This retro Vandy script was featured on the Vanderbilt football helmets from 1979-83. Vanderbilt played the first football game in the state of Tennessee in 1890, playing the University of Nashville, a school that dissolved roughly 20 years later in 1909. Vanderbilt's medical school and the Peabody College of Education can trace roots back to the University of Nashville, so in a way, Vanderbilt played a football game against itself.