The 1896 Dartmouth football team represented

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

as a member of the

Triangular Football League The Triangular Football League or New England Intercollegiate Football Association was an American college football conference. Its founding members were Dartmouth Big Green football, Dartmouth, Williams Ephs football, Williams, and Amherst Mammoth ...

(TFL) during the

1896 college football season The 1896 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing Lafayette and Princeton as having been selected national champions. Lafayette finished with an 11–0–1 record whil ...

. Led by second-year head coach

William Wurtenburg William Charles Wurtenburg (December 24, 1863 – March 26, 1957) was an American college football player and coach. Born and raised in Western New York to German parents, Wurtenburg attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy, where ...

, Dartmouth compiled an overall record of 5–2–1 with a mark of 2–0 in TFL play, winning the league title. The number of games played in 1896 was reduced from the previous season, down to a more normal level of eight. One notable absence from the 1896 schedule was a game against rival

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 ...

, the only time during Wurtenburg's tenure that the Crimson were not played. The 1896 season was also the most successful,

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

-wise during Wurtenburg's time as coach; the team finished the year with a .688 win percentage. Following an initial win against the Worcester Athletic Association, the squad suffered back-to-back shutout losses to

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 ...

and Penn. The remainder of the season, however, was highly successful for the team, and they went 4–0–1 in their final five games. This included defeating both TFL opponents by a combined score of 42–0 for a fourth consecutive championship, and a tie with the

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

team they had lost to the previous year.

Walter McCornack Walter Edwin McCornack (January 22, 1875 – June 30, 1939) was an American football player, coach, and lawyer. He served as the head football coach at Dartmouth College from 1901 to 1902 and at Northwestern University from 1903 to 1905, compilin ...

was the team's captain. Several members of the team later became college football coaches, including McCornack, Frank Cavanaugh,

John B. Eckstorm John Bernard Christian Eckstorm (October 22, 1873 – October 28, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He played college football as a halfback at Dartmouth College from 1894 to 1897 and was captain of the 1897 Dartmouth football te ...

, David C. MacAndrew, Joseph H. Edwards,

Fred Crolius Frederick Joseph Crolius (April 19, 1876 – August 25, 1960) was an American football and baseball player and coach. He was the first player from Tufts University to play Major League Baseball. He was at Tufts in 1894, and at Dartmouth College, ...

, and

Charles J. Boyle Charles John Boyle ( – April 21, 1947) was an American college football player and coach. Boyle grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts and played football at Dartmouth College from 1896 to 1900 before graduating in 1901. He was an assistant footb ...

Schedule

References

Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...

Dartmouth Big Green football seasons

Dartmouth football The Dartmouth Big Green football team represents Dartmouth College in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) college football competition as a member of the Ivy League. The team possesses a storied tradition that includes a nat ...

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