Harvard 1912

In this edition of Football History Rewind, we review the great run Harvard University had on the gridiron in the seasons of 1912 and 1913. 

In part 30 of our series of Football History Rewind we reviewed the rules revisions of 1912 and their impact on revolutionaizing the game.  We also stated that the College Football the 1912 Champions were the Harvard University Crimson football team. The Harvard eleven finished with a 9–0 record and was retroactively named as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, and Parke H. Davis.

The 1912 Harvard Crimson team, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, taken by an unknown.

Let's continue that discussion and dive a little deeper into the greatest run of games that the Harvard football program ever had in its history. The season of 1912 and its vast and sweeping rules changes were not necessarily the main reason for the Crimson to have gone undefeated if you remember back to Football History Rewind Part 30.  They were good, real good over a period of the better part of 3 seasons as they won 22 stright contests. From the last two games of 1911 the Haravrd eleven won 30 times, had three ties and did not lose a game. The star of the Crimson was Percy Wendell a man you may remember in history of being the inventor of a rubber nose guard, that was held in place with the biting down of the back teeth of the wearer tht had vented holes in it so that the player could breath. Other seniors joined Wendell in 1912 as the left-footed punting of Sam Felton who also played End and Quarterback Henry Gardner provided leadership to a a good mix of Juniors and Sophmores on the starting roster. Between Felton pinning opponents with poor field position and Charley Brickley drop kicking points from almost anywhere the Crimson were stacked with youth, talent and experience.

The team got past Maine in the opener 7-0, and then blasted Holy Cross 19-0, Williams 26-3, Amherst 46-0, and Brown 30-10 before setting the stage to face rival Princeton. Brickkley did the majority of the damage against the Tigers as he place kicked a 47 yard field goal and drop kick two others to carry the Crimson to a 19-6 victory.They followed that up with a 3-0 win over Dartmoouth but Brickley missed two attempts in that contest to keep it close. Vanderbilt was the next victim on a 9-3 count before lambasting their arch rival Yale 20-0.

If you remember we said last time that Wisconsin was undefeated in 1912 as well, 7-0. Nine of the eleven starters made the All-Western Conference team as the Badgers outscored their opponents 246-29. The public was clamouring for a showdown with these two unbeatens to see wo truly was the top in the Nation , but the faculty of Wisconsin sot down the idea in a vote, as academia won over athletics.

The 1913 Harvard Captain Bob Storer, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, taken by an unknown.

They carried on in the 1913 season as they replennished the losses of their three seniors with high caliber talent.

The 1913 Harvard vs. Princeton game, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, taken by an unknown.

As with most championship caliber teams, Harvard's success started with the dominating performance of their men in the trenches. The men playing end were Frank O'Brien and Tack Hardwick. Both of these big guys were fierce and dedicated to blocking and tackling and had little care to get the ball in their own hands. The tackles were men among men too as Captain Bob Storer engaged one side with Harvey Hitchcock on the other side. A two time All-American was in the guard position with Stan Pennock with Joe Gilman at the other guard spot and the center was manned by Wally Trumbull. By the sounds of it these would be guys you would want walking with you in a dark alley. The halfbacks were Eddie "Packy" Mahan, who double as the punter, and Fred Bradlee while Charley Brickley played fullback and was also the team's brilliant kicker. The quarterback position was the role of a guy named Mal Logan. They played together as one unit and were unified in their desire to win, This group was good enough to steam-roll lesser opponents and find ways to take advantage of opportunities against the good ones. 

The 1913 Harvard vs. Princeton game, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, taken by an unknown.

We'll talk more about the 1913 season next time in this series on football history as we go season by season through time, right here on the Pigskin Dispatch as we rewind the history.

Special thanks goes to the very wonderful book by Tom Perrin titled, Football: A College History.

The banner photo is of Jim Thorpe with the New York Giants of the National League of Baseball, at the Polo Grounds ready to bat in 1913. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons and taken by the Bain News Service.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com