Freeport High School Football: Home

The purpose of this guide is to celebrate 120 years of Freeport High School football. As you will learn, high school students played football before 1904, but it is in 1904 that the game began to resemble the high school sport we recognize today.

The first documented Freeport High School football occurred in 1900 (a year after high school began in Freeport) in a game against Rockville Centre.  Freeport won the game 11 to 0. Another matchup between Rockville Centre and Freeport happened in November 1902 at Athletic Park, a field located across the street from the Seaman Avenue School (south of Seaman Avenue between North Ocean and North Main Street).  This time, South Side High School was victorious (26 to 0). 

These matchups were most likely organized by students; rather than being school sanctioned athletic competitions. The 1904 Freeport High School football squad has the first documented Freeport football team photograph.  Since Principal Roy Leon Smith appears with the team in the photograph, one can assume that in 1904 football was a school district endorsed sport.  According to a history of Freeport football published in a 1911 alumni book, 1904 marked the year that "the gridiron sport had obtained a decided foothold on" Freeport High School.

Documenting 120 years of Freeport High School football is a challenging undertaking.  Yearbooks have proved invaluable to this project but they began to be published 23 years after football started at the high school. Prior to the yearbook, students at the high school published a magazine called The Student.  Those publications that have been found have proved incredibly helpful in documenting the early years of the sport. Local newspapers often covered high school sports especially the Freeport - Baldwin rivalry.

Special thanks to Denise Rushton, Steve Carroll, Joseph Giannotti, Jack White, Tim Brannigan, and the Freeport Historical Society.

Please check back regularly for updates and more information.