The 1921 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

, Cornell Big Red,

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 22 sports, 8 for men and 14 for women; a 15th women's sport will be added in 2023. The teams partici ...

Lafayette Leopards The Lafayette Leopards represent the 23 Division I varsity athletic teams of Lafayette College and compete in the Patriot League. There are 11 men's teams, 11 women's teams, and one co-ed team. The club teams also compete as the Leopards. Tho ...

Washington & Jefferson Presidents The Washington & Jefferson Presidents are the intercollegiate athletic teams for Washington & Jefferson College. The name "Presidents" refers to the two presidential namesakes of the college: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. W&J is a memb ...

, and

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's team ...

as champions. Only California, Cornell, Iowa, and Lafayette claim national championships for the 1921 season. Andy Smith's

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including a ...

champion "Wonder Team" at California continued on its streak since 1920. Eastern power Cornell was coached by

Gil Dobie Robert Gilmour "Gloomy Gil" Dobie (January 21, 1878 – December 23, 1948) was an American football player and coach. Over a period of 33 years, he served as the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State ...

and led by one of the sport's great

backfield The offensive backfield is the area of an American football field behind the line of scrimmage. The offensive backfield can also refer to members of offense who begin plays behind the line, typically including any backs on the field, such as the ...

s with

George Pfann George R. Pfann (October 6, 1902 – December 17, 1996) was an American football player and coach. He played college football at Cornell University, where he never lost while starring as a quarterback, twice named an All-American. Before gradua ...

Eddie Kaw Edgar Lawrence Kaw (January 18, 1897 – December 13, 1971) was an American football player. He attended Cornell University, where he was a prominent halfback on coach Gil Dobie's Cornell Big Red football team, graduating in 1923. He was a shift ...

, Floyd Ramsey, and Charles E. Cassidy.

Jock Sutherland John Bain Sutherland (March 21, 1889 – April 11, 1948) was an American football player and coach. He coached college football at Lafayette College (1919–1923) and the University of Pittsburgh (1924–1938) and professional football for the ...

's Lafayette Maroons were led on the line by Frank Schwab.

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

champion

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

upset Notre Dame 10–7.

Grantland Rice Henry Grantland "Granny" Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio. Early years Rice wa ...

noted that the 1921 Notre Dame team "was the first team we know of to build its attack around a

forward pass In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron ...

ing game, rather than use a forward passing game as a mere aid to the running game." 1921 was the last season for the old

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 ...

. Vanderbilt tied co-champion

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

on an onside kick. On October 6,

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

upset Harvard 6–0 in what is widely considered one of the greatest upsets in college football history. Overjoyed students painted the "impossible formula" C6H0 (Centre 6, Harvard 0) on everything in sight.

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

also claimed a conference title. The 1922 Rose Bowl was fought to a scoreless tie, between California and Washington & Jefferson, in the last Rose Bowl to be played at

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 ...

. Washington & Jefferson is the smallest school to ever play in a Rose Bowl.

Conference and program changes

Conference establishments

*Two conferences began play in 1921: **

Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference The Midwest Conference (MWC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Midwestern United States in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Midwest Conference was ...

– an active NCAA Division III conference ** Southwestern Athletic Conference – an active NCAA Division I FCS conference

Membership changes

First radio broadcast

A historical highlight of the regular season was the

1921 West Virginia vs. Pittsburgh football game The 1921 West Virginia vs. Pittsburgh football game was a college football game between the 1921 West Virginia Mountaineers football team, West Virginia Mountaineers and the 1921 Pittsburgh Panthers football team, Pittsburgh Panthers played on Octo ...

, the first college football game to be broadcast live on radio. Today, college football on radio is common for nearly every game in every division.

C6H0

On October 29,

Centre College Centre College is a private liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky. It is an undergraduate college with an enrollment of approximately 1,400 students. Centre was officially chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1819. The college is ...

beat

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 ...

6 to 0 in what is widely considered one of the greatest upsets in college football history. Overjoyed students painted the "impossible formula" C6H0 (Centre 6, Harvard 0) on everything in sight.

Bowl games

In the 1922 Rose Bowl, heavily favored

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

played Washington & Jefferson to a scoreless tie. The game holds several distinctions including being the only scoreless contest and the first tie in a Rose Bowl.

Charles Fremont West Charles Fremont "Pruner" West (January 25, 1899 – November 20, 1979) was an American track athlete, college football player and coach, and physician. He played football and ran track at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylva ...

of Washington & Jefferson was the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

to play in the Rose Bowl, and

Herb Kopf Herbert M. Kopf (June 25, 1901 – March 22, 1996) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Manhattan College from 1938 to 1942 and as the head coach for the Boston Yanks of the National Football League ...

, also of Washington and Jefferson, was the first freshman to play in a Rose Bowl. The 1922 Rose Bowl was the last played at

and featured the smallest school—Washington & Jefferson College had only 450 students at the time—to ever play in a Rose Bowl.

Other bowls

* Dixie Classic * San Diego Christmas Classic

Conference standings

Major conference standings

Independents

Minor conferences

Minor conference standings

Awards and honors

All-Americans

The consensus

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

team included:

Statistical leaders

* Total offense leader:

Aubrey Devine Aubrey Alvin "Aub" Devine (November 21, 1897 – December 15, 1981) was an American football and basketball player, coach, and lawyer. He was the quarterback for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes football team from 1919 to 1921. He was selected as ...

, Iowa, 2211 * Receptions leader: Eddie Anderson, Notre Dame, 26 * Receiving yards leader: Eddie Anderson, 394

References

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