Putting together a team must have been a challenge. J. G. Kaufman, the principal at the high school, had volunteered to teach the boys, as he had some experience with the game at Harvard. The only Sidney player who had ever played in a game was 18 year old Web Sterline. That was enough to make Web the captain.

At the age of 100, Webster Kelsey Sterline recounted those early days in an interview with Dave Ross in 1978. As the high school boys began to practice, they found themselves alone often because, as Sterline recalled, "Kaufman was courting Mamie Loughlin then, so he wasn't around much. I had played the game at a military academy in Cincinnati, where my parents sent me to 'grow up.' I had to teach everyone the game. I taught them all how to tackle, but I only showed them once - because it hurt too much."

What about uniforms and protective equipment? "Those were luxuries," Sterline chuckled. "We saw a picture of them, and that was as far as we got. We did have one football." It should be noted that this first Sidney team also played without a rule book or any referees. There was of course no football field. Sterline and some others players approached Mr. Orbison, who owned a ten acre pasture on the top of what is now known as Orbison Hill in East Sidney (the present site of Orbison Park). He consented to the use of the field. The boys used lime and crudely marked lines every ten yards. The field was ready.

By mid-November, the high schoolers thought they were prepared for a scrimmage. Mr. Henderson, principal of the second ward school in Sidney, had assembled a group of boys from his school to provide the opposition. On the afternoon of Friday, November 13, football was born in Sidney. To the chagrin of the Sidney high school followers, the pickup team from the second ward school won 10 to 0. The Journal commented: "It is true the game was not very scientific, but it was the first." The Lima juggernaught was next.