1897 Harvard Crimson football team

Summary

The 1897 Harvard Crimson football team represented Harvard University in the 1897 college football season. The Crimson finished with a 10–1–1 record and shut out 10 of 12 opponents under first-year head coach William Cameron Forbes, who later served as Governor-General of the Philippines (1908–13) and Ambassador of the United States to Japan (1930–32). The 1897 team won its first ten games by a combined 227-5 score. It then closed the season playing to a scoreless tie with Yale and losing by a 15-6 score against Penn.[1][2]

1897 Harvard Crimson football
ConferenceIndependent
Record10–1–1
Head coach
CaptainNorman Cabot
Home stadiumSoldiers' Field
Seasons
← 1896
1898 →
1897 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Penn     15 0 0
Princeton     10 1 0
Washington & Jefferson     10 1 0
Yale     9 0 2
Buffalo     9 1 0
Harvard     10 1 1
Army     6 1 1
Vermont     3 0 2
Lafayette     9 2 1
Drexel     6 2 1
Colgate     5 2 1
Dickinson     7 3 2
Swarthmore     7 3 2
Fordham     2 1 1
Cornell     5 3 1
Syracuse     5 3 1
Brown     7 4 0
Carlisle     6 4 0
Boston College     4 3 0
Holy Cross     4 3 1
Bucknell     3 3 1
NYU     3 3 0
Temple     3 3 0
Trinity (CT)     4 4 1
Wesleyan     6 6 0
Tufts     6 7 0
Geneva     3 4 1
Pittsburgh College     3 5 2
Villanova     3 5 1
Penn State     3 6 0
Amherst     2 6 2
Frankin & Marshall     2 6 2
Lehigh     3 7 0
New Hampshire     2 5 0
Rutgers     2 6 0
Western Univ. Penn.     1 3 0

Two Harvard players received consensus honors on the 1897 College Football All-America Team: center Allan Doucette and halfback Benjamin Dibblee. Other notable players on Harvard's 1897 team included end Norman Cabot and tackle Malcolm Donald.

Schedule edit

DateOpponentSiteResultAttendanceSource
October 2 WilliamsW 20–02,000[3]
October 6 Bowdoin
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 24–0 [4]
October 9 Dartmouth
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA (rivalry)
W 13–05,000[5]
October 13 Amherst
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 38–0 [6]
October 16at ArmyW 10–02,000[7]
October 20 Newton Athletic Association
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 24–0 [8]
October 23 Brown
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 18–08,000[9][10]
October 26 Newtowne Athletic Club
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 22–01,500[11]
October 30 Cornell
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 24–56,000[12]
November 3 Wesleyan
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 34–01,200[13][14]
November 13 Yale
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA (rivalry)
T 0–025,000[15]
November 20at Penn L 6–1525,000[16]

References edit

  1. ^ "1897 Harvard Crimson Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  2. ^ "Harvard Football Yearly Records". GoCrimson.com. Harvard University. Archived from the original on August 14, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  3. ^ "Harvard 20, Williams 0: Regular Football Season Opened on Soldiers Field". The Boston Globe. October 3, 1897. p. 1 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  4. ^ "Harvard Wins Easily: Play Against Bowdoin Hardly Up to Expected Standard". The Boston Globe. October 7, 1897. p. 9 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  5. ^ "Harvard Wins Easily: Dartmouth Is Outgeneraled and Beaten By Score of 13 to 0". The Boston Globe. October 10, 1897. p. 1 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  6. ^ "Harvard Scores Well: Amherst Gets Near Crimson's Line Only Once in the Game". The Boston Globe. October 15, 1897. pp. 1, 4 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  7. ^ "Hot Work on the Gridiron: Harvard Defeats West Point 10-0 After a Stubborn Contest". The Boston Globe. October 17, 1897. p. 1 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  8. ^ "Surpasses Yale: Harvard Team Piles Up 24 Points Against Newton". Boston Post. October 21, 1897. p. 3 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  9. ^ "Fierce Onslaughts: Brown's Line Was Unable to Withstand Harvard's Determined Rushes". The Boston Globe. October 24, 1897. p. 1 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.(attendance 8,000 at Soldiers Field)
  10. ^ "Harvard's Football Giants Keep Brown From Scoring: Crimson's Men Piled Up 18 Points, and Their Line Was Impenetrable". Boston Post. October 24, 1897. pp. 1, 3 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  11. ^ "Weak Showing: Harvard's Play Against Newtowne a Discouraging Exhibition; Final Score Was 22 to 0". Boston Post. October 27, 1897. p. 3 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  12. ^ "Harvard Wins: Crimson Football Team Defeats Cornell's Brave Warriors, 24 to 5". Boston Post. October 31, 1897. pp. 1, 3 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  13. ^ "Easy Victory: Harvard Eleven Defeats Wesleyan 34 to 0". Boston Post. October 4, 1897. p. 3 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.(1,200 attendance)
  14. ^ "Harvard Plays Well: Some Encouragement From The Game With Wesleyan Which Ends 34-0". The Boston Globe. November 4, 1897. p. 1 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  15. ^ Langdon Smith (November 14, 1897). "Harvard and Yale Tie: Neither Side Able to Score a Point During 70 Minutes of Fierce Play". The Boston Globe. p. 1 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.
  16. ^ "Pennsylvania Lowered Fair Harvard's Colors: In a Pretty Contest Witnessed by a Crowd of Twenty-Five Thousand People". The Times (Philadelphia). November 21, 1897. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.