Princeton defends the belt, 33–16, at home over Franklin & Marshall.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Princeton came in 307 days into reign #10, which began with a win over Yale, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. Princeton went on to defend it 11 more times before Yale took it on November 27, 1890, 364 days after the reign began.
For Franklin & Marshall this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 10 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Franklin & Marshall and Princeton have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Princeton defended the College Football Belt on October 1, 1890, defeating visiting Franklin & Marshall 33-16 in the first week of the regular season.
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 687) · This game in the downloadable dataset