1901 Harvard Crimson football team explained

Year:1901
Team:Harvard Crimson
Sport:football
Conference:Independent
Record:12–0
Head Coach:Bill Reid
Hc Year:1st
Stadium:Soldier's Field
Champion:National champion (Billingsley, Davis)

The 1901 Harvard Crimson football team was an American football team that represented Harvard University as an independent during the 1901 college football season. In its first season under head coach Bill Reid, the team compiled a 12–0 record, shut out nine of 12 opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 254 to 24.[1]

When Harvard met Yale at season's end, it was considered to be for the national championship by the contemporaneous media. Harper's Weekly (photo below) and the Chicago Tribune recognized the team as national champions.[2] In addition, the team was retrospectively named as the national champion by two selectors, the Billingsley Report[3] and Parke H. Davis.[4] [5] [6] [7] Three other selectors, the Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, and the National Championship Foundation retrospectively named Michigan as the 1901 national champion. A modern authority on college football rankings said, "Indeed, had there been an AP poll in 1901, Harvard would have been #1 by a landslide."[8]

Nine Harvard players received first-team honors from Walter Camp (WC) or Caspar Whitney (CW) on the 1901 All-America team:

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 1901 Harvard Crimson Schedule and Results. Sports Reference LLC. SR/College Football. February 27, 2017.
  2. Web site: Sports Review for Year 1901, Champions of the Gridiron. The Chicago Tribune. December 31, 1901. 7. Chicago, Illinois. The season was one of constant surprises and culminated in the overwhelming defeat of Yale by Harvard on the Saturday before Thanksgiving day. This gave the crimson an undisputed claim to the gridiron championship..
  3. Web site: National Poll Rankings . National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) . 2015. NCAA Division I Football Records . NCAA . 108 . January 4, 2016 .
  4. Parke Davis' selection for 1901, as published in Spalding's Foot Ball Guide (to which he was a contributor until his death) in 1934 and 1935, was Harvard.
  5. Book: Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide 1934. Walter R.. Okeson. American Sports Publishing Co.. New York. 1934. 206.
  6. Book: Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide 1935. Walter R.. Okeson. American Sports Publishing Co.. New York. 1935. 233.
  7. The NCAA Records Book states "Yale" for 1901, which is an error that has been perpetuated since the first appearance of Parke Davis' selections in the NCAA book about 1995.
  8. Web site: 1901 College Football National Championship. Vautravers. James. 2019-09-23. [I]f there had been an AP poll in 1901, Yale might well have finished #2. That is because they were considered to be the top program in college football. ... In the end, the main thing is that Harvard defeated the other top teams in their own region (Yale, Army, Dartmouth), which also happened to be the best region. ... I have never read a single source from 1901 who considered Michigan to be the national champion, whereas I have seen many 1901 sources refer to Harvard as such..
  9. Spalding's Football Guide. 47. All-America Team of 1901. Google books. March 8, 2015. 1902.
  10. News: Caspar Whitney. The Sportsman's View-Point. Outing. 1902. 2019-03-12. 2012-07-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20120723104935/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/Outing/Volume_39/outXXXIX04/outXXXIX04v.pdf. dead.

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