Football team, ca.1880
Football results in 1901, a one loss season
Collegiate football made its debut in the Connecticut Valley by the 1870s, and the first team at Massachusetts Agricultural College was organized in 1875 by Francis Codman, class of 1880, though the first intercollegiate game was not played until Nov. 22, 1879, when they defeated their rival Amherst College, 4-0, on Alumni Field. In the following year, the team played its first road game, playing to a scoreless draw on Nov. 13, 1880 at Amherst College. "We had no uniforms then," wrote one player, "and were a hard looking bunch with our old clothes on."
In 1880, the MAC side appeared in new uniforms purchased through subscriptions by faculty and students. White canvas jackets and knee pants were set off against maroon knee socks and a maroon stocking cap with white stripe. The early days of MAC football, however, were not uniformly successful. Although student support for athletics was high, faculty resistance and the lack of adequate facilities dampened the growth of sports on campus. Only by the end of the century, with the revival of interest in physical culture for young men, did the conditions change for the better. In 1899, Professor Richard Swann Lull proposed fitting out the [[d:drill_hall|Drill Hall]] to serve double duty as a gymnasium, and the growth of sports in the region -- exemplified by James Naismith's invention of basketball in nearby Springfield -- both spurred a campus commitment to athletics.
The lack of facilities had a strong impact on football. Games were originally played in open space adjacent to the Drill Hall, but a campaign to build a proper athletic field began in 1892 under the lead of William P. Brooks, though it was not until 1914 that Alumni Field was finally drained and improved. Finances for football also began to improve. In 1899, Professor R. E. Smith collected $400 from the alumni, enabling the college for the first time to hire a coach for the entire season.
By 1901, the football team was playing a full slate of games against other colleges, rather than filling out the schedule with prep schools, and the teams enjoyed a modicum of success. Early MAC teams were frequently coached by former players from Dartmouth College, and among these early coaches was [[b:bullock_matthew|Matthew W. Bullock]] (coach 1904, 1907, 1908) who is considered the first salaried African American head coach in college football. In 1905, the football team at MAC also unanimously elected an African American man, William H. Craighead, as team captain, the second African American to be elected captain at a predominantly white college.
Despite mixed results in most years, the Aggies enjoyed strong seasons in 1901, 1924 and 1925, and the early 1930s, when coach Mel Taube ran up a 29-13-2 record in five seasons, earning him the highest winning percentage among UMass coaches with over 40 games. The star of Taube's teams, Halfback Lou Bush, became the first All-American at UMass, winning the national scoring title in 1931 and 1932, with an average of over two touchdowns per game.
