Usually, in public places, especially those with a lot of history, monuments often commemorate an important person or event: the Lincoln Memorial, various war memorials, and so on. The Boston Common is no different, with several large memorials featured prominently. And then there’s this odd looking gravestone-like monument just kinda off to the side of the Common (nearest to Beacon Street), which I had never noticed until a couple of weeks ago:

What this all about? Well:

Using the Google, we learn the following about the Oneida Football Club of Boston:

The Oneida Football Club, founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1862, was the first organized team to play any kind of football in the United States. The game played by the club, known as the “Boston game”, was an informal local variant that predated the codification of rules for soccer, rugby, or American football. The team, which consisted of graduates of Boston’s elite preparatory schools, played on Boston Common from 1862–1865, during which time they reportedly never lost a game or even gave up a single point.

Thousands of years from now, archaeologists are going to go nuts trying to figure out the significance of this.