The 1901 Nashville Garnet and Blue football team represented the
University of Nashville
University of Nashville was a private university in Nashville, Tennessee. It was established in 1806 as Cumberland College. It existed as a distinct entity until 1909; operating at various times a medical school, a four-year military college, a ...
during the
1901 college football season
The 1901 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing Michigan, Yale, and Harvard as having been selected retrospectively as national champions. Harvard beat Yale 22– ...
. The second of first two opponents is unknown. The 1901 team was likely the best football team in Nashville's history. Coached by
Charley Moran
Charles Barthell Moran (February 22, 1878 – June 14, 1949), nicknamed "Uncle Charley", was an American sportsman who gained renown as both a catcher and umpire (baseball), umpire in Major League Baseball and as a college football, collegiate an ...
, though they lost to southern power
Vanderbilt, they "mopped up with about everything else."
[ ]
Schedule
Season summary
At Mooney School
To open the season, Nashville defeated the Mooney School 11–0.
[ ]
The starting lineup was Choate (left end), Blackburn (left tackle), Majors (left guard) Hawkins (center), Peake (right guard), Keller (right tackle), Kuykendall (right end), Church (quarterback), Reeves (left halfback), F. White (right halfback), Holland (fullback).
[
]
At Texas
Nashville tied the Texas Longhorns
The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...
5–5, in front of what was then the largest crowd ever to see a game in Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
.[ ]
The starting lineup was Choate (left end), Blackborn (left tackle), Peake (left guard) Hawkins (center), Majors (right guard), Keller (right tackle), Kuykendall (right end), Pollard (quarterback), Reeves (left halfback), F. White (right halfback), Biddle (fullback).[
]
Auburn
Nashville upset Auburn
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Places Australia
* Auburn, New South Wales
* City of Auburn, the local government area
*Electoral district of Auburn
*Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region
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23–5.
Tennessee
Nashville surprised again and beat Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
16–5. Tennessee had just come off a tie of Clemson, when Clemson had in turn come off a 122–0 victory on opening day.
Sewanee
Sources:[
Arguably the year's biggest win, Nashville kept up its win streak and beat ]Sewanee Sewanee may refer to:
* Sewanee, Tennessee
* Sewanee: The University of the South
* ''The Sewanee Review'', an American literary magazine established in 1892
* Sewanee Natural Bridge
* Saint Andrews-Sewanee School
See also
* Suwanee (disambiguati ...
39–6, then the worst defeat ever suffered by Sewanee. Nashville simply outweighed the Tigers.[ ]Ormond Simkins
Ormond Simkins (May 16, 1879 – December 4, 1921) was an American football and baseball player for the Sewanee Tigers of Sewanee: The University of the South. He was the son of William Stewart Simkins, who may have fired the first shot of t ...
scored first. Biddle once got a touchdown on a 35-yard run.[
The starting lineup was Choate (left end), Blackburn (left tackle), Majors (left guard) Hankins (center), Peake (right guard), Keller (right tackle), Kuykendall (right end), Pollard (quarterback), Reeves (left halfback), F. White (right halfback), Biddle (fullback).]
At Kentucky University
Nashville beat state champion Kentucky University
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state' ...
in Lexington 5–0.
Kentucky governor J. C. W. Beckham
John Crepps Wickliffe Beckham (August 5, 1869 – January 9, 1940) was an American attorney serving as the List of governors of Kentucky, 35th Governor of Kentucky and a United States Senate, United States Senator from Kentucky. He was the s ...
made a 15-yard kick to ceremonially start the contest. Fullback Bidwell made the touchdown.
At Vanderbilt
Three Nashville players were ruled ineligible. The Commodores practiced in secret for ten days in preparation. Vanderbilt faced Nashville on 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 ...
and won 10–0 in front of 4 to 5,000 spectators,[ ] using "Harvard tactics." After thirty minutes of gameplay, John Edgerton
John Emmett Edgerton (October 2, 1879 – August 4, 1938) was an industrialist who gained prominence as the president of the National Association of Manufacturers from 1921 to 1931. Edgerton was also an All-Southern college football fullback ...
scored a touchdown taking the wind out of the sails of Nashville rooters. A riot broke out downtown the next day. According to the account of the event in the Nashville Banner (repudiated in the Hustler), the trouble started when a number of Vanderbilt students "tried to paint the stone fence of the University of Nashville yellow and black."
The starting lineup was Choate (left end), Blackborn (left tackle), Majors (left guard) Hankins (center), Peake (right guard), Keller (right tackle), Kuykendall (right end), Pollard (quarterback), Reeves (left halfback), F. White (right halfback), Biddle (fullback).[
]
Postseason
Amidst charges of professionalism, Nashville was blacklisted from the SIAA.[ ]
References
{{Nashville Garnet and Blue football navbox
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
Nashville Garnet and Blue football seasons
Nashville Garnet and Blue football
The Nashville Garnet and Blue football team represented the University of Nashville in intercollegiate football competition. The program was active from 1889 until 1909, when it was discontinued. In 1890, the school challenged local Vanderbilt to ...