The 1886 Harvard Crimson football team represented

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in the

1886 college football season The 1886 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing Princeton and Yale as having been selected national champions. Conference and program changes Season notes On Thank ...

. The team finished with a 12–2 record and outscored opponents 765 to 41 under first-year head coach

Frank A. Mason Frank Atlee Mason (April 12, 1862 – June 29, 1940) was an American college football coach and an attorney. He was the first full-time football coach at Harvard University. Early life Mason was born on April 12, 1862 in Newton, Massachusetts to ...

. On November 3, 1886, in a game played at

Exeter, New Hampshire Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. ...

, the Crimson defeated the team from

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

by a score of 158-0, the highest point total ever achieved in a football game to that point. The team's two losses were against rivals

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

(0–12) and

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

(4–29). Princeton and Yale are recognized by various selectors as the 1886 national champions.

Schedule

References

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Harvard Crimson football seasons

Harvard Crimson football The Harvard Crimson football program represents Harvard University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Harvard's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun c ...

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