AN OVERVIEW OF 110 YEARS OF FOOTBALL

    The boys at Easton High School started playing football in 1891…although records can only be found starting in 1894, so we will have to assume that Easton High School Football officially began in the fall of 1894. They only played two games that season; winning both…26-0 against Phillipsburg High School, and 12-6 against Lehigh Valley Railroad Clerks. Easton’s first Coach, Mr. Al Sigman, led them to victory that year.

    The original games were played on March Field at the Lafayette College Campus, and admission was fifteen cents. The team name was “The Red & White”. The average player was about 156 pounds.

    The Easton High School’s football team did not always have just students on the team. There were no regulations in regards to eligibility. Each team decided who was to play. It was common to find boys on the team who already graduated. Finally in 1900, decisions were made for an all-school team…but there was no age limit at this point. They had some players who were 20 years old.

    In the early years, the Captain of the team was more than a title. He was responsible for managing, coaching, playing, and being the trainer for the team. The boys would practice wherever they could find an open place…whether it was on the Lafayette Campus, or a field in town that was rough and grown over with weeds. They always managed to get practices in.

    Early on, many schools had not formed teams, so Easton High School had to play colleges and prep schools in order to procure games. In 1902 an interscholastic league was formed consisting of Bethlehem High School, Moravian Parochial, Allentown High School, Central High School of Bethlehem, and Easton High School.

1906 - A rule change legalized the forward pass

1907 - Thanksgiving Day…Easton played Reading High School

1916    - Thanksgiving Day…Easton played Phillipsburg High School, and has played annually ever since.

1917    - Easton was the State Champions

1920’s - The team name was dubbed “The Red Tornados”

1924    - Easton dedicated newly graded Cottingham Field. They played Stroudsburg High School that morning and won with an unbelievable score of 93-0.

    Easton joined the East Penn Interscholastic League in 1926 with Allentown High School, Bethlehem High School, John Harris High School, Reading High School, and Hazelton High School. The players had a field, but no locker room. So, they dressed under the North Stands until 1956 when the Cottingham Stadium field house was first used.

    The JUNTO (the school newspaper) staff decided to call the team “The Red Robins” in 1931. That name changed to “The Red Eagles” in 1933. Finally in 1934, they used the name “The Red Rovers” to describe the Basketball team and the name stuck with all sports.

    On September 19, 1953 the first night game at Cottingham was played. There were 11,470 people in attendance. They defeated Wilson High School 19-0. From the 1920’s through 1958, Easton won 29, lost 1, and tied 2 games against Wilson High School.

    Over the years Altoona has been a formidable foe. Easton began playing Altoona in the 1960's.

    When the current High School was built in 1961, there were no fields to practice football, so the boys would have to find a ride or walk to Cottingham for after school practices. Practices started at the current High School in 1971 when a practice field was built.

    In the fall of 1982 the name of the field house was changed to the Bob Rute Memorial Field House in honor of Coach Rute. This honor was given to him since he was such an important part of Easton's football history from the 1930's through the 1960's as both a player and a coach.

    ESPN televised the Easton / Phillipsburg Thanksgiving Day Game LIVE at Fisher Field in November 1988. They returned to the game in 2004 to collect footage for a feature on the game as part of their new series entitled "Timeless."

    The Easton Football team has played Central Bucks West only four times over the years…the first two in the State Eastern Finals game in 1991 & 1993. Both of those years Easton came in 2nd place in the Eastern Division. The third and fourth meetings were regular season games in 2003 and 2004. Easton WON both.

    The 100th meeting of Easton vs. Phillipsburg took place November 23, 2006 with Easton winning 21-7. The first game with them was in 1894, followed by 1905-1908, 1910-1911, and 1914-today.

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