| Year: | 1876 |
| Team: | Yale Bulldogs |
| Sport: | football |
| Conference: | Independent |
| Record: | 3–0 |
| Head Coach: | None |
| Captain: | Eugene V. Baker |
| Stadium: | Hamilton Park |
| Champion: | National champion |
The 1876 Yale Bulldogs football team represented Yale University in the 1876 college football season. The team finished with a 3–0 record and was retroactively named national champion by the Billingsley Report, National Championship Foundation, and Parke H. Davis.[1] [2] The Yale team defeated rival Harvard for the first time. Walter Camp also played for the first time.[3] The team's captain was Eugene V. Baker.The Princeton-Yale matchup effectively decided the national championship after Princeton defeated Columbia. Thompson and Camp executed the first "legal" forward pass in football history. Early in the game, Camp ran for a good gain on a play, however when he was finally tackled, he threw the ball forward to O. D. Thompson, who ran for a touchdown. The Princeton players protested the play. Since the rules of football were still unclear in 1876, a coin toss was used by the referee to decide if the play stood. Yale won the toss and the touchdown stood.