1891 college football season

1891 college football season
1891 Yale Bulldogs
Champion(s)Yale
← 1890 · football seasons · 1892 →

The 1891 college football season was the season of American football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1891–92 academic year.

The 1891 Yale Bulldogs football team, led by head coach Walter Camp, compiled a perfect 13–0 record, outscored opponents by a total of 488 to 0, and has been recognized as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, National Championship Foundation, and Parke H. Davis.[1] Yale's 1891 season was part of a 37-game winning streak that began at the end of the 1890 season and continued into the 1893 season.

In the Midwest, Kansas led the way with a 7–0–1 record. In the South, Trinity (now known as Duke) was recognized as the champion.

Ten of the eleven players selected by Caspar Whitney to the 1891 All-America college football team came from the Big Three (Yale, Harvard, and Princeton). The eleventh player was center John Adams from Penn. Five of the honorees have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: quarterback Philip King (Princeton), halfback Lee McClung (Yale), end Frank Hinkey (Yale), tackle Marshall Newell (Harvard), and guard Pudge Heffelfinger (Yale).

Conference and program changes

School 1890 Conference 1891 Conference
Case football Program established Independent
Sewanee Tigers Program Established Independent
Tennessee Volunteers Program Established Independent
West Virginia Mountaineers Program established Independent

Awards and honors

All-Americans

Main article: 1891 College Football All-America Team

The consensus All-America team included:

Position Name Height Weight (lbs.) Class Hometown Team
QB Philip King 5'6" 154 So. Washington, D. C. Princeton
HB Everett J. Lake Sr. Woodstock, Connecticut Harvard
HB Bum McClung 5'10" 165 Sr. Knoxville, Tennessee Yale
FB Sheppard Homans, Jr. Sr. Englewood, New Jersey Princeton
E Frank Hinkey 5'9" 150 Fr. Tonawanda, New York Yale
T Wallace Winter Jr. Hudson, Wisconsin Yale
G Pudge Heffelfinger 6'4" 178 Sr. Minneapolis, Minnesota Yale
C John Adams Sr. Penn
G Jesse Riggs Sr. Baltimore, Maryland Princeton
T Marshall Newell 5'7" 168 So. Great Barrington, Massachusetts Harvard
E John A. Hartwell Sr. Sussex, New Jersey Yale

Statistical leaders

Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1891 Colorado Football Association standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Colorado Mines $   –   5 – 1 – 1
  • $ – Conference champion
1891 Eastern Intercollegiate Football Association standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Williams $ 3 – 0 – 1 8 – 2 – 1
Amherst 2 – 0 – 2 8 – 4 – 3
Dartmouth 2 – 1 – 1 2 – 2 – 1
MIT 1 – 3 – 0 5 – 7 – 2
Stevens 0 – 4 – 0 4 – 7 – 0
  • $ – Conference champion
1891 Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Purdue $ 4 – 0 – 0 4 – 0 – 0
Butler 3 – 2 – 0 4 – 3 – 0
Wabash 1 – 3 – 0 1 – 3 – 0
Indiana 0 – 5 – 0 1 – 5 – 0
  • $ – Conference champion
1891 Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Football Association standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Penn State $ 4 – 1 – 0 6 – 2 – 0
Bucknell 3 – 1 – 1 6 – 2 – 1
Swarthmore 3 – 2 – 0 9 – 2 – 0
Franklin & Marshall 2 – 2 – 0 2 – 4 – 0
Dickinson 1 – 2 – 1 2 – 3 – 1
Haverford 0 – 5 – 0 0 – 6 – 0
  • $ – Conference champion

Independents

1891 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Yale   –   13 – 0 – 0
Harvard   –   13 – 1 – 0
Princeton   –   12 – 1 – 0
Tufts   –   7 – 1 – 0
Penn   –   11 – 2 – 0
Colgate   –   4 – 1 – 0
Army   –   4 – 1 – 1
Navy   –   5 – 2 – 0
Cornell   –   7 – 3 – 0
Geneva   –   4 – 2 – 0
Washington & Jefferson   –   4 – 2 – 0
Lehigh   –   7 – 4 – 0
Rutgers   –   8 – 6 – 0
Brown   –   4 – 6 – 0
Springfield YMCA   –   5 – 8 – 1
Fordham   –   1 – 2 – 1
Syracuse   –   4 – 7 – 0
Massachusetts   –   2 – 5 – 0
Western Univ. Penn.   –   2 – 6 – 0
Lafayette   –   2 – 9 – 1
NYU   –   1 – 4 – 0
Columbia   –   1 – 5 – 0
Wesleyan   –   1 – 6 – 0
1891 Midwestern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Ohio Wesleyan   –   4 – 0 – 0
Kansas   –   7 – 0 – 1
Illinois   –   5 – 1 – 0
Missouri   –   3 – 1 – 0
Lake Forest   –   6 – 2 – 0
Washington University   –   4 – 1 – 1
Minnesota   –   3 – 1 – 1
Wisconsin   –   3 – 1 – 1
Cincinnati   –   4 – 2 – 1
Iowa   –   3 – 2 – 0
Doane   –   2 – 2 – 0
Iowa College   –   1 – 1 – 1
Miami (OH)   –   1 – 1 – 0
Nebraska   –   2 – 2 – 0
Northwestern   –   2 – 2 – 3
Michigan   –   4 – 5 – 0
Ohio State   –   2 – 3 – 0
Case   –   1 – 2 – 0
Buchtel   –   1 – 3 – 0
Washburn   –   1 – 5 – 0
Michigan State Normal   –   0 – 2 – 0
1891 Southern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Trinity (NC)   –   3 – 0 – 0
Wake Forest   –   1 – 0 – 0
VMI   –   3 – 0 – 1
Vanderbilt   –   3 – 1 – 0
Navy   –   5 – 2 – 0
Virginia   –   2 – 1 – 2
Delaware   –   5 – 3 – 1
Kentucky State College   –   1 – 1 – 0
Georgetown   –   2 – 2 – 0
Sewanee   –   1 – 2 – 0
Central (KY)   –   0 – 1 – 0
Furman   –   0 – 1 – 0
Tennessee   –   0 – 1 – 0
West Virginia   –   0 – 1 – 0
Johns Hopkins   –   0 – 2 – 0
Mercer   –   0 – 2 – 0
North Carolina   –   0 – 2 – 0
Richmond   –   0 – 2 – 0
1891 Far West college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Stanford   –   3 – 1 – 0
California (spring)   –   4 – 2 – 0
Washington   –   1 – 1 – 0
USC   –   1 – 2 – 0
Colorado   –   1 – 4 – 0
California   –   0 – 1 – 0

References

  1. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2015). "National Poll Rankings" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. NCAA. p. 107. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
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