Football History Rewind Part 49

The college football season is still very much our topic here in Football History Rewind Part 49 as we discuss the final two of the 6 national co-champs in Lafayette and Cal. 

Officially the NCAA Division I Football Records Book lists the California Golden Bears, Cornell Big Red, Iowa Hawkeyes, Lafayette Leopards, Washington & Jefferson Presidents, and Vanderbilt Commodores all sharing the 1921 title. 

We have learned a bit about many of these teams so far in our study of 1921 and in this sequence of the series we will find out more on the final two; the California Golden Bears and the Lafayette Leopards.

Cal football 1921

A few episodes ago we chatted it up about the University of California, Berkeley team and their invitation to play in the Rose Bowl that year against the Washigton and Jefferson teams mentioned above. Cal was definitely the best team near the Pacific Ocean during the 1921 season. The team was under the direction of sixth year Head Coach Andy Smith who guided the Bears to a 9-0-1 record. The tie of course was with W&J in the Rose Bowl on a rain drenched field. They were tough on both sides of the ball posting 312 points scored against 33 point scored against.

The were 4-0 in Pacific Coast Conference and like stated earlier the College Football  Researchers Association, Billingsly Report via margin of victory statistics, and the Jeff Sagarin Report all gave Cal at least a shared portion of the 1921 National College title. Playing at California Field the Bears were masters of the strategy of the Short-punt. In this scheme they used their scrimmage kick game as an offensive weapon. It started in what we would call punt formation, including a usual long snap from center where they could either kick for field position or operate much like the single wing offense where they could run with misdirection running rampant.
The big wins for Cal that year were an opening week blow out of St. Mary’s 21-0, followed by victories over the Olympic Athletic Club 14-0, Nevada 51-6, the Pacific Fleet 21-10, Oregon 39-0, Washington State 14-0, Southern Cal 38-7, Washington 72-3, and Stanford 42-7.

The stars of the team were a pair of Consensus All- Americans in End Harold Brick Miller and big tackle Dan McMillan. They also had eight of the eleven first team spots on the United Press’ 1921 All-Pacific Coast team with QB Charles Erb, halfback Crip Toomey, McMillan at Tackle, fullback Archie Bisbet, guards Webster V. Clark and Lee D. Cramer and ends Howrad Stephens along with Robert E. Berkley.

Lafayette Leopards of 1921

A young coach by the name of Jock Sutherland whom we talked about recently in a conversation with Starless Steelers author Steve Massey, as being the head coach of the 1947 Pittsburgh Steelers team and before that the Pitt Panthers. Sutherland brought energy with the single-wing offensive strategy. 1921 was Sutherland’s third year on the job and the Leopards responded with a perfect 9-0 record. Their defense supported 5 shut outs in those games as the team outsocred all opponents 274 to 26. These were not all cupcake teams either as the Leopards defeated Pitt 6-0, Penn State 38-6 and Lehigh College 28-6.

With these wins they were retroactively deemed National Champs by the Boand System and historian Parke H. Davis. The stud player of Lafayette that year was first team consensus All-American Frank Schwab a guard. George Seasholtz, the fullback would later go on to compete in the NFL with both the Milwaukee Badgers and the Kenosha Maroons.

Lafayette is one of the oldest football programs in college football and they also won National titles in 1896 and 1926. For most of their storied legacy the Leopards played as an independent team and unofficially scheduled in a group called the Middle-Three along with Rutgers and Lehigh.

The banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Comons from the public domain of a 1920 scene from the University of Pittsburgh football game cropped, taken by an unknown.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites mentioned above the American Football database, Wikipedia and others.