The 1891 Stanford football team represented

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in the

1891 college football season The 1891 college football season was the season of American football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1891–92 academic year. The 1891 Yale Bulldogs football team, led by head coach Walter Camp, compiled ...

. This was the inaugural year of both the University and the football team: the University opened in October 1891 and the four-game season was played in early 1892.

Origins

Soon after Stanford opened on October 1, 1891, students set out to form a football team. One transfer student, John Whittemore, had played football at

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

. He was chosen as captain and began to organize the team. Whittemore acted as de facto coach, drawing up plays and organizing practices. The team won its first two games against Hopkins Academy and Berkeley Gym before losing to a team from San Francisco's

Olympic Club The Olympic Club is an sports club, athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club, athletic club in the United States. Established o ...

. In its final game of the first season, Stanford upset a more experienced team from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, setting the stage for what would become the longstanding Big Game rivalry.Results from

Schedule

Game summaries

California

Soon after formation of Stanford's team, players at the

, which had been playing football for 10 years, contacted the team to set up a

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

game; as the Stanford team was still organizing, a spring game was eventually agreed to. On March 19, 1892, the Stanford and California teams met to play at

Haight Street Grounds Haight Street Grounds was one of San Francisco's earliest baseball parks; it was also used for college football. It opened in 1887 and was demolished in 1895. History Haight Street Grounds was built for use by the California League and was locate ...

in San Francisco. Stanford's team manager was future U.S. President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

; Hoover had printed 10,000 tickets for the game, but soon an overflow crowd forced Hoover to collect cash payment for admission. As the game was about to begin, both teams realized that no one had brought a ball. An owner of a sporting goods store who was in attendance was dispatched on horseback to retrieve a ball and the game eventually started an hour late. Stanford employed some trick plays and scored the first three touchdowns of the game (touchdowns were worth 4 points at that time) and held on to upset the more experienced California team 14–10.

Legacy

The next season, Whittemore wrote to legendary

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 ...

coach

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

asking him to recommend a coach for Stanford; to Whittemore's surprise, Camp agreed to coach the team himself, on the condition that he coach the season at Yale first. Whittemore's son, also named

John Whittemore John Whittemore (November 20, 1899 – April 13, 2005) was an American centenarian from Montecito, California, who was previously credited as being the "world's oldest athlete" (held until June 28, 2015, before being surpassed by Stanisław Ko ...

and also a Stanford student, lived to the age of 104 and was renowned as a masters track and field athlete.

References

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Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

Stanford Cardinal football seasons

Stanford football The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference's North Division. The team is known as the Cardinal, adopted prior to the 1982 ...