1869 in sports

Baseball

• The original Cincinnati Red Stockings field baseball's first fully professional team, ten men including player-manager Harry Wright on salary for the year.
• Cincinnati tours from Boston to San Francisco and completes the season without defeat (at least 57 games). The entourage includes a local newspaper reporter.
• About a dozen other clubs field professional teams during the year. Cincinnati's continental tours do not fit the established method of determining a champion, which has limited credibility.

Football

• The first American intercollegiate football game is played, between Princeton University and Rutgers University, although the rules are closer to modern Association football (soccer). Rutgers wins by 6 "runs" to 4.

Rowing

• Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race - Oxford

Births

• May 12 — Carl Schuhmann, German athlete (d. 1946)
• October 3 — Alfred Flatow, German gymnast (d. 1942)

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