Hillsdale College may not be a nationally known football powerhouse, but there was a time when the Chargers could — and did — defeat The University of Notre Dame.
It happened on Thanksgiving Day in 1892, when the Fighting Irish challenged the Chargers to an exhibition match. Already a football giant, Notre Dame expected to trounce Hillsdale; the Chargers were just a club team in its second year of existence. They didn’t even have a coach.
To make matters worse, Hillsdale already had a spotty record on the field. They had lost their first-ever game against Albion College the year before, 36-4, starting a football rivalry that would exist between the two schools until 1960, when Hillsdale withdrew from Albion’s league.
But the Chargers would not suffer this sort of loss when they played the Irish. Hillsdale defeated Notre Dame, 14-12.
As a show of congratulations for the victory, Notre Dame paid for the Chargers’ hotel rooms, bought all the players a big dinner, and gave them all cigars “to be smoked on the train ride home.” These were the days when smoking was allowed — and apparently even encouraged — indoors.
The Chargers went on to play the Irish again on Thanksgiving in 1893 and 1894, but would never repeat their first victory. According to The Hillsdale Herald, the Chargers lost 22-12 in 1893 and 14-0 in 1894.
In a 1950 interview with the Collegian, one of the players on the 1892 team, Jesse P. Robinson ‘96, said he remembered the games as a friendly — if only short-lived — rivalry.
“We didn’t mind too much,” he said about the 1893 and 1894 losses. “We played them three years in a row and they were real hosts.”
