Tracing the Origins of Presidential Attendance at College Football Games

Sports History Network · Oct 27, 2026 · 11m · transcript

We state that William McKinley was the first president-elect to attend a college football game, which he did at the Wisconsin versus Carlisle contest on December 19, 1896 at the Chicago Coliseum. I explain that he traveled to Chicago to join family and that the game drew an estimated eight to sixteen thousand spectators. I note that Carlisle defeated Wisconsin eighteen to eight and that this appears to have been the only football game McKinley attended. We also describe that Theodore Roosevelt became the first sitting president to attend a game with the 1901 Army–Navy contest, and that…