College football’s 150th anniversary: The 150 best moments that stood the test of time

69. The NCAA National Championship is Born (1978)

Until 1978, college football was an open tent at its top level. Previous attempts to distinguish university football from college football proved ephemeral. By the late 1970s, though, the gap between the haves and the have-nots in the sport required the creation of distinctions to more clearly group teams together in a way that acknowledged and addressed the gap.

Division I was split into two subdivisions. What we now know as the FBS and FCS were originally delineated as I-A and I-AA. While the powerhouses of the sport controlled the structure of the sport at the very top, the split allowed the NCAA to form a championship tournament to determine a national champion.

In that first playoff, only four teams made the cut. In the semifinals, UMass knocked out top-seeded Nevada 44-21 in Reno. On the other side of the bracket, Florida A&M took down Jackson State 15-10 on the road. The title game, played in Wichita Falls, Texas on December 16, 1978, saw the Rattlers take down the Minutemen 35-28 to secure the first Division I college football national championship.

68. The First HBCU Contest (1892)

In the 19th century, African-American individuals had few opportunities to attend college. As a result of official and de facto segregation on the campuses of state universities and colleges, a network of black colleges were created to provide educational services for a community unserved by the state.

Along with academic opportunities, these colleges also provided space for students to participate in a range of sports. Football joined that list of programs on offer in 1892 when Livingstone College and Biddle College met up two days after Christmas to play an intercollegiate contest against one another.

Taking place on the snowy front lawn at Livingstone, the two teams played 45-minute halves rather than the traditional quarters we know today. Visiting Biddle came out on top in a tense 5-0 affair, giving birth to more than a century of HBCU football that has followed in its wake.

67. Midshipmen Dominate First Army-Navy Game (1890)

One of the most storied rivalries in all of college football is between the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. With more than a century of historic contests between the two service academies, one of the most memorable remains the showdown that got it all started.

Navy had already been playing football for more than a decade when the Cadets of West Point finally launched their team in 1890 after playing intramural competitions the year before. The Midshipmen traveled north to New York to face their burgeoning rivals on The Plain. Coming off a loss against Lehigh that proved Navy’s only defeat of the year, the Midshipmen took their frustrations out on an overmatched opponent.

Army put up a valiant fight, but in the end, Navy took down the Cadets 24-0 to cap a 5-1-1 campaign. A year later, Army returned the favor by downing the Midshipmen 32-16 at Worden Field in Annapolis and a rivalry series was born in earnest.