Football History Rewind part 40

Here is what happened in Football History in 1919: a log jam at the top of college football's top teams, an interesting pre-snap maneuver was introduced, and a powerhouse won over professional football. All this an more in the first season after the Great War.

The War  is over!

The season of 1919 was highlighted by the return of many football players to the gridiron who had been away for a few seasons serving their country. It should be mentioned though that there were many others who never did return to the striped field as they made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom or others that suffered such horrific injury in the line of duty that participation in the sport they loved was beyond them.    

The return of the players who served gave the competition level of the game a very pronounced boost. There were at least three undefeated teams of note in the 1919 season; Notre Dame, Texas A & M, and Harvard. An asterisk may accompany Harvard’s season though as they tied a tough Princeton squad 10 to 10.

The A & M story that season is an interesting one. Most of the players, including coach Dana X. Bible were reunited again from the 1917 season on the grid iron after all missing a year (1918) to serve duty in the Great War. It should be mentioned that not only was this 1919 Aggie team undefeated in games but it was also un-scored upon! Bible’s team played a good caliber of competition that season too with the likes of Texas, Texas Christian, Baylor and Southern Methodist on their schedule. 

This Texas A & M team came back to football after a season lapse remembering the very fundamentals of the game which greatly lead them to their success. Simply stated they were every coaches’ envy as they blocked and tackled very well. Dana Bible reveled in these basic concepts and enjoyed using the punting portion of his strategy to pin opponents deep and then play great defense.

The Aggie offense had a formidable and unique look all its own. The initial line up usually had the guards lining up each side of the center and the tackles standing directly behind the guards. The ends would initially line up next to the tackles while the rest of the members of the offensive unit were behind the front seven. Prior to the ball being snapped into play all players except the guards and the center would shift into a legal formation and then run the play most usually from the single wing. The odd looking formation was aptly dubbed the “Bible Shift.”    

Harvard's record at 9-0-1, a half game better than Penn State's 7-1 in the loss column. Penn State was nevertheless very clearly the consensus choice as Eastern champion amongst Eastern writers in 1919, and in fact Harvard was not considered to be among the top five teams of the East. Decades later, however, when people were selecting national champions for years past, Harvard's 9-0-1 record and Rose Bowl win 7-6 over Oregon, were were pretty much what they looked at. In these later years the opinion of the Eastern football powers and rankings are upside down of what they were back in 1919. Today Harvard is thought of as national champions of 1919, while Penn State is not even among the 4 teams listed in the NCAA Records Book at all.

Here is how some of the later day experts listed the 1919 winners of the 1919 season in the NCAA Records Book, all selecting long after the season had ended per the TipTop25.com website

• 9-0-1 Harvard: Helms, CFB Researchers (tie), Parke Davis (3-way tie), National Championship Foundation (3-way tie)
• 6-1 Illinois: CFB Researchers (tie), Parke Davis (3-way tie)
• 9-0 Notre Dame: Parke Davis (3-way tie), National Championship Foundation (3-way tie)
• 10-0 Texas A&M: National Championship Foundation (3-way tie)
   

Professional Champs of 1919

The Canton Bulldogs are considered by most experts as the top professional team in all of football for 1919. They again won the Ohio State title eventhough there was a change of ownership from Jack Cusack to Ralph Hay. Native American gridiron stars Jim Thorpe and Pete Calac were joined in the backfield by Joe Guyon. These three studs drove oppsing defenses crazy and pwered the Bulldogs past all opponents except for a 3 all tie with the Hammond All-Stars. That 9-0-1 record was better than any other especially for the fact that the knocked off the likes of Massillon, Akron and Hammond in a second meeting.

The banner photo is of 1919 football game action between Pitt and Geneva, from Boylin Studios. 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