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Posted By: jamie

if it is ohio northern, the date would most likely be closer to 1900. there's a good article on the history of athletics there:
http://www.onu.edu/library/onuhistory/athletics/chapter3.pdf

"Baseball
The game of baseball was played very early in the history of Ohio Northern University. The
reference to President Lehr’s cow pasture as a baseball field attests to the fact that baseball
was the first game played at the school. The game of baseball was played in this area prior to
the Civil War. There is no mention of baseball as an intercollegiate sport until 1896. In that
year the Normal School played a game with Bluffton College. This was the only college game
played in that year, although games were played with city teams and high school teams in the
area."

"In 1896, a baseball team was organized and played the first game of intercollegiate baseball
with the baseball team at Bluffton College. Other baseball games were played in 1896, but
these games could not be called intercollegiate because they were played with city teams and
high school teams in nearby towns."

http://www.onu.edu/library/onuhistory/athletics/chapter4.pdf
"In 1902, the ONU placed her first officially recognized baseball and football teams upon the
field. These, however, met with financial reverses and during the five years following, the
athletic record of ONU was rather of a fluctuating nature. This uncertainty led to the formation
of the present Athletic Board."