The 1903 Columbia Blue and White 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 wi ...

team that represented

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

as an independent during the

1903 college football season The 1903 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing Michigan and Princeton as having been selected national champions. Conference standings Major conference standings ...

. In its second season under head coach Bill Morley, the team compiled a 9–1 record, shut out its first seven opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of . Fullback

Richard Shore Smith Richard Shore Smith (December 11, 1877 – May 19, 1953) was an American college football player and coach. He played college football at the University of Oregon from 1896 to 1899 and then at Columbia University Columbia University (also ...

was the team captain. Smith and tackle

Tom Thorp Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

received first-team honors on the 1903 All-America team. W. E. Metzenthin also starred in the backfield for Columbia. The team's sole loss was to the 1903 Yale team that featured seven first-team All-Americans, including

Foster Rockwell Foster Haven Rockwell (August 15, 1880 – January 26, 1942) was an All-American football player and hotelier. A native of Vermont, Rockwell played football at Yale University and was selected as the quarterback on the 1902 College Football All-A ...

and

Tom Shevlin Thomas Leonard Shevlin (March 1, 1883 – December 29, 1915) was an American college football player and coach at Yale University and a businessman. He was a consensus All-American for three of his four years, selected a first-team All-American ...

. Columbia's sports teams were commonly called the "Blue and White" in this era, but had no official nickname. The name "Lions" would not be adopted until 1910. The team played its home games at the Polo Grounds in

Upper Manhattan Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park (110th Street), ...

Schedule

References

{{Columbia Lions football navbox Columbia Columbia Lions football seasons Columbia Blue and White football