1901 Harvard Crimson football team

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]

1901 Harvard Crimson football
National champion (Billingsley, Davis)
Conference	Independent
Record	12–0
Head coach	Bill Reid (1st season)
Home stadium	Soldier's Field
Seasons ← 1900 1902 →

1901 Eastern college football independents records

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Harvard			–					12	–	0	–	0
Yale			–					11	–	1	–	1
Cornell			–					11	–	1	–	0
Dartmouth			–					10	–	1	–	0
Massachusetts			–					9	–	1	–	0
Princeton			–					9	–	1	–	1
Syracuse			–					7	–	1	–	0
Holy Cross			–					7	–	1	–	1
Geneva			–					6	–	1	–	1
Army			–					5	–	1	–	2
Western U. of Penn			–					7	–	2	–	1
Lafayette			–					9	–	3	–	0
Swarthmore			–					8	–	2	–	2
Washington & Jefferson			–					6	–	2	–	2
Frankin & Marshall			–					7	–	3	–	1
Penn			–					10	–	5	–	0
Buffalo			–					4	–	2	–	0
Columbia			–					8	–	5	–	0
Fordham			–					2	–	1	–	1
Penn State			–					5	–	3	–	0
Bucknell			–					6	–	4	–	0
Pittsburgh College			–					3	–	2	–	0
Temple			–					3	–	2	–	0
NYU			–					4	–	3	–	1
Tufts			–					6	–	6	–	1
Vermont			–					5	–	5	–	1
Dickinson			–					3	–	4	–	0
Carlisle			–					5	–	7	–	1
Brown			–					4	–	7	–	1
Villanova			–					2	–	3	–	0
Drexel			–					2	–	5	–	1
Colgate			–					2	–	5	–	0
Boston College			–					1	–	8	–	0
Lehigh			–					1	–	11	–	0
New Hampshire			–					0	–	6	–	0
Rutgers			–					0	–	7	–	0

When Harvard met Yale at season's end, it was considered to be for the national championship by the contemporaneous media.^[2][3] 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^[4] and Parke H. Davis.^[5][6][7][8] 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."^[3]

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

• Fullback Thomas Graydon (WC-1, CW-1);
• Halfback Robert Kernan (WC-1, CW-1);
• Halfback A. W. Ristine (WC-2);
• Tackle Oliver Cutts (WC-1, CW-1);
• Tackle Crawford Blagden (WC-2; CW-1);
• Guard William George Lee (WC-1, CW-2);
• Guard Charles A. Barnard (WC-2, CW-1);
• End Dave Campbell (WC-1, CW-2); and
• End Edward Bowditch (WC-2, CW-1).^[9][10]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 28	Williams	Soldier's Field Boston, MA	W 16–0		[11]
October 2	Bowdoin	Soldier's Field Boston, MA	W 12–0		[12]
October 5	Bates	Soldier's Field Boston, MA	W 16–6		[13]
October 9	Amherst	Soldier's Field Boston, MA	W 11–0		[14]
October 12	Columbia	Soldier's Field Boston, MA	W 18–0		[15]
October 16	Wesleyan	Soldier's Field Boston, MA	W 16–0		[16]
October 19	at Army	The Plain West Point, NY	W 6–0		[17]
October 26	Carlisle	Soldier's Field Boston, MA	W 29–0		[18]
November 2	Brown	Soldier's Field Boston, MA	W 48–0	5,000	[19]
November 9	at Penn	Franklin Field Philadelphia, PA (rivalry)	W 33–6		[20]
November 16	Dartmouth	Soldier's Field Boston, MA (rivalry)	W 27–12		[21]
November 23	Yale	Soldier's Field Boston, MA (rivalry)	W 22–0		[22]

References

1. "1901 Harvard Crimson Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
2. "Sports Review for Year 1901, Champions of the Gridiron". The Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. December 31, 1901. p. 7. 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. Vautravers, James. "1901 College Football National Championship". Retrieved September 23, 2019. [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.
4. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2015). "National Poll Rankings" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. NCAA. p. 108. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
5. 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.
6. Okeson, Walter R., ed. (1934). Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide 1934. New York: American Sports Publishing Co. p. 206.
7. Okeson, Walter R., ed. (1935). Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide 1935. New York: American Sports Publishing Co. p. 233.
8. 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.
9. "All-America Team of 1901". Spalding's Football Guide: 47. 1902. Retrieved March 8, 2015 – via Google books.
10. Caspar Whitney (1902). "The Sportsman's View-Point" (PDF). Outing. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 23, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
11. "Firm In The Line: Harvard Beats Williams, 16 to 0, in First Game". The Boston Sunday Globe. September 29, 1901. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
12. "Buck The Line: Harvard Goes Through Bowdoin For Two Touchdowns". The Boston Globe. October 3, 1901. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
13. "Scores on Harvard: Bates Get 6 Points to Crimson's 16 Points". The Boston Sunday Globe. October 6, 1901. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
14. "Blank First Half: Harvard Unable to Cross the Amherst Goal Line". The Boston Sunday Globe. October 10, 1901. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
15. "Crimson Line In No Danger: Harvard Beats Columbia 18 to 0". The Boston Globe. October 13, 1901. pp. 1–2 – via Newspapers.com.
16. "Harvard Slow: Scores Only 16 Points on Weak Wesleyan Eleven". The Boston Sunday Globe. October 17, 1901. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
17. "Kernan's Run Saves Harvard: West Point Allows Crimson Only Six Points". The Boston Sunday Globe. October 20, 1901. pp. 1–2 – via Newspapers.com.
18. "Indians Dangerous Only Once: By a Run, and a Series of Rushes, They Get Within Harvard's Eight-Yard Line". The Boston Sunday Globe. October 27, 1901. pp. 1–2 – via Newspapers.com.
19. "Crimson Triumphs Over Brown by Its Biggest Score of the Season---48---0". Boston Post. November 3, 1901. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
20. "Harvard Defeats Pennsylvania By Score Of 33 To 6". The Times (Philadelphia). November 10, 1901. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
21. "Fast Football: Harvard Defeats Dartmouth by A Score of 27 to 12". The Boston Globe. November 17, 1901. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
22. Dudley S. Dean (November 24, 1901). "Harvard 22, Yale 0: Crimson Give the Blue Saddest Surprise in History". The Boston Sunday Globe. pp. 1–2 – via Newspapers.com.