The 1955 Shepherd Rams football team represented

Shepherd University Shepherd University is a public university in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the university enrolled 3,159 students in Fall 2020. History Shepherd University began when the county seat of Jefferson ...

as a member of the

West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) was a collegiate athletic conference which historically operated exclusively in the state of West Virginia, but briefly had one Kentucky member in its early years, and expanded into Pe ...

(WVIAC) during the

1955 college football season The 1955 college football season saw the Oklahoma Sooners win the national championship after going 10–0–0. Although the final poll was taken before the postseason bowl games, Oklahoma played against the nation's other unbeaten and untied (10 ...

. In their third and final season under head coach

Donald E. Fuoss Donald E. Fuoss (February 19, 1923 – June 25, 2014) was an American football and basketball coach. He served as the head football coach at Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia from 1951 to 1952, Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West V ...

, the Rams compiled a perfect 8–0 record, shut out four of eight opponents, and outscored opponents by a total of 299 to 31. Shepherd has a record of 4–0 in conference play, winning the WVIAC title. It was the first WVIAC championship in the history of athletics at Shepherd. It was also the first

perfect season A perfect season is a sports season, including any requisite playoff portion, in which a team remains and finishes undefeated and untied. The feat is extremely rare at the professional level of any team sport, and has occurred more commonly at the ...

in 30 years of Shepherd football history. The Rams out-gained opponents by an average of 397.8 yards per game to 160.1 yards per game. Only one other team in the country scored more points than Shepherd, and that team played one more game than Shepherd. Its average of 33.9 points per game was the highest in the country. The team was inducted into the Shepherd University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016. The team's key players included quarterback John Shearer, halfbacks George Hott and Barry Hall, and ends Bill Gaskins and Dick Widdows. Shearer led the WVIAC in total offense (1,278 yards) and passing (1,002 yards). Hott led the conference in scoring. In the fall of 1955, Shepherd was a small college with an enrollment of 1,600 students. There were no athletic scholarships, no grants-in-aid, and no booster club. The Rams played their home games in

Shepherdstown, West Virginia Shepherdstown is a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, located in the lower Shenandoah Valley along the Potomac River. Home to Shepherd University, the town's population was 1,734 at the time of the 2010 census. History 18 ...

Schedule

Players

* Claude Flagg * Bill Gaskins, end * Barry Hall, halfback * George "Red" Hott, halfback and co-captain, 6'3", 195 pounds * Dick Hughes * John Pratico * John Shearer, quarterback and co-captain, 6'3", 200 pounds * Cinders Snyder * Barney Tucker * Dick Widdows, end and co-captain

References

{{Shepherd Rams football navbox Shepherd Shepherd Rams football seasons West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football champion seasons College football undefeated seasons Shepherd Rams football