Years before the inception of club teams intercollegiate football contests, Davidson students competed vigorously in interclass football. The 1892 Davidson Monthly recalls broken bones and unconscious players after a particularly intense performance. With this football zeal, Davidson played its first official intercollegiate game in November 1898 against the University of North Carolina at Latta Park in Charlotte. Although Davidson lost this game, the team later defeated South Carolina to end its first intercollegiate season with a 1-1 record. Football's growth at Davidson in success and popularity over the next twenty years can partially be attributed to a 20-12-1 record in its first seven years. Modern football fans are indebted to Davidson's program, which is attributed as the first team in the South to use a forward pass. The Davidson football team won the state football championship in 1926 and moved to the new Richardson Stadium in 1927. Despite this success, Davidson fell behind other schools in the 1930s with the advent of football scholarship and the growth of state universities. With this athletic crossroads, Davidson's president Walter Lingle chose academic scholarship over athletics and refused to push for an expanded football program. The Davidson football program achieved record numbers in the 1960s, exemplified by a 1969 invitation to the Tangerine (now Florida Citrus) Bowl and Coach Homer Smith's recognition as the Southern Conference Coach of the Year. In 1988, the Trustees voted to move football to NCAA Division III from NCAA Division I-AA, forcing Davidson athletics out of the Southern Conference. Davidson eventually rejoined the Southern Conference in 1992 in all sports except football, which now competes as an NCAA Division I-AA team.