1894 Football Battle Between DePauw and Wabash Goes to Rivals, 16-4

October 20, 1894

October 20, 1894, Greencastle, Ind. - Wabash College, led by hard-hitting fullback and captain of the football team, John Fry, captured the 1894 rivalry football game from DePauw University today, 16-4. It marks the first victory for the men in scarlet since the two schools first clashed on the gridiron in 1890.

The game was played as pressure mounts from the public and within institutions of higher learning to abandon the sport of football. Indignant outcry has been increasing over fistfights, free-for-alls, non-students playing for colleges and serious injuries and deaths that have resulted from football scraps. The January 23 edition of DePauw Weekly examined the sport's future and asked "Has football dug its grave?"

View a "Monon Memory" of the 1894 DePauw-Wabash game here: [Download Video: "1894 Monon Memory" - 2811kb]. A complete roster of the video clips -- written, produced and narrated by 1982 DePauw graduate Ken Owen -- can be accessed by clicking here.

For comprehensive information on one of college football's oldest and greatest rivalries -- which in 1932 introduced a 300-pound locomotive bell as the victor's prize -- visit the Monon Bell web page.

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