A gridiron battle: The first game of the Battle for the Victory Bell

A few feet from where Harrison Hall now sits on Miami University’s campus, Miami began a rivalry that still holds strong more than 125 years later.

On a rainy day Dec. 8, 1888, a Miami team took to the Old Main lawn outside Franklin Hall, which students called Old Main and is now where Harrison Hall stands, to play the University of Cincinnati in the first intercollegiate football game in Ohio history. The game marked the first game for Miami’s football team and the start of the oldest non-conference rivalry in the country.

Before Miami was known as the Red and White, a team made up of students and faculty who averaged 140 pounds played for an unpaid head coach according to Miami’s website. The scrawny team played a Cincinnati squad without a head coach before the rivalry was known as the “Battle for the Victory Bell.”

The team’s roster included W. Chidlaw, S. Fox, J. Lough, F. McCracken, J. Macready, R. Mason, E. Reed, S. Stephenson, W. Stubbs and S. Townsend, but there are no statistical records of the game.

The game ended in a 0-0 tie and ushered Miami to a 0-0-1 record for its first year. Cincinnati, who played a game against Walnut Hills Gym the week before, ended the season 1-0-1.

Miami won the 1889 matchup 34-0 in Cincinnati but didn’t take home the coveted trophy that the two teams fight over today.

The Victory Bell trophy wasn’t created until a group of Cincinnati students took the bell hanging in the tower of Old Main after UC won a game in the 1890s. Since that game, the winner of the matchup has taken the bell as a traveling trophy which gets the year of each win painted on it.

The original trophy went missing in the 1930s but resurfaced after World War II. The current trophy is a replica of the original bell from Old Main.

Since 1888, 11 games have not been played because of various reasons, including World War II and COVID-19, with this year being the 128th matchup. The rivalry game has occurred consecutively each year since 1945 excluding 2020.

In the past 127 matchups, Miami has taken the bell home 60 times with the series being tied 60-60-7.

The 128th matchup will be played at noon on Saturday, Sept. 12 at Yager Stadium. This is the first game matchup played in Oxford since 2017 and is the first time the RedHawks will defend the Victory Bell since 2006.

turmankd@miamioh.edu