Talk:1889 Washington football team

1889 second game played in Tacoma?

The 1889 team appears to have possibly played against "Tacoma college" or "Washington college", in Tacoma, in December 1889 or early 1890, prior to the game played against the same team in Seattle on Thanksgiving 1890:

• Seattle PI recap of UW's first game mentions a Tacoma game being scheduled: The University boys play Tacoma college as soon as arrangement can be made.
• Seattle PI recap of next fall's game on Thanksgiving 1890, which to our knowledge was UW's second overall game and the first meeting between the clubs, mentions a previous meeting: Seattle and Tacoma football teams struggle for supremacy. The Tacomas put in the field a team that has been greatly strengthened since the last match between the two clubs.
• Captain Frank Griffith recalls in 1903: "Undismayed by our first defeat, we went over to Tacoma, three or four weeks later, to play the Washington college, of that city, then the most formidable rival of the university. Here we were defeated once more. Owing to the graduation of a number of those most interested in the game, football was not revived until 1892, when the university played its first game with the Seattle Athletic Club." (Statement omits the November 1890 game.)

Unclear if the opponent for either year is the Washington College (Tacoma) article, or a different school.

This potential 1889 game in Tacoma is currently not included in any UW Football records or statistics. I so far have been unable to find any contemporary reports of the game but would appreciate any help searching. CC @Jweiss11. I cannot find any archive of the Seattle Times for the relevant years.

PK-WIKI (talk) 19:02, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

The Thanksgiving day 0-4 loss listed at 1890 Washington football team appears to have actually been an association football match played between Seattle and Tacoma clubs, and not a college-rules game played by UW. I see this has already been discussed at Talk:1890_Washington_football_team#Game date, location, and score, CC @Cfsdb. Will continue to investigate. PK-WIKI (talk) 04:27, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

1890 Washington football team has now been updated to remove the Thanksgiving 1890 soccer game loss and add the January 24, 1891 tie vs. Washington College in Tacoma. This eliminates the "since the last match between the two clubs" issue above but doesn't fully explain Captain Griffith's 1903 reminiscence of a loss in Tacoma "three or four weeks" post Thanksgiving 1899, or him failing to mention this 1891 tie and skipping to the 1892 games vs. SAC. He is listed as 'right end' on the 1891 game's roster. PK-WIKI (talk) 05:28, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

The 1899-1889 decade overview document at the official UW Football Historical Stats & Rosters site talks of this missing Tacoma game:

"The first organized football team at the University of Washington played its first (and only) game against a team of former Eastern college players. The ex-collegains won, 20-0. A month later, the same University team played Washington College of Tacoma and were defeated. After this defeat, they disbanded."

The sourcing is not adequate: "At some point many years ago, a year-by-year record of results, etc., was compiled, but the information provided was limited. Here are those records, a decade at a time." It's possible this info is pulled solely from the 1903 statement by Griffith above as it contains the exact same info and is similarly vague. It also gets the date and score of the 1890 game wrong. PK-WIKI (talk) 16:48, 2 December 2024 (UTC)