Happy birthday, Colorado — and Colorado sports.

Leading into the state’s sesquicentennial (150th) birthday on Aug. 1, The Denver Gazette has partnered with the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame to publicize the definitive list of Colorado’s top 150 sports moments.

Colorado Sports Hall of Fame historian Dave Plati and a committee of 10 compiled and will release the list every week until the No. 1 moment on July 31. Plati and Broncos icon Jim Saccomano will unveil the list weekly on a Colorado Sports Hall of Fame podcast at coloradosports.org/podcast/.

Today’s top moment in Colorado sports history: 

No. 150

April 11, 1885

In the first intercollegiate football game played west of the Mississippi River, Colorado College defeated the University of Denver Ministers, 12-0. Newspaper accounts early on never listed any stats or even most of the scoring plays, opting to mostly write about who played in the game and who was the stoutest. Both institutions had been around for a while — DU since 1864 and CC since 1874, with the first intercollegiate football game taking place in 1869 (Rutgers 6, Princeton 4). The game methodically spread west.

—Dave Plati, Colorado Sports Hall of Fame historian