Hold That Line! Submitted by Dr. Paul Loatman, Jr., City
Historian The recent get-together by his former players to
celebrate an old coach raised the question of when Mechanicville
fielded its first football team. Coach Ted Weigle oversaw his
charges beginning in 1928. However, it appears that
Mechanicville’s first kick-off took place in November of 1897,
although it is unlikely that the football team had a continuous
existence after that date. Before this could happen, a number of
other things had to occur, not the least of which was that
football as we know it had to be "invented," and Mechanicville
had to have a high school, as we know it. "Football" in one form
or another is first mentioned at the time of Edward II in the
early 14th century in England, with our modern version emerging
in the 1870’s. In 1869, Rutgers and Princeton played
"association football" which more resembled soccer than modern
football. Harvard and Yale supplanted this game with a form of
rugby in 1876, and these two colleges along w