"How the Civil War Created College Football" Topic

"At a ceremony in Cambridge, Mass., on June 10, 1890, the philanthropist Henry Lee Higginson declared, "I ask to make [Soldiers Field] a memorial to some dear friends who gave their lives … to their country and to their fellow men in the hour of great need — the War of the Rebellion." The 31 acres of marshlands and pasture that Higginson donated to Harvard College, his alma mater, would serve as the site of the country's oldest concrete football arena, Harvard Stadium, built over a decade later in 1903. As he memorialized the Civil War dead, the Union veteran addressed a group of 400 male students and alumni, most of whom were too young to have experienced and learned from the horrors of battle during the nation's bloodiest war. Like Higginson, however, many late-19th-century Americans saw a deep connection between the battlefield and the athletic field, believing that collegiate athletics, including football, could teach the next generation their "own duties as men and citizens of the Republic" and train them to manage "the burden of carrying on this country in the best way." …"
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