath Day, so the group of victorious stalwarts returned to Wooster on Monday to a Wooster platform crowded with "leather lunged" students, faculty, and townspeople. After platform speeches, everyone went to Mrs. Speer's house (mother of referee John Speer) for turkey and plumb pudding in the dinning room.
It might be noted that, the first football game played in the state of
Back at
It was typical of this man who devoted the rest of his life to preaching the Gospel.
Information from Ed Arn's: Black & Gold - A History of Athletics; The College of Wooster 1870-1945 (1995)