The 1894 Penn Quakers 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 the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

as an independent during the

1894 college football season The 1894 college football season was the season of American football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1894–95 academic year. The 1894 Yale Bulldogs football team compiled a perfect 16–0 record, outscore ...

. In their third season under head coach George Washington Woodruff, the Quakers compiled a 12–0 record, shut out nine of twelve opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 366 to 20. There was no contemporaneous system in 1894 for determining a national champion. However, Penn was retroactively named as the co-national champion by one selector,

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 ...

. Other selectors 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 nine ...

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 ...

as the 1894 national champion Penn defeated Princeton and

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 ...

in head-to-head competition. Four Penn players were named to 1894 All-America college football team: halfback

Alden Knipe Alden Arthur Knipe (June 1870 – May 22, 1950) was an American football player and coach. He served as the sixth head football coach at the University of Iowa, serving from 1898 to 1902 and compiling a record of 30–11–4. Knipe was also the ...

(chosen by

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

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 ''Harper ...

, and ''

Leslie's Weekly ''Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper'', later renamed ''Leslie's Weekly'', was an American illustrated literary and news magazine founded in 1855 and published until 1922. It was one of several magazines started by publisher and illustrator Frank ...

''); halfback George Brooke (chosen by Camp, Whitney, and ''Leslie's Weekly''); end Charles Gelbert (chosen by Camp, Whitney, and ''Leslie's Weekly''); and guard Charles Wharton (chosen by ''Leslie's Weekly''). Three individuals from the 1894 Penn team were 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 ...

: Gelbert (inducted 1960); coach Woodruff (inducted 1963); and Brooke (inducted 1969).

Schedule

References

{{College Football National Champion pre-AP Poll navbox Penn Penn Quakers football seasons College football national champions College football undefeated seasons

Penn Quakers football The Penn Quakers football program is the college football team at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The Penn Quakers have competed in the Ivy League since its inaugural season of 1956, and are a Division I Football Championship ...