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1884 Navy Midshipmen football team

1884 Navy Midshipmen football
Conference Independent
1884 record 1–0
Head coach None
Captain Jim Kittrell
Home stadium Unknown
Seasons
← 1883
1885 →
1884 college football records
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Princeton         9 0 1
Yale         8 0 1
Michigan         2 0 0
Williams         2 0 0
Navy         1 0 0
Wabash         1 0 0
Penn         5 1 1
Fordham         5 1 0
Harvard         7 4 0
Butler         1 1 0
Columbia         1 1 0
Rutgers         3 4 0
Stevens Tech         4 5 0
Wesleyan         3 5 0
Dartmouth         1 2 1
Massachusetts         1 2 0
Lafayette         2 5 0
Tufts         0 1 1
Albion         0 1 0
CCNY         0 1 0
DePauw         0 1 0
Johns Hopkins         0 2 0
Amherst         0 3 0
Lehigh         0 4 0

The 1884 Navy Midshipmen football team represented the United States Naval Academy in the 1884 college football season. The team was the fourth intercollegiate football squad to represent the United States Naval Academy, and was the final time the school played a single-game season. The squad was captained by rusher Jim Kittrell. The team's single game was a 9 to 6 (9–6) defeat of rival-school Johns Hopkins. The season continued a seven-season, eight game rivalry between the Naval Academy and Johns Hopkins. It was the final season that a Naval Academy team would go unbeaten and untied.

According to biographer C. Douglas Kroll, the first evidence of a form of football at the United States Naval Academy came in 1857, but the school's cadets lost interest in the game shortly afterward. However, it is widely believed by football researchers that the playing of intercollegiate football began in November 1869, when a player at Rutgers University challenged another player at the nearby College of New Jersey (now Princeton). The contest more closely resembled soccer, with teams scoring by kicking the ball into the opponent's net, and lacked a uniform rules structure. The game developed slowly; the first rules were drafted in October 1873, and only consisted of twelve guidelines. Even though the number of teams participating in the sport increased, the game was still effectively controlled by the College of New Jersey, who claimed eight national championships in ten years. Only Yale presented any form of challenge, claiming four national championships in the same time period.

The Naval Academy's first ever football team was fielded in 1879. The squad was entirely student-operated, receiving no official support from Naval Academy officials. The team was entirely funded by its members and their fellow students. The 1879 team participated in just one game, which resulted in a scoreless tie. It was played against the Baltimore Athletic Club, apparently on the Academy superintendent's cow pasture. Navy would not field a football team in 1880 or 1881, due to the lack of support from officials. When football returned to the academy in 1882, the squad was led by player-coach Vaulx Carter, and won 8–0 in a match with Johns Hopkins, starting the seven-year rivalry between the schools. The 1883 season resulted in Navy's first ever loss, a 2–0 defeat by Johns Hopkins.


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