<P> The first game took place in November 1887 . Michigan had been playing football since 1879 . Two players on Michigan's 1887 team, George Winthrop DeHaven, Jr. and William Warren Harless, had previously attended Notre Dame . In October 1887, DeHaven wrote to Brother Paul, who ran Notre Dame's intramural athletics program, telling him about the new game of football . Michigan had planned a game in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, and the three men, DeHaven, Harless and Brother Paul, persuaded their respective schools to play a football match on the Notre Dame campus on the day before Thanksgiving . </P> <P> On November 22, 1887, the Michigan football team departed from the Michigan Central Railroad Depot in Ann Arbor on the late train . After breakfast in Niles, Michigan, the team changed trains and arrived in South Bend between 7: 00 a.m. and 8: 00 a.m. The team was greeted by Father Superior Walsh and spent two hours touring the university buildings and departments of Notre Dame . </P> <P> The game was the first played by a Notre Dame football team, and the Michigan team was credited with teaching the Notre Dame team the game before play began . The Notre Dame student newspaper, Scholastic, reported: "It was not considered a match contest, as the home team had been organized only a few weeks, and the Michigan boys, the champions of the West, came more to instruct them in the points of the Rugby game than to win fresh laurels ." The proceedings began with a tutorial session in which players from both teams were divided irrespective of college . For the first 30 minutes, the teams scrimmaged in a practice game with Michigan "exchanging six men for the same number from Notre Dame ." </P> <P> After the practice session, the Michigan and Notre Dame teams played a game that lasted only half an hour which was described by The Chronicle (a University of Michigan newspaper) as follows: "The grounds were in very poor condition for playing, being covered with snow in a melting condition, and the players could scarcely keep their feet . Some time had been spent in preliminary practice; the game began and after rolling and tumbling in the mud for half an hour time was finally called, the score standing 8 to 0 in favor of U. of M ." </P>

Who taught notre dame how to play football