The 1899 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Harvard and Princeton as having been selected national champions.[1]
Chicago, Kansas, and Sewanee went undefeated. With just 13 players, the Sewanee team, known as the "Iron Men", had a six-day road trip with five shutout wins over Texas A&M; Texas; Tulane; LSU; and Ole Miss. Sportswriter Grantland Rice called the group "the most durable football team I ever saw."[2]
Football in 1899
American football in 1899 remained a variant of rugby, played with a virtually identical ball and sharing a fundamental prohibition of use of the forward pass to advance the ball.[3] The game was played on a field 110 yards long and 53-1/3 yards wide, marked off with white lines parallel to the goal lines every five yards.[4]
The game was played by teams of 11 players, aligned typically with 7 "rushers" or "forwards" at the line of scrimmage, and four "backs" behind them.[5] These were a quarterback immediately behind the line, two halfbacks stationed a couple yards behind him, and a fullback or "goal tend," who stood deep behind the halfbacks.[5] Duration of the game was 70 minutes, divided into two 35-minute halves, which could be shortened by mutual consent,[6] with play regulated by three officials.[7]
Teams were allowed three downs to either advance the ball 5 yards or retreat towards their own goal 20 yards via running or lateral pass, otherwise being forced to surrender the ball to the defenders at the last spot.[8] All tackles had to be made above the knees.[9] A pair of light sticks with a 5-yard length of stout cord or chain were used to measure the line-of-gain for a new first down.[7] As with the modern game, teams typically did not turn over the ball on downs, since "if the prospects of completing the five-yard gain appear small, it is so manifestly politic to kick the ball as far as possible down the field..."[10]
A dropkick or place-held field goal over the 10-foot crossbar and through the goalposts mounted at the goal line counted 5 points, as did a touchdown.[10]Safeties counted as 2 points, as the case remains today.[11]
The possibility of an extra (6th) point followed each touchdown, with the scoring team given the option of a place-kick from any point on the field parallel to where the touchdown crossed the goal line; or a "punt out," in which the scoring team punted the ball from the end zone to a fair-catching teammate, which (if successfully executed) would provide the spot for a drop kick for the extra point.[12] The extra-point placekick was executed with the holder elevating the ball slightly above the ground as the defenders lined up at the goal line. The play began when the ball was touched to the ground, with a mad rush ensuing to block the kick.[12]
Players played both offense and defense without substitution; those being replaced due to exhaustion or injury were forbidden from returning for the duration to the game.[9] Coaching from the sideline was expressly prohibited.[9]
^"Football Rules," in Walter Camp (ed.), Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide, 1899. New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1899; p. 187.
^Walter Camp, "An Introductory Chapter for Beginners," in Walter Camp (ed.), Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide, 1899. New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1899; p. 5.
^ abCamp, "An Introductory Chapter for Beginners," p. 9.
