Princeton defends the belt, 7–0, on the road at Pennsylvania.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Princeton came in 1,066 days into reign #4, which began with a win over Yale, with 12 defenses already behind it; this was its 13th defense. Princeton went on to defend it 12 more times before Harvard took it on November 18, 1882, 1,451 days after the reign began.
For Pennsylvania this was its 5th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the 5th of 20 belt games between the two; going in, Princeton led the belt series 4–0; all-time Princeton leads 18–2. Every meeting →
About this game
Princeton traveled to Pennsylvania on October 29, 1881, in week 4 of the regular season. Pennsylvania won the game 7-0, but Princeton held the belt, meaning the final score listed here reflects Princeton's perspective as the belt holder. Princeton retained the belt.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 139) · This game in the downloadable dataset