1925 Southern Conference football season explained

1925 Southern Conference football season
Sport:	College football
League:	NCAA
Season:	Regular Season
Season Champs:	Alabama Tulane
No Of Teams:	22
Duration:	September 19, 1925 through January 1, 1926
Seasonslistnames:	Football
Prevseason Year:	1924
Nextseason Year:	1926

The 1925 Southern Conference football season was the college football games played by the member schools of the Southern Conference as part of the 1925 college football season. The season began on September 19. 1925 saw the south's widespread use of the forward pass.^[1]

In the annual Rose Bowl game, the SoCon champion Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the heavily favored PCC champion Washington Huskies by a single point, 20 - 19, and became the first southern team ever to win a Rose Bowl. It is commonly referred to as "the game that changed the south."^[2] Alabama halfback Johnny Mack Brown was the Rose Bowl game's MVP. Alabama was retroactively named as national champion for 1925 by several major selectors, along with Dartmouth.^{[3] [4]}

Tulane back Peggy Flournoy led the nation in scoring with his 128 points, a school record not broken until 2007 by Matt Forte. With also Lester Lautenschlaeger in the backfield to lead the Green Wave, Tulane beat Northwestern i a game which helped herald the arrival of Southern football.^[5]

The Georgia Tech team, led by Doug Wycoff, had one of the best defenses in school history.

Season overview

Results and team statistics

Conf. Rank	Team	Head coach	Overall record	Conf. record	PPG	PAG
1 (tie)	Alabama	Wallace Wade	10–0	7–0	29.7	2.6
1 (tie)	Tulane	Clark Shaughnessy	9–0–1	5–0	24.6	3.2
3	North Carolina	Bob Fetzer/Bill Fetzer	7–1–1	4–0–1	13.7	2.2
4	Washington and Lee	James DeHart	5–5	5–1	11.1	10.4
5	Virginia	Greasy Neale	7–1–1	4–1–1	16.0	3.4
6	Georgia Tech	William Alexander	6–2–1	4–1–1	11.3	5.3
7	Kentucky	Fred Murphy	6–3	4–2	14.3	11.0
8	Florida	Tom Sebring	8–2	3–2	10.2	10.8
9	Auburn	Dave Morey	5–3–1	3–2–1	9.0	12.7
10 (tie)	VPI	Ben Cubbage	5–3–2	3–3–1	3.9	5.2
10 (tie)	Vanderbilt	Dan McGugin	6–3	3–3	17.6	7.0
10 (tie)	Tennessee	M. B. Banks	5–2–1	2–2–1	16.1	9.1
10 (tie)	South Carolina	Branch Bocock	7–3	2–2	15.0	2.7
14 (tie)	Georgia	Kid Woodruff	4–5	2–4	14.8	10.1
14 (tie)	VMI	Blandy Clarkson	5–5	2–4	15.3	10.8
16 (tie)	Sewanee	M. S. Bennett	4–4–1	1–4	13.1	9.9
16 (tie)	Mississippi A&M	Bernie Bierman	3–4–1	1–4	12.6	7.5
18	LSU	Mike Donahue	5–3–1	0–2–1	10.0	7.8
19 (tie)	NC State	Gus Tebell	3–5–1	0–4–1	5.7	8.0
19 (tie)	Ole Miss		5–5	0–4	14.7	8.7
19 (tie)	Maryland	Curley Byrd	3–5	0–4	7.9	11.1
19 (tie)	Clemson	Bud Saunders	1–7	0–4	2.3	20.0

Key

PPG = Average of points scored per game
PAG = Average of points allowed per game^[6]

Regular season

Index to colors and formatting
Non-conference matchup; SoCon member won
Non-conference matchup; SoCon member lost
Non-conference matchup; tie
Conference matchup

SoCon teams in bold.

Week One

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
September 19		VMI	Alumni Field • Lexington, Virginia	W 9–0		^[7]
September 19		VPI	Miles Field • Blacksburg, Virginia	W 10–0		^[8]

Week Two

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
September 25	Richmond	NC State	Riddick Stadium • Raleigh, North Carolina	W 20–0		^[9] >
September 26	Union (TN)	Alabama	Denny Field • Tuscaloosa, Alabama	W 53–0		^[10]
September 26	Auburn	Birmingham–Southern	Munger Bowl • Birmingham, Alabama	W 25–0		^[11]
September 26		Clemson	Riggs Field • Calhoun, South Carolina	L 14–0		^[12]
September 26	Georgia	Mercer	Centennial Stadium • Macon, Georgia	W 32–0		^[13]
September 26	Oglethorpe	Georgia Tech	Grant Field • Atlanta, Georgia	W 13–7	10,000	^[14]
September 26		Kentucky	Stoll Field • Lexington, Kentucky	W 13–6		^[15]
September 26		LSU	Tiger Stadium • Baton Rouge, Louisiana	W 27–0		^[16]
September 26		Maryland	Byrd Stadium • College Park, Maryland	W 13–0		^[17]
September 26	Wake Forest	North Carolina	Emerson Field • Chapel Hill, North Carolina	L 6–0	7,000	^[18]
September 26		Ole Miss		W 53–0		^[19]
September 26		Sewanee	Hardee Field • Sewanee, Tennessee	W 14–0		^[20]
September 26		South Carolina	University Field • Columbia, South Carolina	W 33–0		^[21]
September 26		Tulane	New Orleans, Louisiana	W 77–0	4,500	^[22]
September 26	Middle Tennessee State Teachers	Vanderbilt	Dudley Field • Nashville, Tennessee	W 27–0		^[23]
September 26		Virginia	Lambeth Field • Charlottesville, Virginia	W 40–0		^[24]
September 26		VMI	Alumni Field • Lexington, Virginia	W 46–0		^[25]
September 26	Roanoke	VPI	Miles Field • Blacksburg, Virginia	W 28–0		^[26]

Week Three

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
October 2	Birmingham–Southern	Alabama	Denny Field • Tuscaloosa, Alabama	W 50–7
October 3	Auburn	Clemson		AUB 13–6
October 3	Mercer	Florida		W 24 - 0
October 3	VMI	Georgia Tech		GT 33–0
October 3	Kentucky	Chicago	Stagg Field • Chicago	L 9 - 0
October 3	Louisiana-Lafayette	LSU	Tiger Stadium • Baton Rouge, Louisiana	W 38 - 0
October 3	Millsaps	Mississippi A&M	Davis Wade Stadium • Starkville, Mississippi	W 34 - 0
October 3	North Carolina	South Carolina		UNC 7 - 0
October 3	North Carolina State	Duke	Durham, North Carolina	W 13 - 0
October 3	Middle Tennessee State	Sewanee	McGee Field • Sewanee, Tennessee	W 53 - 0
October 3	Emory & Henry	Tennessee		W 51 - 0
October 3	Missouri	Tulane		T 6 - 6
October 3	Henderson-Brown	Vanderbilt	Dudley Field • Nashville, Tennessee	W 41 - 0
October 3	Virginia	Georgia	Sanford Field • Athens, Georgia	UVA 7 - 6
October 3	Hampden-Sydney	Virginia Tech		W 13 - 3
October 3	Furman	Washington & Lee	Lexington, Virginia	L 20 - 15

Week Four

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
October 9	Florida Southern	Florida	Fleming Field • Gainesville, Florida	W 9 - 0
October 10	Hampden-Sydney	Florida	Fleming Field • Gainesville, Florida	W 22 - 6
October 10	Alabama	LSU	Tiger Stadium • Baton Rouge, Louisiana	ALA 42–0
October 10	Virginia Tech	Auburn		AUB 19 - 0
October 10	Clemson	Kentucky		UK 19 - 6
October 10	Georgia	Yale		L 35 - 7
October 10	Georgia Tech	Penn State		W 16 - 7
October 10	Maryland	Rutgers	Philadelphia	W 16 - 0
October 10	Ouachita	Mississippi A&M		T 3 - 3
October 10	North Carolina	Duke	Durham, North Carolina	W 41 - 0
October 10	Sewanee	Texas A&M	Dallas, Texas	T 6 - 6
October 10		Tennessee		W 13 - 0
October 10	Ole Miss	Tulane	New Orleans	TUL 26 - 7
October 10	Vanderbilt	Texas Longhorns football	Fair Park Stadium • Dallas	W 14 - 6
October 10	Richmond	Virginia	Lambeth Field • Charlottesville, Virginia	W 19 - 0
October 10	Roanoke	VMI	Lexington, Virginia	W 17 - 14
October 10	Washington & Lee	Princeton	Palmer Stadium • Princeton, New Jersey	L 15 - 6
October 11	South Carolina	North Carolina State		SCAR 7 - 6

Week Five

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
October 15	North Carolina	North Carolina State	Riddick Stadium • Raleigh, North Carolina	UNC 17 - 0
October 16	Wofford	South Carolina		W 6 - 0
October 17	Sewanee	Alabama	Rickwood Field • Birmingham, Alabama	ALA 27 - 0
October 17	Florida	Georgia Tech	Grant Field • Atlanta	GT 23 - 7
October 17	Furman	Georgia	Augusta, Georgia	W 21 - 0
October 17	LSU Freshmen	LSU	Tiger Stadium • Baton Rouge, Louisiana	W 6 - 0
October 17	Virginia Tech	Maryland		VT 3 - 0
October 17	Union (TN)	Ole Miss		W 7 - 6
October 17	Mississippi A&M	Tulane	Second Tulane Stadium • New Orleans, Louisiana	TUL 25 - 3
October 17	Tennessee	Vanderbilt	Dudley Field • Nashville, Tennessee	VAN 34 - 7
October 17	VMI	Virginia		UVA 18 - 10
October 17	Washington & Lee	Kentucky		W&L 25 - 0

Week Six

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
October 22	Clemson	South Carolina		SCAR 33–0
October 24	Alabama	Georgia Tech	Grant Field • Atlanta	ALA 7 - 0		^[27]
October 24	Howard	Auburn		W 7 - 6
October 24	Wake Forest	Florida		W 24–3
October 24	Sewanee	Kentucky		UK 14 - 0
October 24	LSU	Tennessee	Shields–Watkins Field • Knoxville, Tennessee	T 0 - 0
October 24	North Carolina	Mercer	Macon, Georgia	W 3 - 0
October 24	Ole Miss	Mississippi A&M		MSA&M 6 - 0
October 24	Tulane	Northwestern	Chicago	W 18 - 7		^[28]
October 24	Vanderbilt	Georgia		UGA 26 - 7
October 24	Virginia	Maryland	Lambeth Field • Charlottesville, Virginia	UVA 6 - 0
October 24	North Carolina State	VMI		VMI 27 - 6
October 24	Virginia Tech	Washington & Lee	Lynchburg, Virginia	W&L 20 - 0

Week Seven

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
October 28	South Carolina	The Citadel	County Fairgrounds • Orangeburg, South Carolina	W 30 - 6
October 29	Clemson	Wofford		L 13 - 0
October 31	Mississippi A&M	Alabama		ALA 6 - 0
October 31	Tulane	Auburn	Cramton Bowl • Montgomery, Alabama	TUL 13 - 0
October 31	Georgia	Tennessee		TENN 12–7
October 31	Rollins	Florida		W 61 - 0
October 31	Notre Dame	Georgia Tech	Grant Field • Atlanta	L 13 - 0
October 31	Kentucky	Centre		W 16–0
October 31	LSU	Arkansas	Fair Grounds Field • Shreveport, Louisiana	L 12 - 0
October 31	North Carolina	Maryland		UNC 16 - 0
October 31	Davidson	North Carolina State		L 9 - 0
October 31	Sewanee	Chattanooga		W 28 - 0
October 31	South Carolina	Virginia Tech		VT 6 - 0
October 31	Ole Miss	Vanderbilt		VAN 7 - 0
October 31	Lynchburg	VMI		W 33 - 0
October 31	Washington & Lee	West Virginia	Charleston, West Virginia	L 21 - 0

Week Eight

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
November 7	Kentucky	Alabama	Rickwood Field • Birmingham, Alabama	ALA 31 - 0
November 7	Auburn	Georgia	McClung Stadium • Columbus, Georgia	UGA 34 - 0
November 7	Florida	Clemson		FLA 42 - 0
November 7	Georgia Tech	Vanderbilt		GT 7 - 0
November 7	Rice	LSU	Tiger Stadium • Baton Rouge, Louisiana	W 6 - 0
November 7	Maryland	Yale	Yale Bowl • New Haven, Connecticut	L 43 - 14
November 7	Mississippi College	Mississippi A&M		W 46 - 0
November 7	North Carolina	VMI		UNC 23 - 11
November 7	North Carolina State	Virginia Tech		T 0 - 0
November 7	Ole Miss	Sewanee	Chattanooga, Tennessee	SEW 10 - 9
November 7	Tennessee	Centre	Danville, Kentucky	W 12 - 0
November 7	Louisiana Tech	Tulane		W 37 - 9
November 7	Virginia	Washington & Lee	Wilson Field • Lexington, Virginia	W&L 12 - 0

Week Nine

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
November 14	Florida	Alabama	Cramton Bowl • Montgomery, Alabama	ALA 34 - 0
November 14	Vanderbilt	Auburn	Rickwood Field • Birmingham, Alabama	AUB 10 - 9
November 14	Clemson	The Citadel	Charleston, South Carolina	W 6 - 0
November 14	Georgia	Georgia Tech		GT 3 - 0
November 14	Kentucky	VMI	Charleston, West Virginia	UK 7 - 0
November 14	LSU	Loyola	New Orleans	W 13 - 0
November 14	Ole Miss	Mississippi College		W 19 - 7
November 14	Davidson	North Carolina	Emerson Field • Chapel Hill, North Carolina	W 13 - 0
November 14	Wake Forest	North Carolina State		W 6 - 0
November 14	South Carolina	Furman	Greenville, South Carolina	L 2 - 0
November 14	Mississippi A&M	Tennessee		TENN 14 - 9
November 14	Sewanee	Tulane	New Orleans	TUL 14 - 0
November 14	Virginia Tech	Virginia		UVA 10 - 0
November 14	Washington & Lee	Maryland		W&L 7 - 3

Week Ten

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
November 20	Presbyterian	South Carolina		W 21 - 0
November 21	Mississippi A&M	Florida	Tampa, Florida	FLA 12 - 0
November 21	Rhodes	Ole Miss	Hemingway Stadium • Oxford, Mississippi	W 31 - 0
November 21	Tulane	LSU	Tiger Stadium • Baton Rouge, Louisiana	TUL 16 - 0
November 21	Sewanee	Vanderbilt	Dudley Field • Nashville, Tennessee	VAN 19 - 7
November 21	Randolph-Macon	Virginia		W 41 - 0
November 21	North Carolina State	Washington & Lee	Lexington, Virginia	W&L 12 - 0

Week Eleven

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Reference
November 26	Georgia	Alabama		ALA 27–0
November 26	Auburn	Georgia Tech		T 7–7
November 26	Clemson	Furman		L 26 - 0
November 26	Washington & Lee	Florida		FLA 17 - 14
November 26	Maryland	Johns Hopkins		W 17 - 14
November 26	Ole Miss	Millsaps	Jackson, Mississippi	W 21 - 0
November 26	North Carolina	Virginia		T 3 - 3
November 26	Tennessee	Kentucky		UK 23 - 20
November 26	Tulane	Centenary		W 14 - 0
November 26	VMI	Virginia Tech	Roanoke, Virginia	VT 7 - 0
November 28	Centre	South Carolina	Columbia, South Carolina	W 20 - 0

Postseason

Bowl games

Awards and honors

All-Americans

See main article: 1925 College Football All-America Team.

• E – J. G. Lowe, Tennessee (AP-3, BEHR)
• E – Gus Merkle, Georgia Tech (BEHR)
• T – Goldy Goldstein, Florida (BEHR)
• T – Bob Rives, Vanderbilt (BEHR)
• G – Bill Buckler, Alabama (AP-2; WE-3, BEHR)
• G – Walt Godwin, Georgia Tech (COL-2; RKN, BEHR)
• C – Amos Kent, Sewanee (BEHR)
• QB – Lester Lautenschlaeger, Tulane (COL-3)
• QB – Edgar C. Jones, Florida (BEHR)
• HB – Peggy Flournoy, Tulane (AAB-2; AP-2; COL-3; NEA; BE-1; HR [qb]; NB-1; WE–3 [qb], BEHR)
• HB – Johnny Mack Brown, Alabama (AP-3, BEHR)
• FB – Pooley Hubert, Alabama (COL-2, AAB-2 [hb]; WE-2, NB-2 [qb], BEHR [qb])
• FB – Doug Wycoff, Georgia Tech (BEHR)

All-Southern team

See main article: 1925 College Football All-Southern Team. The following were selected by the composite All-Southern team compiled by the Associated Press.^[29]

Position	Name	First-team selectors	Team
QB	Pooley Hubert	AP	Alabama
HB	Peggy Flournoy	AP	Tulane
HB	Johnny Mack Brown	AP	Alabama
FB	Doug Wycoff	AP	Georgia Tech
E	J. G. Lowe	AP	Tennessee
T	Bob Rives	AP	Vanderbilt
G	Bill Buckler	AP	Alabama
C	Amos Kent	AP	Sewanee
G	Irish Levy	AP	Tulane
T	Goldy Goldstein	AP	Florida
E	Smack Thompson	AP	Georgia

Notes and References

1. Book: Shaping College Football. 9780815608868. Schmidt. Raymond. 18 June 2007.
2. Web site: The Football Game That Changed the South . The University of Alabama . 2008-10-06 . dead . https://timetravel.mementoweb.org/memento/2010/http://www.cptr.ua.edu/news/roses.htm . 2017-05-04 .
3. https://www.ncaa.com/history/football-fbs.html "NCAA History", Retroactive Poll Champions
4. Web site: Football Bowl Subdivision Records . NCAA Football . 79 . 2009.
5. Web site: Archived copy . 2017-01-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161012094158/http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv25/CFHSNv25n3e.pdf . 2016-10-12 . dead .
6. Web site: 1925 Southern Conference Year Summary.
7. News: Flying Cadets win first game. The State. September 20, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
8. News: Gobblers defeat Lynchburg 10 to 0. Daily Press. September 20, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
9. News: McDowell features Carolina-Richmond game with long run. The Pensacola Journal. September 26, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
10. News: Alabama has romp with Union eleven. Chattanooga Daily Times. September 27, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
11. News: Auburn Tigers easily trim Birmingham–Southern Panthers, 25 to 6. The Montgomery Advertiser. Jack Langhorn. September 27, 1925. 7. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
12. News: Blue Stockings defeat Tigers. The Index-Journal. September 27, 1925. 7. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
13. News: Morton stars as Bulldogs win opener. The Atlanta Constitution. September 27, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
14. News: Tech beats Petrels as Georgia thrashes Bears. The Atlanta Constitution. September 27, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
15. News: State overcomes lead to beat Maryville 13–6 in last frame. The Courier-Journal. September 27, 1925. VI-2, VI-6. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
16. News: L.S.U. Tigers win from State Normal in gridiron opener. The Shreveport Times. September 27, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
17. News: Maryland captures opener: Victors score in first half. The Baltimore Sun. September 27, 1925. II-1. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
18. News: Wake Forest wins from Tarheels. The Atlanta Constitution. September 27, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
19. News: Ole Miss swamps Jonesboro Aggies. Daily Clarion-Ledger. September 27, 1925. 12. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
20. News: Sewanee scores twice in victory. The Chattanooga Sunday Times. September 27, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
21. News: Carolina shows great promise in Erskine game. The Morning News Review. September 27, 1925. 23. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
22. News: Louisiana Cats badly beaten by Tulane warriors. The Shreveport Times. September 27, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
23. News: Commodores Win Ragged Game From Normal. The Nashiville Tennessean. Blinkey Horn. September 27, 1925. Sports 1, 4. Newspapers.com.
24. News: Virginia With East Beats Hampden-Sydney. Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia). September 27, 1925. 6. Newspapers.com.
25. News: Emory and Henry team smothered by V.M.I.. The Baltimore Sun. September 27, 1925. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
26. News: Roanoke fights V. P. I. to a scoreless tie. Daily Press. September 27, 1925. 6. December 10, 2023. Newspapers.com.
27. News: Alabama Wins 7 to 0, Brown Scores In Third After Punt By Wycoff. May 3, 2016. Newspapers.com. Anniston Star. October 25, 1925. 10.
28. Web site: TULANE ELEVEN TOO STRONG FOR NORTHWESTERN (October 25, 1925).
29. News: All Southern Grid Team Compiled By The Associated Press. November 30, 1925. Kingsport Times.