1862.6

Harvard Seeks Base Ball Rivals, Settles on Brown

Salience	Noteworthy
Tags	CollegeCollege
Location	HarvardHarvard
City/State/Country:	Cambridge, MA, US
Modern Address
Game	Base BallBase Ball
Immediacy of Report	Retrospective
Age of Players	YouthYouth
Holiday
Notables
Text	"Base-Ball, the second in importance of [Harvard] University sports, is even younger than Rowing [which still prevailed]. It originated apparently, in the old game of rounders. Up to 1862 there were two varieties of base-ball - the New York and the Massachusetts game. In the autumn of 1862 George A. Flagg and Frank Wright organized the Base Ball Club of the Class of '66, adopting the New York rules; and in the following spring the city of Cambridge granted use of the Common for practice. A challenge was sent to several colleges: Yale replied that they had no club, but hoped soon to have one; but a game was arranged with Brown sophomores, and played at Providence [RI] June 27, 1863. The result was Harvard's first victory."
Sources	D. Hamilton Hurd, compiler, History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (J. W. Lewis, Philadelphia, 1890), page 137. Accessed 2/18/10 via Google Books search <"flagg and frank" hurd>.
Warning	This was not Harvard's introduction to the New York game. See entry 1858.51.
Comment	Flagg and Wright reportedly had played avidly at Phillips Exeter Academy. See entry #1858c.57 above. Edit with form to add a comment
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