The first football game at Trinity was played on September 26, 1857, between the freshman and sophomore classes, which the freshmen won and the game became an annual tradition until the 1870s. The first intercollegiate game was played in 1877 against Yale, resulting in a loss. The football team won its first game in 1887 when they beat Massachusetts Agricultural College 32-4. Its first undefeated season came in 1911.
Overall, Trinity's football team has been extremely successful throughout the decades. The NESCAC football championship, established in 2000, has been won by Trinity nine times, the most of any NESCAC school, and Trinity has achieved second place seven times. There have only been five NESCAC championships in which Trinity didn't appear. Trinity football is also tied for the fewest amount of touchdowns allowed in a season (four in 2003) in all of NCAA DIII football, and it has the 20th most wins.
Since 1904, the Trinity football team has played on the Jessee/Miller Field, the tenth-oldest college football field in the United States. It was named after Trinity's head football coaches Dan Jessee (1932-1966) and Don Miller (1966-1998). Miller, who retired in 1998, was the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division III football history in New England.
Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp, pp. 20, 48.
The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, p. 106.
Trinity Tablet, 10/23/1902.