Today’s Tidbit… Cal & Stanford's First Big Game in Spring 1892

1893 California yearbook

Monday's Tidbit covered Walter Camp's role in coaching Stanford during the autumn football season in 1892, 1893, and 1895, but it failed to mention the 1892 spring football season. So, let's look at spring football from the perspective of Stanford's rival, Cal.

Cal played football for the first time in 1886 and finished 6-2-1 in games played between January and May. Besides the canceled 1889 season, Cal and others in California played football each spring through 1892. It is not clear why California played football in the winter and spring, unlike the rest of the country, but it may be that athletic clubs dominated early California football. Cal was the only college team in the California Football League of the late 1880s, though Cal switched to a fall schedule soon after Stanford opened in 1891.