The 1895 college football season was the season of

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1895–96 academic year. The 1895 Penn Quakers football team, led by head coach

George Washington Woodruff George Washington Woodruff (February 22, 1864 – March 24, 1934) was an American football player, rower, coach, teacher, lawyer and politician. He served as the head football coach at the University of Pennsylvania (1892–1901), the University ...

, compiled a perfect 14–0 record and is recognized as the 1895 national champion by the

Billingsley Report The Billingsley Report is a college football rating system developed in the late 1960s to determine a national champion. Billingsley has actively rated college football teams on a current basis since 1970. Beginning in 1999, Billingsley's ratings ...

Helms Athletic Foundation The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his ownership ...

Houlgate System The Houlgate System, also known as the Deke Houlgate collegiate football rating system, was a mathematical rating system for determining annual college football national championships. The ratings, which rated teams according to the strength of th ...

, and

National Championship Foundation The National Championship Foundation (NCF) was established by Mike Riter of Hudson, New York. The NCF retroactively selected college football national champions for each year from 1869 to 1979, and its selections are among the historic national ch ...

. One selector, Parke H. Davis, recognized both Penn 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 ...

as co-national champions. Yale compiled a 13–0–2 record. In the Midwest,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

led the way with an 8–1 record, the only loss coming in a road game against

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 ...

. In the South, the

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. Twenty-seven of the current Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football programs were members of this conferen ...

played its first year of college football with Vanderbilt winning the first conference championship. Ten of the eleven players selected by

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 ...

and

Caspar Whitney Caspar William Whitney (September 2, 1864 – January 18, 1929) was an American author, editor, explorer, outdoorsman and war correspondent. He originated the concept of the All-American team in college football in 1889 when he worked for '' Harp ...

to the 1895 All-America college football team came from Penn, Yale, Harvard, and

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 ni ...

. The eleventh player was quarterback

Clint Wyckoff Clinton Randolph Wyckoff (September 4, 1874 – August 16, 1947) was an American college football player, and the first consensus All-American not from Yale, Harvard, Princeton or Penn. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 197 ...

from

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. Six of the honorees have been inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

: Wyckoff, halfbacks

Sam Thorne Samuel Brinckerhoff "Brinck" Thorne (September 19, 1873 – June 3, 1930) was an American football player and coach. He played college football at Yale University as halfback from 1893 to 1894. As a senior and team captain in 1895, Thorn w ...

(Yale) and George H. Brooke(Penn), fullback

Charley Brewer Charley Brewer may refer to: * Charley Brewer (fullback) (1873–1958), Harvard fullback 1892–1895 * Charles Brewer (American football), Texas quarterback 1953–1955 * Charlie Brewer, American football quarterback See also * Charles Brewer (disam ...

(Harvard), end Charles Gelbert (Penn), tackle

Langdon Lea Langdon "Biffy" Lea (May 11, 1874 – October 10, 1937) was an American football player and coach. He played college football at Princeton University, where he was selected as a first-team College Football All-America Team, All-American at Tackl ...

(Princeton), and guard Charles Wharton (Penn).

Conference and program changes

*The

began its first season of play in 1895.

Conference standings

Independents

Minor conferences

References

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