Since Big Ten Media Days were this week I thought it would be fun to look back at the first Conference meeting. It happened on January 11th, 1895 in Chicago. President Smart of Purdue organized the first "secret" meeting.
From the newspaper The Daily Inter Ocean Saturday January 12, 1895.
The article continues.
The presidents of the larger universities and colleges of the Northwest held a secret conference at the Auditorium last evening. The meeting grew out of a letter sent of the heads of these institutions by President Smart, of Purdue University, requesting a conference, at which might be considered a number of changes in the present football rules which will prohibit slugging and undue roughness in the game.