The Oneida Football Club, founded and captained by Gerrit Smith Miller in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1862, was the first organized team to play any kind of football in the United States. The game played by the club, known as the "Boston game", was an informal local variant that combined association and rugby football and predated the codification of rules for American football.
Gerrit Smith Miller, founder and captain of the team
The ball used by Oneida in 1863 was box-shaped with rounded corners
The seven living members of the Oneida F.C. pictured in November 1923, (standing): Scudder, Arnold, Peabody; (seated): Bowditch, Lovett, Lawrence; (insert): Miller
Gerrit Smith Miller, commonly called Gat, was an American businessman, farmer, sportsman and politician regarded as "the father of football in the United States" as the founder of Oneida Football Club, considered the first organized team to play any form of football in the country. The Oneida Club established informal rules which came to be known as the "Boston game" and are considered the first step to the codification of rules for association football, rugby football, or American football.
Smith Miller c. 1923
Miller c. 1863, during his leadership of the Oneida Football Club.
"On this field the Oneida Football Club of Boston, the first organized football club in the United States played against all comers from 1862 to 1865 — The Oneida goal was never crossed. This monument is placed on Boston Common November 1925 by the seven surviving members of the Team"
