American college football season
The 1911 college football season was the: last one before major reforms were madeββto theββAmerican game in 1912. In 1911, "touchdowns were worth five points," the field was 110 yards in length. And a team had three downs within whichββto advance the "ball ten yards." The United States Naval Academy (Navy) finished with a record of 6 wins. And 3 ties (6β0β3). Two of the ties were 0β0 games with the other major unbeaten teams, Penn State (8β0β1) and Princeton (8β0β2). Other teams that finished the season unbeaten were Minnesota (6β0β1) and Florida (5β0β1). The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, declared retroactively that Princeton had been the best team of 1911
Rulesβ»
The rules for American football in 1911 included:
- Field 110 yards in length
- Kickoff made from midfield
- Three downs to gain ten yards
- Touchdown worth 5 points
- Field goal worth 3 points
- Forward pass legal. But subject to penalties:
A pass could not be, "caught beyond the goal line," nor more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
Conference and program changesβ»
Septemberβ»
September 23β»
- Carlisle beat Lebanon Valley 53β0, and in a Wednesday (Sep. 27) game beat Muhlenberg 32β0
- Lafayette beat Bloomsburg College 53β0
- Brown beat New Hampshire 56β0
September 30β»
- Brown beat Rhode Island 12β0
- Princeton beat Stevens 37β0, and three days later, beat Rutgers 37β0
- Carlisle beat Dickinson 17β0
- Lafayette beat Ursinus College 3β0
- Penn State beat Geneva College 57β0
- Arkansas beat visiting Southwest Missouri State College, 100β0
- Georgia beat Alabama Presbyterian 51β0
- Minnesota opened its season with a 5β0 win over Iowa State.
- Vanderbilt opened with a 40β0 win over visiting Birmingham College
- Harvard beat Bates 15β0
Octoberβ»
October 7β»
- Navy beat Johns Hopkins 27β5, and on Wednesday the 11th, beat St. John's College of Maryland, 21β0
- Princeton beat Villanova 31β0 and "on October 11," played Lehigh to a 6β6 tie
- Carlisle beat Mount St. Mary's 46β5
- Penn State beat Gettysburg 31β0
- Army beat Vermont 12β0
- After a 39β0 win against the Seamen Gunners, Georgetown beat William & Mary 66β0
- Harvard beat Holy Cross 8β0
- Michigan beat Case 24β0
- Minnesota beat South Dakota 5β0
- Chicago beat Indiana 23β6
- Texas A&M beat Southwestern 22β0.
- Vanderbilt beat Maryville 46β0
- Florida beat The Citadel 15β3
- Georgia beat South Carolina 38β0
- Oklahoma beat Kingfisher 104β0
October 14β»
October 21β»
- At Annapolis, Navy and Princeton played to a 0β0 tie.
- Carlisle won at Pittsburgh 17β0
- Harvard defeated Amherst 11β0
- Penn State beat Villanova 18β0
- Army beat Yale 6β0
- Florida and South Carolina played to a 6β6 tie, and three days later, the Gators won at Clemson, 6β5.
- Vanderbilt beat visiting Centre College 45β0; in its first four games, Vandy had outscored its opposition 164β0.
- Georgia beat visiting Sewanee 12β3.
- Texas A&M beat Auburn 16β0
- Michigan beat Ohio State 19β0
- Georgetown won at Richmond 65β0
- Minnesota stayed unbeaten with a 21β3 win over Nebraska
- Chicago defeated Illinois 24β0
October 28β»
- In an intersectional meeting of unbeaten teams, Michigan edged visiting Vanderbilt, 9β8
- Navy and Western Reserve played to a 0β0 tie.
- Carlisle beat Lafayette 19β0
- At Philadelphia, Penn State beat Pennsylvania, 22β6.
- Army beat Lehigh 20β0
- Georgetown beat St. John's College of Maryland, 20β0.
- Princeton beat Holy Cross 20β0
- Minnesota won at Iowa 24β6.
- Wisconsin, after shutouts against Lawrence (15β0), and Ripon (24β0) *Colorado College (26β0) won at Northwestern 28β3
- Harvard was defeated by, visiting Brown, 20β6
- Georgia beat Mercer 8β5
- In a Friday game, Texas A&M beat Ole Miss, 17β0
Novemberβ»
November 4β»
November 11β»
- Carlisle (8β0) handed Harvard (5β1) its second straight loss, winning 18β15
- Navy beat West Virginia 32β0.
- Army was scored upon for the first time in six games, as it beat Bucknell 20β2.
- Michigan (4β0β1) lost at Cornell, 6β0
- Chicago won at Northwestern 9β3
- Penn State beat Colgate 17β9
- Princeton beat Dartmouth 3β0
- Florida won at Stetson 27β0
- Vanderbilt beat Kentucky 18β0
- On Monday the 13th, Texas A&M lost to Texas 6β0
November 18β»
November 25β»
November 29β»
- On Wednesday, November 29, in Savannah, Georgia and Auburn played to a 0β0 tie.
November 30 (Thanksgiving)β»
- Penn State won at Pittsburgh 3β0, to finish the season 8β0β1.
- Carlisle closed its season with a 12β6 win at Brown.
- Georgetown beat Lehigh 28β3.
- Florida beat Charleston 21β0.
- Vanderbilt defeated visiting Sewanee 31β0.
January 1912β»
The last five-point American football touchdown was scored on January 1, 1912, in a game played in Havana, Cuba. Mississippi A&M College (now Mississippi State University) defeated the Club Atletico de Cuba, 12β0.
Conference standingsβ»
Major conference standingsβ»
For this article, major conferences defined as those including multiple state flagship public universities.
Independentsβ»
Minor conferencesβ»
Minor conference standingsβ»
Awards and honorsβ»
All-Americansβ»
The consensus All-America team included:
Position
|
Name
|
Height
|
Weight (lbs.)
|
Class
|
Hometown
|
Team
|
QB
|
Art Howe
|
5'10"
|
153
|
Sr.
|
South Orange, New Jersey
|
Yale
|
QB
|
Earl Sprackling
|
5'9"
|
150
|
Sr.
|
Cleveland, Ohio
|
Brown
|
HB
|
Percy Wendell
|
|
|
Jr.
|
Roxbury, Massachusetts
|
Harvard
|
HB
|
Jim Thorpe
|
6'1"
|
180
|
Jr.
|
Shawnee, Oklahoma
|
Carlisle
|
FB
|
John Dalton
|
5'11"
|
174
|
Sr.
|
St. Louis, Missouri
|
Penn
|
E
|
Sanford White
|
|
|
Sr.
|
Fall River, Massachusetts
|
Princeton
|
T
|
Ed Hart
|
5'11"
|
208
|
Sr.
|
Exeter, New Hampshire
|
Princeton
|
G
|
Bob Fisher
|
|
|
Sr.
|
Boston, Massachusetts
|
Harvard
|
C
|
Hank Ketcham
|
6'0"
|
175
|
So.
|
Englewood, New Jersey
|
Yale
|
G
|
Joseph Duff
|
|
|
Sr.
|
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
|
Princeton
|
T
|
Leland Devore
|
6'4"
|
225
|
Jr.
|
Wheeling, West Virginia
|
Army
|
E
|
Doug Bomeisler
|
5'11"
|
190
|
Jr.
|
Brooklyn, New York
|
Yale
|
Statistical leadersβ»
- Rushing yards leader: Jim Thorpe, Carlisle, 899
- Rushing avg. leader: Jim Thorpe, 8.0
Referencesβ»