The 1901 Stanford football team was an

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 ...

team that 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 ...

as an independent during the 1901 college football season. The team was led by

Charles Fickert Charles Marron Fickert (February 23, 1873 – October 19, 1937) was American lawyer, politician, and college football player and coach. He was the district attorney of San Francisco from 1909 until 1920, best known for prosecuting Thomas Mooney ...

, the first former Stanford player to serve as head football coach at his alma mater. The team played its home games at

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University. The population was 21,150 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. Stanford is ...

. Stanford compiled a 3–1–2 record in the regular season and was invited to represent the West in the Tournament East-West football game to be held in

Tournament Park Tournament Park is a park and athletics venue in Pasadena, California, United States, northeast of Los Angeles. Currently maintained by the California Institute of Technology, it was simply known as the "town lot" before being renamed "Tournament ...

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

, 1902, facing East representative

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 ...

, a team which had yet to yield a point all season. Stanford had no better luck, losing 49–0 in what would eventually be known as the Rose Bowl.

Schedule

Game summaries

Michigan (Tournament East–West Football Game)

After the conclusion of the 1901 football season, Stanford was invited to play against

in a game to be held on New Year's Day, 1902 in

. The game was dubbed the Tournament East–West Football Game and was held as part of the

Tournament of Roses The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade (or simply the Tournament of Roses), is an annual parade held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, Pasadena, California, United States, on New Year's Day (or on Mon ...

event to encourage tourism to the mild climate of Southern California at a time of year when most of the nation was experiencing cold winter weather. In the game, Stanford was no match for Michigan, which had outscored its opponents 501–0 during the regular season. Led by fullback

Neil Snow Neil Worthington Snow (November 10, 1879 – January 22, 1914) was an American athlete. He competed in American football, baseball, and track and field at the University of Michigan from 1898 to 1902. He was selected as a first-team All-American f ...

, who ran for five touchdowns, the Wolverines led 49–0 with eight minutes remaining before the teams agreed to end the game early. The outcome of the game soured the Tournament of Roses committee on football, and it was not until 1916 that football was again included as part of the festivities. The game is considered the first-ever postseason

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

in college football.

References

{{Stanford Cardinal football navbox

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 Stanford Cardinal, Cardinal, adopted pri ...