Football 1893 & 1894

In this edition of the Football History Rewind, the focus is on the games, teams and titles of the 1893 and 1894 seasons. We continue to cover gridiron history year by year.

In the last episode we talked quite a bit about the 1893 season and its rules revision roller coaster. What we did not have much talk on was the top team in the country that season and some of the fantastic players.

The champions were disputably the Tigers of Princeton University, at least that is who organizations such as the Helm's Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, National Championship Foundation and the Billingsly Report nominated. That team was a wrecking crew on the football field registering a perfect 11-0 record while compiling 270 point for with a mere 14 tallies scored against them. The selection of Princeton was not unanimous though as years later Parke H. Davis stated that he felt Yale University deserved the 1893 crown despite suffering a loss to the Tigers at the end of the season which kept Princeton undefeated. In my opinion, I don't think the Davis crowning of the Eli to be very strong, in fact it appears to be quite off the mark.

The 1893 Priceton Tigers Football team taken by an unknown photographer, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Princeton was led by it captain Thomas Doggie Trenchard, who after an All-American season went on to coach at other schools such as North Carolina, Pitt and West Virginia. Okay I know you are probably wondering like I was, how does a guy get a nickname like Doggie? Apparently Mr. Trenchard was well known for having a scruffy shaggy haired appearance, and his peers gave his the direct association with our canine friends.

It is interesting and probably not too far removed to believe that Yale's dominance might have been interupted by the departure of Walter Camp from the Yale program right after the 1892 season, to head West to coach Stanford in 1893. Princeton knocked off mighty Yale 6-0 on November 30, 1893, ending the streak of championships by the Bulldogs as well as a 37 game unbeaten streak. The website Saturdayblitz.com brings up an interesting point of fact, that sometimes history does repeat itself. The 1893 game mirrored the 1889 final game of the season between the two schools. On both occasions, Princeton ended a 37-game winning streak and a run of Yale championships.

Speaking of Walter Camp, he and Caspar Whitney placed 5 Princeton players on their All-America list for the 1893 season. In addition to End Doggie Trenchard, Tiger teammates Langdon Lea at tackle, Art Wheeler as a guard, Franklin Morse at halfback were joined to the prestigious list along with Quarterback Philip King. It is quite odd when we look at it but the other 7 players on the list of First-Team All-Americans attended either Yale or Harvard.

Football was not only being played in the East at that point either. The sport was growing to campuses across the country, especially in the South. Tulane, Ole Miss and LSU started their programs in 1893. Tulane with its urban campus really brought the sport front and center with the large crowds the drew early on, due to their populated location in the heart of New Orleans. Tulane soon challenged LSU to a game and the first Battle of the Rag was played, with the Green Wave of Tulane winning the initial matchup 34-0 over the visiting Tigers. The Rebels of Ole Miss though faired much better against the Wave, when they traveled to New Orleans and knocked off Tulane 12-4 on December 2, 1893.

First American football game played at the University of Oregon. Taken by an unknown photographer, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Other schools also started a formal football program: University of Texas in Austin, Albany College (now Lewis and Clark College in the Division III level of play), Oregon, Oregon State (which at the time was called Corvallis and their nickname was the Aggies and not Beavers.) Corvallis pummelled their first opponent, Albany College 64-0 on November 11, 1893.  All told over 100 colleges fielded teams on the gridiron. The game of football was growing by leaps and bounds.

The 1893-94 Oregon Football team taken by an unknown photographer, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

1894 season

The 1894 was a different animal altogether, as there was no clear cut champ.  In that college football season the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listed Penn, Princeton, and Yale as having been selected joint national champions.

Yale was 16-0 that year while the Penn Quakers went unblemished as 12-0 and Princeton sported a record of 8 wins and two losses. The Tigers two losses came at the hands of Yale and Penn so I am not sure how it was conceived that they deserved to be co-champs with the Bulldogs and Quakers. However the team was was retroactively named as the national champion by one selector, the Houlgate System. Possibly only by the mere fact that they outscored their opponents 204 to 44.

There were some firsts for collegiate football too in the season of 1894. On November 29 , college football was first played in the state of Florida by Stetson University. There were also 3 football conferences that started up that year. The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association which included every memeber of the current SEC except Missouri and Arkansas as well as 6 members of the modern ACC. The SIAA statyed active until 1942. The Maryland Intercollegiate Football Association which was active for 6 years and ended in 1899. Finally the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association which is currently a Division III league.

It was also the end of the line for a couple of college football conferences as the Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the Middle States Intercollegiate Football League folded played their last organized season in 1894.

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikimedia Commons collection of the 1893 Priceton Tigers Football team taken by an unknown photographer.