SPARTANBURG, S.C. – This Saturday's meeting between Wofford College and Furman University will mark the 130^th anniversary of the first meeting between the two teams on December 14, 1889. It was the first intercollegiate football game in the state of South Carolina.
 
To mark the occasion, both teams will be wearing helmet stickers with a specially designed "130" logo. The Saturday, November 16 contest will help decide the 2019 Southern Conference Championship. Currently Furman holds a 54-32-7 lead in the series between the two teams.
 
Tickets for Saturday's game are available online at woffordterriers.com/tickets or by calling 864-597-4090.  
 
The account of the game, written by a Wofford student journalist in The Wofford College Journal and published in January 1890, is reprinted in part below.
 
On Saturday morning, December 14, 1889, the football teams of Furman University and Wofford College played a very interesting and exciting game at the Encampment Grounds, Spartanburg, S.C.
 
The players were: Furman– Jones, Hammett, Young, Sneider, Padgett, Lott, Edwards, Little, Rodgers, and Tate.  Substitutes: Wilkins, Scott, and Sirrine.
 
Wofford– Bruce, Bearden, Clyde S., Bearden, Clyde H., Covington, Ellerbe, Flemming, Hayes, McRoy, Rankin, and Rouquie.  Substitutes: Dent and Calhoun.
 
The Wofford team wished association rules to govern the game, but Furman protesting, after some discussion, it was decided to play by the old rough-and-tumble rules.
 
Prof. J. H. Marshall umpired with great satisfaction to both sides.  The game lasted one hour and a half, with two fifteen minute rests, and was won with ease by Wofford, the score being five to one.
 
Furman's team did some good playing, but it was evident from the first that the superior strength and skill of the Wofford boys would win the game.
 
Much of Wofford's success was due to the instruction of Edwin Kerrison, Esq., a graduate of Yale, who kindly trained the team and acted as coacher during the contest.
 
The game was replete with good plays.  Bruce and Haynes did good work, while the goal kick of Bearden has scarcely been excelled on a football field.