The 1919 Harvard Crimson 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

Harvard University 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 ...

as an independent during the

1919 college football season The 1919 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing 1919 Centre Praying Colonels football team, Centre, 1919 Harvard Crimson football team, Harvard, 1919 Illinois Fightin ...

. In their first season under head coach Bob Fisher, the Crimson compiled a 9–0–1 record, shut out seven of ten opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 229 to 19. The team was invited to play in the

1920 Rose Bowl The 1920 Rose Bowl, known at the time as the Tournament East-West Football Game, was a college football bowl game in Pasadena, California, played on January 1, 1920. In the sixth Rose Bowl, the once-tied Harvard Crimson met the once-defeated Ore ...

and defeated

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, 7–6.

Claim to national championship

There was no contemporaneous system in 1919 for determining a national champion. However, Harvard was retroactively named as the national champion by the

Helms Athletic Foundation The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his ownership ...

and the

Houlgate System The Houlgate System, also known as the Deke Houlgate collegiate football rating system, was a mathematical rating system for determining annual college football national championships. The ratings, which rated teams according to the strength of thei ...

, and as a co-national champion by the College Football Researchers Association,

National Championship Foundation The National Championship Foundation (NCF) was established by Mike Riter of Hudson, New York. The NCF retroactively selected college football national champions for each year from 1869 to 1979, and its selections are among the historic national ch ...

, and

Parke H. Davis Parke Hill Davis (July 15, 1871 – June 5, 1934)"PARKE H. DAVIS BURIED.; Many Prominent Men at Funeral of Football Authority", special to ''The New York Times'', June 9, 1934 was an American football player, coach, and historian. Shortly befo ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

(6–1 record), Notre Dame (9–0 record), and

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

(10–0 record) were chosen as the 1919 national champion or co-champion by some selectors.

Key players

Harvard halfback

Eddie Casey Edward Lawrence Casey (May 16, 1894 – July 26, 1966) was an American football player and coach. He played college football at Harvard University and was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1968. Casey was MVP of the 1920 Rose Bowl ...

was selected as consensus first-team player on the 1919 All-America team. Casey was later inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

. Other notable players on the 1919 team included backs

Arnold Horween Arnold Horween (originally Arnold Horwitz; also known as A. McMahon; July 7, 1898 – August 5, 1985) was an American college and professional American football player and coach. He played and coached both for Harvard University and in the Nati ...

and Frederic Cameron Church Jr. and linemen

Tom Woods Thomas Ernest Woods Jr. (born August 1, 1972) is an American author and Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian commentator who is currently a senior fellow at the Mises Institute.Naji FilaliInterview with Thomas E. Woods, Jr. Harvard P ...

, Charles Arthur "Tubby" Clark and Robert "Duke" Sedgwick. Quarterback Billy Murray was the team captain.

"High-water mark" in Harvard football history

The 1919 season was a transition year for Harvard football.

Percy Haughton Percy Duncan Haughton (July 11, 1876 – October 27, 1924) was an American football and baseball player and coach. He served as head football coach at Cornell University from 1899 to 1900, at Harvard University from 1908 to 1916, and at Columbia ...

was the head coach from 1908 to 1916, leading the program to a record of 97–17–6. Varsity football was discontinued during the war years of 1917 and 1918, though the school did field an "informal" team. The 1919 season marked the return of varsity football under a new head coach. Coach Fisher compiled a 43–14–5 record in seven seasons as head coach and was later inducted into the

. Harvard's victory in the 1920 Rose Bowl has been called "the high-water mark" in program history, as athletics were deemphasized in the 1920s and thereafter.

Schedule

References

{{College Football National Champion pre-AP Poll navbox

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 ...

Harvard Crimson football seasons College football national champions College football undefeated seasons Rose Bowl champion seasons

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

1910s in Boston