On March 20, 1897, Yale outscores the University of Pennsylvania, 32-10, in the first men’s intercollegiate basketball game played with modern rules. The game takes place on Yale’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut, before a large but cordial crowd.
According to an account in the Pittsburgh Press, the “Yale men were better trained and put up a more scientific game, though he Pennsylvania players showed much skill at times.”
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Yale’s two best players that day were named Sharp and Peck. The former led the way with seven “goals,” and the latter scored four. For Penn, the only players to record more than one goal were Milligan and De Loffle, both of whom finished with two goals apiece.
According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s team didn’t even have a coach or captain.
Unlike earlier iterations of the game, which usually featured 18 total players (nine on each side), this game was five-on-five like the modern game.
The basketball game, which came a week after a relay race between the two universities, signified the beginning of a budding sports rivalry between the future Ivy League universities. The Ivy League was not formed until 1956.
