Thursday, September 28, 2000
100th Anniversary Approaches For 1st College Football Outdoor Night Game

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SEPT. 28, 2000
SUBJECT: 100TH ANNIVERSARY APPROACHES FOR 1ST COLLEGE
FOOTBALL OUTDOOR NIGHT GAME
The following article includes research and references or background material provided from Dick Lamb, a former historian of the National Football Hall of Fame; the Nov. 3, 1929 edition of the Des Moines Sunday Register; The Drake Times Delphic; and an Aug. 23, 1991 column by Maury White of the Des Moines Register.
DES MOINES, IOWA - While the Drake University football team is focusing its sights on the Pioneer Football League title, there will be another important milestone occurring Oct. 5.
That date will mark the 100th anniversary of the first college football game ever played under outdoor lights. An important niche in the annals of football history was carved by Drake University and Grinnell College on Oct. 5, 1900.
No memorable records were set and no ingenious technical maneuvers were devised by either team. The score, showing Drake a 6-0 victor, was not even unusual.
Drake played its home football games on what was then the Western League baseball park, now Fourth and Grand in downtown Des Moines. The purpose of the arc light innovation was to stimulate attendance at Drake games.
The ball park was lighted by 50 arc lights spaced about 15 feet apart from the sides of the field. As a result, the center of the playing area was in considerable shadow. The experiment was considered successful as far as the game was concerned except that punted balls were hard to see. More than 2,000 fans watched the game.
Grinnell's team didn't take the field until five minutes after the scheduled 8 p.m. start, then kept the crowd in suspense for 10 additional minutes while practicing plays under those new-fangled lights.
"All Babylon on a holiday would size up like a Quaker meeting when compared to the madly excited crowd on the streets of Des Moines last night, all because Grinnell brought her much bescarred gridiron roasters down to town to have Drake beat them by a score of 6 to 0," The Des Moines Register and Leader reported the following morning.

"Electric lights proved sufficient for the purpose of football as 2,000 who witnessed last night's contest will attest. At 7:30 p.m. they began to flock into the grounds in search of choice seats.
"There was the dainty maiden with four and one-half yards of blue and white ribbons who screeched or sighed like an unrolled wind engine. Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, cheered and groaned like mad. It was a carnival of sport."
Arc lights were strung every five yards around the field and "individual light bulbs were used whenever they could be of value," according to The Times Delphic, Drake's student newspaper. Dust stirred up by the action made it even harder to see what was going on in midfield.
A week later Drake played another night game in Des Moines, beating Iowa State Normal (now Northern Iowa), 50-0.
In 1901 Drake and Grinnell played again under the lights. The Oct. 4, 1901 headline of The Des Moines Register and Leader read: "Drake plays Grinnell Saturday night at 8 o'clock."
This time the lighting was greatly improved with both arc lamp and incandescent lights used. A pole was erected in the center of the field and lights were arranged along wires reaching from the top of the pole to the fences, making the whole field evenly lighted. During the course of the game many of the lights went out because of a short circuiting of the wires following punts which were kicked off them.
Grinnell gained a measure of revenge by winning the game, 6-5, but the major excitement came late in the contest. A 1901 newspaper account stated: "Grinnell fumbled just as time was called and Bacon (Drake player) got on the ball and raced down the field, but it was called back by Referee Lane. Just then, some cowardly ruffian struck Lane from behind and a riot seemed imminent but prompt action by the police prevented further trouble."
After 1901, Drake put night football games on hold for many years. Until 1927, in fact, when it became one of the first in the nation to install permanent lights at Drake Stadium. Those lights worked well enough to cause Lee Keyser, owner of the Des Moines professional baseball team, to announce to his peers in December of 1929, that the Demons would start playing night games in old Western League Park in 1930. And Des Moines became the first in the nation with permanent lighting for baseball.