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"Boating Song," 1859. Click image to view complete lyrics.
The annual Brown Paper for 1859 noted the entry of the Brown scull "Atalanta" in a regatta with Harvard and Yale on July 28. Click image to view complete article.
Brown's first intercollegiate baseball game (with Harvard freshmen at the
Dexter Training Ground, June 27, 1863) was reported in the Providence Journal.
The account was written by librarian Reuben Guild. Click image to view complete
article.
Bat belonging to Wilfred H. Munro, Class of 1870. One of his undergraduate
baseball feats when the game was played on the campus was his foul ball
to right field which broke all eight panes of a window in University Hall.
The Class of 1870 was the team that beat the "Lowells" of Boston. The varsity
had been challenged by the Lowells, but the Brown players, realizing that
the varsity had only one player not in the Class of 1870 and wanting to
put the Lowells in their place, told them that Smith (the only player not
in the Class of 1870) was ill, so the varsity could not play, and offered
them a game with the sophomore team. The Lowells were offended and also
defeated, 23-19.
The game ball.
The freshmen team of the
Class of 1872 toured five other colleges in July 1969, winning three of
the five games.
Adams P. Carroll, Class of 1871 accompanid them in order to draw a series
of pictures of the events of the journey
The team brought home three winning game balls.
Click for larger view
The Graftons vs. Brown University Club, May 22, 1875
A member of the varsity crew, 1875.The boat house, 1875.
Brown's first intercollegiate football game was played with Amherst College
on November 12, 1878. Their white canvas uniforms were obtained two days
earlier for a fifty-dollar down payment and Brown Football Association President
George Malcom's watch as security for the balance. Amherst won the game
easily, scoring four tries and one goal to no score for Brown. Accounts
of the game attributed Amherst success to a favorable wind, a lucky kick,
and two scores gained "by the practice of a somewhat doubtful expedient,"
further assisted by the advantage of their superior uniforms of which it
was said, "When our men got hold of an opposing runner, the jersey stretched
and he either pulled away completely or added four of five yards to his
journey."
J. Lee Richmond, Class of 1880, pitched the first perfect game in professional
baseball, a 1-0 victory for Worcester over Cleveland, on June 12, 1880,
four days before his graduation.
The telegrams he received (1,
2)
attest to the informality of his pitching assignments with the Worcester
team.
Fred Hovey '90, seated at right in the picture, won the college championship
in 1887, the U.S. Doubles in 1893 and 1894 and the U.S. Singles in 1895.
Brown was represented in an intercollegiate track meet in Hartford on May
27, 1887, by, left to right, Charles D. Cooke '88, George C. Warren '89,
John P. Williams '89, Eugene A. Perry '90, and Lucky Alonzo Lindsay '87.
Hockey came to the United States in 1895. The game was learned by a group
of collegian ice polo players, who traveled to Canada in the winter of 1894-95
to compete and compare the two games. The Brown men of the ice polo team
were Byron Wilson '97, William Jones '96, George Matteson '96 and Alexander
Meiklejohn '93.
Brown's first hockey team defeated Harvard on January
19, 1898 on Franklin Field in Boston. Left to right, Robert Steere, Harris
Bucklin, Jesse Povar, Captain Irving Hunt, Albert Barrows, Charles Cooke
and Horace Day.
A Boston
Herald article describes Brown's "brilliant" game.
