The 1906 Yale Bulldogs 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

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

as an independent during the

1906 college football season Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

. The team compiled a 9–0–1 record, shut out nine of ten opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 144 to 7. Four Yale players were selected as consensus All-Americans, and the team was retroactively selected by multiple selectors as the national champion for 1906.

National championship claim

There was no contemporaneous system in 1906 for determining a national champion. However, several selectors (the

Billingsley Report The Billingsley Report is a college football rating system developed in the late 1960s to determine a national champion. Billingsley has actively rated college football teams on a current basis since 1970. Beginning in 1999, Billingsley's ratings ...

Caspar Whitney Caspar William Whitney (September 2, 1864 – January 18, 1929) was an American author, editor, explorer, outdoorsman and war correspondent. He originated the concept of the All-American team in college football in 1889 when he worked for '' Harp ...

, and Parke H. Davis) have retroactively named Yale as the national champion. Other selectors ( Helms, NCF) chose

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

as the national champion. Yale and Princeton both finished with undefeated seasons and played each other to a 0–0 tie on November 17, 1906.

Key players

Four Yale players were among the eleven selected as consensus first-team players on the 1906 All-America team. Yale's four consensus All Americans were: halfback William F. Knox; fullback Paul Veeder; end

Robert Forbes Robert Forbes may refer to: *Robert Forbes (American football) (1886–1947), American football player and coach *Robert Forbes (bishop) (1708–1775), Scottish Episcopal bishop of Ross and Caithness *Robert Bennet Forbes Captain Robert Bennet F ...

; and tackle Lucius Horatio Biglow. Five other Yale players receiving All-American honors were quarterback

Tad Jones Thaddeus Bunol "Tad" Jones (September 19, 1952 – January 1, 2007) was an American music historian and researcher. His extensive research is credited with definitively establishing and documenting Louis Armstrong's correct birth date, August ...

, fullback

Samuel F. B. Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...

, center Clarence Hockenberger, end

Clarence Alcott Clarence F. Alcott (August 9, 1886 – October 23, 1957) was an American football player, coach and investment banker. He was selected as an All-American end in both 1906 and 1907. Alcott attended University School in Cleveland, Ohio where h ...

, and Arthur Brides. The

was a year of change. Following controversies in 1905 over the increase of violence and professionalism in college football, a number of rule changes were implemented in 1906. The most lasting change introduced in 1906 was the

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 gridir ...

. Yale's Paul Veeder and

Bob Forbes Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals * Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname ...

combined for one of the first important pass plays, a play described in one history of the game as follows: "The only other significant pass that season was thrown by Yale, which gained a first down that led to victory over Harvard, when Paul Veeder threw thirty yards to Bob Forbes."

Schedule

References

{{College Football National Champion pre-AP Poll navbox

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

Yale Bulldogs football seasons College football national champions College football undefeated seasons

Yale Bulldogs football The Yale Bulldogs football program represents Yale University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Yale's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competi ...