Harvard takes the belt, 12–0, at home over Princeton.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Harvard took the belt here, ending Princeton’s run of 721 days and 16 defenses (reign #7) and starting reign #8. It lasted 12 days and 1 defense, until Yale took it on November 24, 1887.
For Harvard this was its 9th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before — and it took it back here.
It was the 6th of 13 belt games between the two; going in, Princeton led the belt series 3–1–1; all-time it is 6–6–1. Every meeting →
About this game
Harvard defeated Princeton 12-0 on November 12, 1887, in the seventh week of the regular season. With this victory on the field, Harvard took possession of the College Football Belt from Princeton.
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 454) · This game in the downloadable dataset