Page:America's National Game (1911).djvu/377

 CHAPTER XXIV.

1859-1910 ITH Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes declaring that he played a game called Base Ball while at college—and he graduated at Harvard in 1829—and from other published facts, it is certain that the game (then generally known as "Town Ball" or the Massachusetts game of Base Ball) was known in the leading colleges many years before the breaking out of the Civil War. But the first recorded intercollegiate game took place in 1859, just two years before the struggle of the 60's began.

This game was between Amherst and Williams, and was played at Pittsfield on July 1, and was won by Amherst by a score of 66 to 32. There are now hanging in the Amherst College trophy room the two balls which were used in this game, which bear the following inscription: "The veritable balls used in the first game of intercollegiate Base Ball ever played, July 1, 1859, Amherst vs. Williams, won by Amherst."

This is how it came about. At a meeting of the college, directly after morning prayers, at which Mr. Sneed, of the senior class, presided, Mr. Claflin made a motion that "Amherst challenge Williams to a friendly game of 345