a 34–0 win against the Western University of Pennsylvania. The Red and Black's third game of the inaugural season, against College of Wooster, remains disputed to this day, with both schools claiming a victory. Controversy erupted over the referees' clock management when W&J's team, under the impression that the game was over, left the field with a 4–0 lead; Wooster continued to play and scored a touchdown and extra point to give them a disputed 6–4 victory. By 1894, the college community's interest in the sport had grown considerably, with stronger opponents and the team's first paid coach, E. Gard Edwards. A special train from Washington to Pittsburgh was chartered to carry fans and students to a watch a 6–0 victory against the semi-pro Pittsburgh Athletic Club. As the team developed, the college community, especially certain members of the faculty, began to express concerns regarding the influence of professionalism in college sports, especially the use of itinerant and semi-professional students. John Brallier, who was the first openly professional football player, played football for Washington & Jefferson College in 1895 before returning to the Greensburg Athletic Association. This incident, and others, caused the faculty to adopt the college's first eligibility requirements for student athletes. At the same time its activities was becoming more scrutinized, the football team became more successful. The season finale in 1896 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh was one of the largest crowds in western Pennsylvania history, when an overflow crowd of 12,000 watched W&J defeat Duquesne Country and Athletic Club 4–0. But was the September 29, 1897, game against the University of Pennsylvania Quakers that marked the "birth of big-time football" at W&J. The Red and Black lost 18–4 to the eventual national champions, but W&J counted it a moral victory, since they were missing 4 of their 11 starters due to new eligibility requirements. In a game against Denison University on Sept. 19, 1908, W&J became the first college football team in history to wear numbered uniforms. New residency requirements and near-dissolution (1900–1911) By the early 1900s, "football fever" had swept through the student body, leading the College administration to take steps to further integrate the sport into the educational framework, including the development of a new governance structure. The new Student Athletic Committee and Faculty Athletic Committees instituted a minimum one-year residency requirement to combat transient students and created an alumni coach system, so the