• Season: 1900
• Date: Wednesday, January 10, 1900
• Opponent: Northampton YMCA
• Start Time: ?
• Site: Drill Hall
• Special Event: First game of record for Massachusetts Agricultural College

• Result: MAC 14, Northampton YMCA 9

Aggie 14; Y.M.C.A. 9.
From Aggie Life, January 24, 1900

The first game was played on the Drill hall floor on Wednesday Jan. 10 with Northampton Y. M. C. A. The game was uninteresting from the start, the home team playing by far the better game. The referee acting for the Y. M. C. A.'s persisted in calling fouls on Aggie for every bit of roughness much to the disgust of the crowd. Dellea played the best game for the Aggie and was seconded by Hall in second half.

As it appeared in Aggie Life:¹⁾

UMass Athletic records, as of this writing in 2025, recognize this 1/10/1900 game as the first game of record for the school's basketball program. Game notes in 2025 mention the program's start in 1899-1900. UM's last publication of year by year results, done in 2020, show the 1/10/1900 game as the first.

Prior to the year 2000, it was thought that the first game was in 1902, but additional research done by Michael Shelton, a UMass graduate in 1991, uncovered the additional detail that this page references above.