FOOTBALL: COLLEGE

"Numerous and Major."

"There is a firm feeling that we have turned the corner when it comes to major violations. We are getting on top of this integrity issue.…Ninety-nine percent of everything that is going on in intercollegiate athletics today is exceptionally positive." Such was the summation of NCAA, executive director Dick Schultz at the 1988 national convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). But given the sequence of events that unfolded in Norman, Oklahoma, in January 1989, it became difficult to credit Schultz's confident assertion. The University of Oklahoma finished atop the polls following the 1985 season, thus winning the mythical national championship, and narrowly missed winning another crown in 1987 when they lost the 1988 Orange Bowl to the University of Miami, 20-16 on New Year's Day. The winningest college football program in the 1950s and the 1970s, the Sooners of the 1980s were a brash, flamboyant, and talented lot, shaped in the image of their carefree and confident head coach, Barry Switzer. But Oklahoma was soon to become an unhappy example of the dangers of success. In December 1988 the football program was placed on three years probation by the NCAA Committee on Infractions for "numerous and major" recruiting violations. The NCAA declared that "for at least several years, the university has failed to exercise appropriate institutional control." Indeed, Switzer freely admitted, "We don't inhibit, muzzle, or restrict our players. You can't manage kids that way. I don't want to be managed that way." After the disciplinary measures were handed down, the Oklahoma program spun completely out of control. On 13 January 1989 redshirt freshman Jerry Parks shot sophomore offensive lineman Zarak Peters in the chest after a late-night argument. Eight days later three more Oklahoma players were under arrest, this time for allegedly raping a woman in the athletic dorm. Then, just five days later, the FBI brought star quarterback Charles Thompson into custody, charging him with selling $1,400 worth of cocaine to an undercover agent. As the athletic department desperately tried to condemn the crimes as a series of "isolated incidents," the public perception flourished that Oklahoma was a lawless program where the players ran the show. Ironically, had any of the criminal charges constituted an NCAA rules infraction, Switzer's team could conceivably have received the "death penalty," and the football program would have been shut down entirely. These criminal activities, however, fell outside of NCAA jurisdiction. Driven by the grandiose expectations of alumni, boosters, and fans, Switzer, who resigned in 1989, was fond of saying that "Bud Wilkinson [OU coach from 1947 to 1963] created this monster. I just have to keep feeding it. I like feeding it. It is exciting." He apparently never foresaw how monstrous it would all become.

Death Penalty

On 25 February 1987 the NCAA did hand down its first "death penalty," which was meted out to the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Mustangs. Forced to suspend football operations for the entire 1987 season and allowed only seven games (all on the road) for the 1988 campaign, the university voluntarily canceled that season as well. The sanctions also included limitations on off-campus recruiting and scholarships through the 1989 football season. The NCAA's Committee on Infractions designed the penalties "to compensate for the great competitive advantage that Southern Methodist has gained through long-term abuses and a pattern of purposeful violation of NCAA regulations." Never before had the NCAA suspended a football program, but rarely had college athletics seen a program so determined to circumvent the rules. The Mustangs had been caught cheating for a record seventh time; worse yet, the revelation that an unnamed booster had paid thirteen SMU players $61,000 from a slush fund—with the approval of prominent members of the athletic department—came while SMU was already on probation for infractions cited in 1985. According to a 1985 NCAA mandate any school found guilty of rules violations twice in the same sport within a five-year period could receive a one- or two-year "death penalty" sentence. Watching as SMU's first-string players rushed to sign with other prominent universities, Mustang supporters quickly recognized the long-term effects of the ban. One prominent booster asked ruefully, "My Lord, they killed the program. Why do they pick on one small school all the time?" When SMU football did return in 1989, the team was manned by a collection of freshmen, walk-ons, and a few remaining veterans, and they suffered a series of humiliating defeats while trying to compete in the tough Southwest Conference. Whereas the University of Oklahoma had seemingly handed control over to a collection of renegade players, SMU was perceived to be in the grip of affluent alumni. One backup quarterback put it most simply, "They were trying to buy us a better program and they bought us no program."

Rushing

In an era of increasingly sophisticated offensive schemes and pro-style passing attacks, many college football coaches still relied on the game's most elemental play, the handoff, and the 1980s saw a procession of phenomenal running backs. In 1980 the University of Georgia earned the mythical national championship behind the powerful running of a teenager named Herschel Walker. Built like a prototypical fullback, Walker possessed the acceleration of a world-class sprinter. In three seasons he gained 5,259 yards, won the 1982 Heisman Trophy, and seemed destined to break Tony Dorsett's record of 6,083 career yards, but he left school before his senior season to sign a multimillion-dollar contract with the newly emergent United States Football League. Despite his accomplishments Walker was upstaged during his sophomore year by the exploits of Marcus Allen, another in the long line of explosive backs at the University of Southern California (USC). Allen's sleek, graceful running style and slashing moves reminded many of O. J. Simpson, and he put up statistics that surpassed the former USC great, becoming the first back to gain over 2,000 yards rushing in a season (2,342 in 1981). The middle of the decade saw the arrival of another Walker-like talent in Auburn's Bo Jackson, who won the 1985 Heisman despite missing two games due to injury. An extraordinary athlete who would go on to star in both the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball, Jackson parlayed his various talents and charismatic personality into a national media phenomenon with his "Bo knows" commercials for Nike shoes. Finally, there was Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders, who never seemed to get hit cleanly, except when he lowered his shoulder and surprised defensive backs who got in his way. Small and muscular, Sanders spun, stutter-stepped, and danced his way to an astonishing 2,628 yards rushing in 1988 (including four games with more than 300 yards) and a record 39 touchdowns, While all of these great backs received Heisman Trophies (Sanders and Walker in their junior years), only Walker was able to lay claim to a national championship ring.

Juggernauts

Perhaps the richness of college football in the 1980s was best expressed in the distinctive styles of its two best teams, the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Miami Hurricanes, who together won five national championships during the decade. Penn State's longtime coach, Joe Paterno, ran a clean and disciplined program; his teams, especially his championship squads in 1982 and 1986, relied on a strong, sound defense and a rugged, error-free offense that methodically conquered its opponents. While Paterno could be curmudgeonly at times, his teams earned the respect and admiration of the media and fans alike. On the other hand the Hurricanes, champions in 1983, 1987, and 1989, were perhaps the brashest, most flamboyant team in the history of the college game. Before the 1987 Fiesta Bowl against Penn State, a dozen Miami players showed up in Arizona sporting combat fatigues, and the entire team walked out of a pregame steak fry with the Nittany Lions. On the field the Hurricanes utilized their frightening team speed and sophisticated passing scheme (led by future pro quarter-backs Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Vinnie Testaverde, and Steve Walsh) to demoralize opponents, often rubbing salt in the wounds with trash talk and unsportsmanlike behavior. Nevertheless, they were the closest thing to a football dynasty in the 1980s, compiling the second highest winning percentage during the decade with an 87-19 record (behind only Nebraska's 93-17 record). Miami seemingly contended for every title after the 1983 season, when they upset the highly favored Nebraska Cornhuskers in the season-ending Orange Bowl to capture their first NCAA crown. However, the unsavory (and occasionally criminal) exploits of the Miami team over the years provoked a continual barrage of stern condemnation, including a 1995 cover story in Sports Illustrated that called for the dismantling of the football program. In a long open letter addressed to University of Miami president Tad Foote II, Alexander Wolff wrote, "Your football team is malignant, recidivist, and scarcely integrated into your campus. Your city has the Dolphins and hardly needs a jayvee pro team."

The Pass

Miami was beatable, however. Just ask Doug Flutie. Standing 5-feet 9-inches in a game routinely dominated by massive, muscled bodies, he hardly seemed the stuff of legend, and yet when Flutie began flinging the ball to his sure-handed receiving corps, he made up for his supposed lack of stature. One of the most prolific quarterbacks in history, Flutie won the 1984 Heisman Trophy while leading Boston College back to national prominence. When the Eagles met defending national champion Miami on 23 November 1984, the diminutive Flutie was already the favorite to win college football's most prestigious award. His performance that afternoon insured that Flutie would be remembered for more than simply his statistics and accolades. The Hurricanes were coming off one of the most devastating single-game collapses in college football history when they blew a 31-0 halftime lead over Maryland and lost 42-40. Flutie and Miami sophomore phenom Bernie Kosar ignited an offensive explosion, combining to throw for 919 yards in a game in which the two teams produced 92 points. In the game's final minutes Kosar led the Hurricanes on a gutsy 79-yard drive to score the go-ahead touchdown with twenty-eight seconds left. But then Flutie and his receiver/roommate Gerard Phelan pulled off the decade's most improbable bit of magic. On the game's last play Flutie scrambled right with Miami's Je-rome Brown in pursuit. After sidestepping the lunging defensive lineman, Flutie launched a pass that traveled 64 yards in the air and was caught by Phelan, who had somehow slipped behind the Hurricanes' last line of defense. Phelan afterward speculated that Miami freshman defensive back Darrell Fullington had misplayed the ball: "He must have thought Doug couldn't throw it that far." Fullington was guilty of a common sin, selling Flutie short. Flutie set the record straight, "I can throw 75 yards if I have to. Actually, I had to take a little off it to keep it in the end zone."

Futility

Not once between 12 November 1983 and 1 October 1988 did the Columbia University Lions pull out a victory in dramatic, Flutiesque fashion. In fact, the Lions did not celebrate a victory of any fashion during that five-year span, thus setting the all-time Division I record for futility: 44 consecutive losses. Sadly, an entire class of Columbia football players passed their college careers without experiencing the sweet taste of a win or even a tie. The Columbia streak of ignominy eclipsed the decade's other prominent losing streak, Northwestern's 34 consecutive defeats from 1979 to 1982. Northwestem's streak was understandable, for it was a small private school with demanding academic standards trying to survive in the cutthroat Big Ten Conference. Columbia competed on a more level playing field in the Ivy League, where athletic scholarships are not available and freshman are not allowed to play, but it had to struggle to entice quality Division I athletes to attend America's most urban campus, in the heart of New York City. To hear one rabid Lions fan tell it, they suffered the larger philosophic quandaries of their liberal, well-heeled, college community: "To liberals, to beat somebody on the field is to be morally aggressive. The entire liberal philosophy is based on passivity. You're better if you're a victim. If we ever won the Ivy League title, the administration would have us investigated by the ACLU!" Despite these complications Columbia finally won a game on 8 October 1988, defeating Princeton 16-13. After the gun sounded a weary band of Lions finally added their roar to the din of America's loudest city.

The CFA

Few people had heard of the College Foot-ball Association (CFA) before 1981. But when the organization that represented 61 major football powers approved its own $180-million television contract with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) that summer, the CFA challenged the NCAA's stranglehold on network television rights. Formed in 1977 as a lobbying body within the NCAA, the CFA allowed member schools the opportunity to pitch their "product" directly to the networks, eliminating the NCAA's "middleman" role. Previously the NCAA negotiated all television sports packages involving the 139 Division I-A schools, but would not guarantee which of the member schools would appear on television. Given that the CFA included squads from every major conference except the Big Ten and Pacific Ten as well as independent powers such as Notre Dame and Penn State, the NBC deal left the NCAA with few viable options for attracting a national audience. To make matters worse for the NCAA, on 27 June 1984 the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that college sports' governing body had violated federal antitrust law by preventing individual schools from negotiating their own contracts. The majority opinion, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, held that the NCAA acted as a cartel because college football constituted a "separate market for which there is no reasonable substitute," and was thus liable for restraint of trade under antitrust acts. Stevens wrote that under the NCAA's existing television contract "individual competitors lose their freedom to compete. Price is higher and output lower than they should otherwise be, and both are unresponsive to consumer preference. This latter point is perhaps the most significant, since Congress designed the Sherman (Anti-Trust) Act as a consumer welfare prescription." As a consequence of this decision Notre Dame, a powerful football program with a national fan base, was able to sign its own five-year television deal with NBC in 1990, thus separating itself from even the CFA's deal.

Good Things in Small Packages

Some exceptional football players competing for Division I-AA and II teams fell outside the often complicated purview of the CFA and NCAA television contracts. While Herschel, Marcus, and Bo eventually entered America's consciousness on a celebrated first-name-only basis, thousands of fans at smaller colleges eagerly followed the exploits of their own stars. Typically these players grabbed the main-stream media's attention with statistical feats such as Neil Lomax's seven touchdown passes in a single quarter in 1980, or Willie Totten's 56 touchdown passes in the 1984 season, or Johnny Bailey's 6,320 career yards rushing from 1986 to 1989. While critics quickly noted that Division I-AA and II football lacked the overall talent of its more prominent cousin, many coaches at small schools saw their players as works-in-progress. As one coach put it, "The big schools may get the blue-chippers, but we make the blue-chippers." Furthermore, a surprising number of stars on the professional level toiled in the intimate confines of smaller-college stadiums. The league that nurtured Jerry Rice—the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC)—also produced pro football receiving greats Otis Taylor, Charlie Joiner, Harold Jackson, Harold Carmichael, and Trumaine Johnson. Rice held almost every receiving record on the NCAA books by the end of the 1980s, including most catches in a game (24 versus Southern University in 1983), most career yards receiving (4,693), and most career touchdown catches (50). Blessed with big, powerful hands strengthened from working with his father, a brick mason, Rice could "catch a BB in the dark" according to his Mississippi Valley State coach, Archie Cooley. Operating in the "Satellite Express" offense designed by Cooley and run by Totten, Rice thrived in a wide-open attack that was at once a prodigious offensive force, an entertaining spectacle, and a savvy recruiting tool. Later in the decade another small-school athlete captured the media's attention and even garnered some of the year-end Heisman Trophy hype. Holy Cross's Gordie Lockbaum became the first Division I player to play both offense and defense since Leroy Keyes in 1968. The Crusaders' starting halfback and cornerback, Lockbaum also spent time each game at flanker and as a kick returner and generally served as a special-teams demon", breaking wedges and blocking punts. Lockbaum's versatility even made the team's quarterback noticeably paranoid. "Every once in a while I check the sideline to see if Gordo's warming up his arm," said Jeff Wiley. Lockbaum was no slouch at any of his positions, averaging nearly six yards per carry, seventeen yards per reception, and once recording 22 tackles in a game against Army. Being on the field for 80 to 85 percent of a game's plays suited the modest Lockbaum. "I love it. Anybody would love it," said Lockbaum. "Not only do you get to handle the ball, but you get to intercept passes, hit guys, blitz. It's great." In an age of specialization, Lockbaum proved to be a throwback, and his career suggested that football on the small-college level was indeed a breed apart.

Sources:

Willie Morris, The Courting of Marcus Dupree (New York: Doubleday, 1983);

Robert M. Ours, College Football Encyclopedia: The Authoritative Guide to 124 Years of College Football (Rocklin, Cal.: Prima, 1994);

Tom Perrin, Football: A College History (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1987);

Murray Sperber, College Sports Inc.: The Athletic Department vs. The University (New York: Holt, 1990);

Rick Telander, The Hundred Yard Lie: The Corruption of College Football and What We Can Do to Stop It (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989).

FOOTBALL: COLLEGE

Post-World War I

Football in the 1920s was the quintessential college game. Certain strategies had been developing since before World War I to encourage a more wideopen style of play and to create spectator excitement, although the most important strategies actually had been available before 1910. Yet many coaches and players of the 1910s dismissed the forward pass as unmanly and unsportsmanlike until Gus Dorias threw to Knute Rockne in a 1 November 1913 game with powerhouse Army and helped Notre Dame pull off a 35-13 upset. It took the 1920s to turn such strategies into electrifying plays that became a necessary feature of every game. This new approach to football appealed as much to the general public as it did to students and alumni. In 1927 thirty million spectators paid more than $50 million for tickets to watch the September-to-Thanksgiving season of games. Huge stadiums were built that held seventy thousand and eighty thousand spectators. Voices of discontent accompanied the rise in spectator zeal and investment, but these voices complained not so much about the physical punishment to players or about its effects on academic environments but instead about its possible commercialization of an allegedly pure amateur amusement. College football challenged professional baseball as the nation's true spectator sport. It became part and perhaps symbol of exciting, noisy campus life during the decade and spread its intoxicating charm well beyond red brick buildings and Gothic spires.

Eastern Bias

Probably because of the game's origins in an intercollegiate rivalry between Rutgers and Princeton, the Ivy League football teams were long held to be the nation's most important. In 1920 twenty-one of the thirty-three players selected for first-, second-, and third-team All-America honors were from eastern colleges, while seven came from the Midwest, three from the South, and two from the Pacific Coast. Newspapermen in the large eastern metropolitan centers focused their attention on the Ivys with only a passing nod to the rest of the country. In 1920 these writers unanimously voted Princeton, led by All-Americans Don Lourie at quarterback and Stan Keck at tackle, the best team of the year. Princeton's 1922 team, coached by Bill Roper, captained by guard Mel Dickenson, and quarterbacked by Johnny Gorman, was dubbed the "Team of Destiny." Army was undefeated in 1922, and Cadet Edgar Garbisch was selected as an All-America center. In 1923 every team in the Ivy League was building .or had built a new, larger stadium, and during that same year Yale went undefeated because of the gridiron heroics of Century Milstead, as did Gil Dobie's Cornell team because of the play of George Pfann. Yet the rise of football greats in the rest of the country foretold the gradual decline in preeminence of eastern teams.

RED GRANGE'S COLLEGE
GRIDIRON RECORD

Source:

Gene Schoor, with Henry Gilfond, Red Grange: Football's Greatest Halflack (New York: Messner, 1952).

Midwest

The midwestern universities—Notre Dame, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Chicago, and others—experienced an embarrassment of riches in legendary coaches and players during the decade: Notre Dame's Rockne directed George Gipp in 1920 and the Four Horsemen from 1922 to 1924; from 1923 to 1925 Bob Zuppke and Red Grange dazzled Illinois's opponents; Howard Jones coached Iowa's Duke Slater and Aubrey Devine in 1921 and 1922; Michigan's Fielding H. (Hurry Up) Yost made his quarterback Benny Friedman and his end Bennie Oosterbaan the first famous passing combination in college football, particularly during the 1925 season; Amos Alonzo Stagg, football coach at the University of Chicago from 1892 to 1933, directed his Maroons to the 1924 Big Ten championship; in 1927, 1928, and 1929 Dr. Clarence Spears's Minnesota offense centered around his great end, tackle, and fullback Bronislau "Bronco" Nagurski. These legendary coaches and players helped refocus the sports pages away from regional to national coverage.

South and West

While the midwestern schools dramatically proclaimed their prominence, the South and the West, too, had their share of coach and player glory. The South's elite became Tennessee, Alabama, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Tech. Tennessee coach Bob Neyland from 1926 through 1935 established a record of seventy-five wins, seven losses, and five ties. In 1925 and 1926 Wallace Wade brought Alabama national prominence. The first southern team to play in the Rose Bowl, Alabama showcased quarterback Pooley Hubert, halfback Johnny Mack Brown, and passer Grant Gillis, who led in the defeat of Washington 20-19 in 1926. The following year Alabama and Stanford played to a 7-7 tie in the same bowl. Vanderbilt was undefeated through the 1922 and 1923 seasons, and coach Dan McGugin's best player was end Lynn Bomar, who helped Vandy upset Minnesota 16-0 in 1924. Losing their previous coach, John Heisman, to the University of Pennsylvania, Georgia Tech in 1920 hired new coach Bill Alexander, who accumulated a record of twenty-three wins, four losses, and one tie in his first three seasons and stayed at Tech for twenty-five years. His star back was an outstanding runner, David "Red" Barron. In the West the University of California, Berkeley's "Wonder Team" of 1920 introduced a decade of such teams. Coach Andy Smith developed an extraordinary passing combination in quarter-back Harold "Brick" Muller and running back Howard "Brodie" Stephens, who contributed to California's 28-0 victory over Ohio State in the 1921 Rose Bowl. In 1923, though undefeated, California declined to play at Pasadena, giving the University of Southern California's team of Elmer "Gloomy Gus" Henderson national prominence. University of Washington teams, starring George Wilson and Elmer Tesreau in the backfield, gave their coach, Enoch Bagshaw, an 11-1 1923 record; they tied Navy 14-14 in the 1 January 1924 Rose Bowl. The coaching legend Glenn Scobie "Pop" Warner, who began his career at Stanford in 1924, attained national eminence as did his fullback Ernie Nevers. The single most famous (or infamous) event in Western Conference and college football history came when California's Roy Riegels picked up a fumble and ran the wrong way in a play that set up Georgia Tech's 8-7 victory in the 1 January 1929 Rose Bowl.

The Southwest

Football in the southwestern region of the country did not gain national distinction until late in the decade, particularly when Southern Methodist University's "Flying Circus" nearly upset powerful Army on 6 October 1928; coached by Ray Morrison, SMU's Redman Hume passed to end Sammy Reed in a dazzle of plays that outmaneuvered the Cadets throughout the game, though SMU lost 13-14. The Southwest Conference's greatest player of the decade was Texas A&M's halfback Joel Hunt, who became an all-conference choice from 1925 to 1928; coached by the wonderfully named Dana Xenophon "D. X." Bible, the Aggies had up-and-down seasons throughout the 1920s. Edward "Doc" Stewart's 1923 University of Texas team was considered by many to be the uncrowned champion of the conference; undefeated but twice tied, Texas had a great running back, Oscar Eckhardt. However, the Southwest Conference would have to wait for Texas Christian's Sammy Baugh to arrive in the mid 1930s before they received the national recognition they deserved.

The Great American Game

In all parts of the country, college football gained momentum with each season. The broadcasting of games over radio and the showing of filmed highlights in local theaters helped advance the sport beyond the individual campuses and well beyond the confines of a mere game. In his 1928 Harpers Weekly article, "The Great God Football," John R. Tunis correctly described the elevation in the 1920s of football to the level of art, science, combat, and religion. Tunis writes: "For where is the game to thrill and move the observer as can our modern football, where is the game to bring your heart up suddenly as the back catches a punt in an open field, sidesteps a charging end, swings past another, straight-arms a third, and sets out at last a free man while the stands rise with a spontaneous roar and the goal posts loom directly ahead? Where is the game to bring forth the art of war with none of its destruction, to combine strength and skill, strategy and science? Football in its place, football as a game, has no rivals; with all its faults it is much too fine a sport and much too splendid an entertainment to lose.… In short, why not take football as what it is: The Great American Game?"

Sources:

Dr. L. H. Baker, Football: Facts and Figures (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1945);

Harold Claassen and Steve Boda, eds., Encyclopedia of Football, third edition, (New York: Ronald Press, 1963);

Braven Dyer, "Football in the Far West," in Sport's Golden Age, edited by Allison Danzig and Peter Brandwein (New York: Harper, 1948);

Weldon Hart, "Football in the Southwest/' in Sport's Golden Age, edited by Danzig and Brandwein (New York: Harper, 1948);

Fred Russell, "Football in the South," in Sport's Golden Age, edited by Danzig and Brandwein (New York: Harper, 1948);

Preston W. Slosson, "The Business of Sport," in The Great Crusade and After 1914-1928 (New York: Macmillan, 1930);

John R. Tunis, "The Great God Football," Harper's Weekly (November 1928): 742-752;

Arch Ward, "Football in the Middle West," in Sport's Golden Age, edited by Danzig and Brandwein (New York: Harper, 1948);

Stanley Woodward, "The Football Panorama and Football in the East," in Sport's Golden Age, edited by Danzig and Brandwein (New York: Harper, 1948).

FOOTBALL: COLLEGE

Changing a Brutal Game

The game of football was still going through fundamental change in the early years of the twentieth century. The game's brutality—eighteen collegiate players were killed in 1905—caused President Theodore Roosevelt to threaten to outlaw the sport and led to new rules, such as the creation of a neutral zone between offensive and defensive lines, the increase of yardage required for a first down from five to ten yards, and the legalization of the forward pass. The changes did not stem the violence, though, as there were 113 fatalities between 1905 and 1910. In 1910 seven men were required on the line of scrimmage and such practices as the flying tackle, the interlocking of arms in running interference, and the pushing and pulling of the ball carrier to advance the ball were deemed illegal. Also, the football game was divided into four quarters of fifteen minutes each, with a one-minute break between the first and second and third and fourth quarters and a thirty-minute break between halves. In 1912 teams were allowed four downs to achieve a first down; an end zone was created behind each goal; and the value of a touch-down increased from five to six points. The evolving rules helped to change the character of the game. Although football remained a brutal sport throughout the 1910s, injuries and deaths declined, especially as new types of protective equipment, such as improved helmets and pads, were introduced.

Harvard Leads the Ivy League

In the 1910s Ivy League football teams continued to set the standard for college play, as they had since the late nineteenth century. From 1908 to 1916, Harvard University, coached by Percy Haughton, dominated the Ivy League, posting a record of seventy-one wins, seven losses, and five ties. In 1910, 1912, and 1913, the Crimson won the national title, going without a loss in 1912 and 1913. For Haughton the especially memorable year was 1912, as Harvard spoiled both Princeton's and Yale's bids for undefeated seasons. In 1913 Harvard's strength came from the leg of Charlie Brickley, a superbly accurate kicker who scored five field goals to defeat Yale. In 1914 Harvard destroyed Yale by the score of 36-0, despite the efforts of Yale's new coach Frank Hinkey, a former Yale defensive standout. (As a player Hinkey had won the nickname "Tonowanda Terror" because he hailed from the Tonowanda region of upstate New York and was known for terrorizing offenses.) In 1915 the outcome of the Harvard-Yale encounter was even more devastating, as Harvard won 41-0. Harvard would have enjoyed another undefeated season in 1915 had it not played Cornell University. Buttressed by the play of running back Charlie Barrett and receiver Murray Shelton, Cornell defeated Harvard 10-0, going on to an undefeated season and the national championship.

The Rise of Notre Dame

The decade also witnessed the rise of Notre Dame, one of the most dominant college football teams of the twentieth century. In 1911 and 1912, Notre Dame enjoyed undefeated seasons under coach Jack Marks, a former Dartmouth football standout. Marks relied upon a strong running game, but he was succeeded in 1913 by Jesse Harper, who utilized the forward pass to put Notre Dame in the forefront of college football. In that year Notre Dame stunned Army with the forward pass, as quarterback Gus Dorais completed 13 of 17 passes for 243 yards, including several throws to the sure-handed Knute Rockne, in a 35-13 victory. In one play Rockne, running down the field for a pass, stumbled and fell but quickly got up and turned around, directly facing Dorais, who threw the ball to him. The Army defenders had abandoned Rockne after he fell, leaving him open for Dorais's pass. The play may have inspired the "button hook," in which the receiver races downfield then stops quickly to catch the ball. Following Harper's retirement in 1917, Rockne, who had become a chemistry instructor at Notre Dame, became the football coach. His first year as coach produced a 3-1-2 record, before the sport was canceled until 1921 because of World War I. Rockne then coached Notre Dame until 1930, posting a career coaching record of 103 wins, 12 losses, and 5 ties.

IVY LEAGUE FOOTBALL RIVALRIES

The 1910s marked the last great decade of Ivy League football. Yale, led by Walter Camp, dominated college football throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the 1910s, under Percy Haughton, Harvard dominated the Ivy League. Intense rivalries developed among the schools, especially Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

Source:

Frank G. Mcnkc, The Encyclopedia of Sporti, fourth revised edition (New York: Barnes, 1969)

The Western Conference

While Michigan and Chicago were the strongest teams of the Big Ten Conference of the Midwest in the previous decade, other powers, especially Illinois, Minnesota, and Ohio State, came to the fore in the 1910s. In 1913 Robert Zuppke, who had been a Wisconsin second-stringer, became the coach at the University of Illinois. The Illini caught national attention that year by holding Purdue to a scoreless tie. In 1914 Illinois had an undefeated season, scoring 224 points and holding opponents to 22. After posting another undefeated season in 1915, Illinois slumped in 1916 and 1917, rising back to the top of the Western Conference in 1918 and 1919. The Illini's brightest moment in 1916 came against a strong Minnesota team, which had in its four games that season scored 236 points. In a game featuring precision passing from Bart Macomber to Dutch Sternaman, Illinois defeated Minnesota by the score of 14-9. Undeterred by the loss to Illinois, Minnesota won its last two games with scores of 54-0 over Wisconsin and 49-0 over Chicago. Despite its record, Minnesota lost the Big Ten Conference championship to the Ohio State Buckeyes, who enjoyed an undefeated season under coach Dr. John W. Wilce. Ohio State enjoyed yet another undefeated season in 1917.

Heisman and Georgia Tech

The credit for Georgia Tech's emergence as the best college football team in the South was given to John Heisman, an 1892 University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate, who chose to coach football teams rather than practice law. After enjoying successful coaching stints at Oberlin College, Akron University, Auburn University, and Clemson University, Heisman joined Georgia Tech in 1904 and built the Engineers into a national power. In 1915 Georgia Tech started a thirty-two-game winning streak that lasted more than five seasons. In 1916 Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland College 222-0, the most lopsided score in the history of college football. Georgia Tech gained national acclaim in 1917 by shutting out the University of Pennsylvania 41-0 and clinched the national championship by defeating Auburn University 68-7. Heisman, who coached Georgia Tech until 1919, posted a record of 101-28-6, before becoming football coach at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.

Washington Leads the West

The University of Washington dominated football on the West Coast during the decade. Washington's success stemmed from the coaching of Gilmour Dobie, who had been the quarter-back the University of Minnesota from 1899 to 1902. After successfully coaching North Dakota State University to two consecutive undefeated seasons in 1906 and 1907, he joined the University of Washington in 1908. Under Dobie, the Huskies did not lose a game from 1908 to 1916; during this remarkable stretch they won fifty-eight games, including thirty-nine in succession, and tying three. Washington's streak, which started in 1907 before Dobie's tenure, extended to sixty-three by 1917, and remains the longest in college football. During the whole of its streak Washington did not have the opportunity to play the University of California at Berkeley or Stanford University. Because of the brutality of the game, these teams chose to play rugby instead of football from 1906 to 1919. Despite these important defections, foot-ball thrived in California, where it was highlighted in the Rose Bowl, a permanent New Year's Day event beginning in 1916.

Sources:

Allison Danzig, The History of American Football: Its Great Teams, Players, and Coaches (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1956);

Danzig, Oh, How They Played the Game: The Early Days of Football and the Heroes Who Made It Great (New York: Macmillan, 1917);

Ivan N. Kaye, Good Clean Violence: A History of College Football (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1973).

Football: College

Championship Confusion

The 1990s was an exciting decade for college football despite off-field distractions and a complex system that left much to be desired in determining which team was actually the best in the land. Eleven different teams claimed national championships, including three won by the University of Nebraska (1994, 1995, and a shared title in 1997 with Michigan). Division I-A football was the only collegiate sport that had no officially sanctioned champion-ship. Other champions included Alabama (1992), Florida State (1993 and 1999), Florida (1996), and Tennessee (1998). Such title confusion (for example, Colorado and Georgia Tech shared the 1990 title, and Miami and Washington shared it in 1991) led to the eventual establishment of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). In 1998, though still without a playoff system, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) organized an intentional end-of-the-season game between the two top-ranked teams (as determined by a complicated system of poll rankings, computer ratings, and losses). Beginning in 1995, prior to the BCS, a Bowl Alliance Championship Game was played, but this system failed to include the Rose Bowl, which matched the champions from the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences. Even the BCS system, however, did not guarantee that the best two teams would play for the championship, but it was an improvement on the old system. Included in the BCS were the Fiesta, Orange, Sugar and Rose Bowls, which alternated as host of the "title" game.

League Realignments

Several conferences also adopted league Championship Games as a result of realignment and expansion, especially those conferences that increased from eight or ten teams to a maximum of twelve. The Southeastern Conference (SEC) began such a playoff between its two division winners with Alabama defeating Florida in its inaugural venture in 1992 at Legion Field in Birmingham. The Big 12 (formerly the Big 8) sponsored its first playoff game in 1996 with Texas defeating Nebraska. The conference had added, in 1995-1996, four teams from the defunct Southwest Conference (Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech). The SEC welcomed two new teams in 1990: Arkansas, from the Southwest Conference, and South Carolina, formerly an independent. The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) added Florida State in 1990 while the Big Ten picked up Penn State. The Big East Conference was founded in 1991 when its charter members gave up independent football status to form a league, which included such schools as Boston College, Miami (Florida), Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia.

Parity on the Field

Some new teams emerged to challenge the dominance of traditional teams, while traditional powerhouses faltered. It was a decade of increasing parity in college football, in some ways, with teams such as Virginia Tech and Marshall rising to prominence while others, such as Notre Dame and Southern California, experienced less success than they were accustomed to achieving. At the same time, familiar names kept appearing atop the list of teams with the most wins, including Florida State, Nebraska, Florida, Tennessee, Penn State, and Miami. Marshall was one of two teams to dominate I-AA football, winning two national championships and being runner-up three times, before joining the I-A Mid-American Conference in 1995. They ended the final season of the decade undefeated. The other I-AA powerhouse was Youngs town State, which won four titles (1991, 1993, 1994, and 1996).

Coaches

Tom Osborne, after his Nebraska team won three national championships in four years, retired after the 1997 season. He had the highest winning percentage of any active coach (.836). Phillip Fulmer of Tennessee had the highest winning percentage of active I-A coaches, followed by Joe Paterno (Penn State), Steve Spurrier (Florida), and Bobby Bowden (Florida State). Eddie Robinson retired after fifty-five years at Grambling, a career that spanned eleven U.S. presidencies, as the most successful all-time college coach with 408 victories. Paterno and Bowden both approached Paul "Bear" Bryant's record of most wins by a I-A coach (323).

The Players

Some great players passed through the ranks of college football during the decade, despite many early defections to the professional ranks as National Football League (NFL) teams offered huge signing bonuses to the most skilled players. In the 1998 draft twenty different underclassmen were selected, including the number two pick, Ryan Leaf (quarterback) of Washington State by the San Diego Chargers and number four pick Charles Woodson (cornerback and Heisman Trophy winner) of Michigan by the Oakland Raiders. Nine underclassmen were selected in the first round. Notable top draft picks of the decade included Jeff George (Illinois quarterback), Drew Bledsoe (Washington State quarterback), Ki-Jana Carter (Penn State running back), Orlando Pace (Ohio State offensive tackle), Peyton Manning (Tennessee quarterback), and Steve Emtman (Washington defensive tackle). Heisman Trophy winners usually consisted of a totally different group of young men (for reasons only those casting the votes can explain), including Ty Detmer (Brigham Young, quarterback), Desmond Howard (Michigan wide receiver), Charlie Ward (Florida State, quarterback), Ricky Williams (Texas running back), and Eddie George (Ohio State running back). Other notable college players included Tommy Frazier (Nebraska quarterback), Randy Moss (Marshall wide receiver), Warren Sapp (Miami [Florida] defensive lineman), Marshall Faulk (San Diego State running back), Tony Boselli (Southern California offensive lineman) and Anthony Simmons (Clemson linebacker).

Sources:

The 1999 ESPN Information Please Sports Almanac (New York: Hyperion Press, 1998).

The Sports Illustrated 1999 Sports Almanac (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998).