The Trinity College football team defeated the University of North Carolina 16-0 on November 27, 1888 in one of the first scientific intercollegiate football games played in the south. By “scientific” I don’t mean people in lab coats, with beakers. Rather it refers to the rules practiced by northeastern schools like Yale and Princeton, the accepted rules of the day that have a linear connection to 2021 college football.
John Franklin Crowell was Trinity’s coach. It wasn’t his only job, not even his most important.
He also was the school’s president.
Yes, president.
Trinity College was still located in the Randolph County town of Trinity in 1888.