1886 Glens Falls Academy football

In 1886 Glens Falls Academy, a local private school, expanded its college prep focus to include football.

“Some of the boys, perhaps, are looking forward to positions on the great college teams in the near future,” The Morning Star reported on Nov. 17, 1886.

A game was scheduled between the Academy eleven and a pick-up team from the community at 9 a.m. on Thanksgiving at the Second Street baseball grounds.

It was a lopsided victory for the Academy, ending as a snow storm was setting in.

“Academy team — seven touch downs, two goals, thirty-two points; picked team nothing,” The Morning Star reported on Nov. 27, 1886. “A heavy snow storm set in about half-past ten …, and continued until evening, when the ground had received a whole blanket fifteen inches in depth.”

It was the closing game of a short debut season.

“The (Academy) football team, having won two games from local teams, have retired from the field, the snow having taken possession,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 2, 1886. “The athletes will hibernate until next spring, when they hope to again appear before the public clad in their impenetrable armor.”

New competition, meanwhile, was shaping up.

“A (South Glens Falls) football team to be known as the ‘Rushers’ has just been organized in the village. They are anxious to meet one of the Glens Falls teams,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 16, 1886.