Harvard defends the belt, 42–0, at home over Pennsylvania.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Harvard came in 7 days into reign #8, which began with a win over Princeton, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. It was the last defense: Yale took the belt in the very next belt game, on November 24, 1887.
For Pennsylvania this was its 17th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the first of 9 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Harvard leads 5–4. Every meeting →
About this game
Harvard defeated Pennsylvania 42-0 on November 19, 1887, in the regular season. As the belt holder, Harvard successfully defended its title with the victory.
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 464) · This game in the downloadable dataset