The 1897 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

1897 college football season The 1897 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing Penn and Yale as having been selected national champions. Conference and program changes Conference establishments * ...

. The team finished with a 9–0–2 record, shut out seven of eleven opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 170 to 35. Frank Butterworth was the head coach. There was no contemporaneous system in 1895 for determining a national champion. However, Yale was retroactively named as the co-national champion by Parke H. Davis. Most selectors designated Penn (perfect 15–0 record) as the national champion for 1897; Yale and Penn did not play during the 1897 season. Four Yale players were selected as consensus first-team players on the 1897 All-America team. The team's consensus All-Americans were: quarterback

Charles de Saulles Charles A. de Saulles (November 22, 1876 – July 17, 1962) was an All-American football player. He played quarterback for Yale University and was selected for the 1897 College Football All-America Team. All-American football player A nativ ...

; end

John A. Hall John A. Hall (born 1949) is the James McGill Emeritus Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology at McGill University, Montreal. He is the author or editor of over 30 books. Education and Previous Posts Hall graduated from the Oxford Univ ...

; guard

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

; and tackle

Burr Chamberlain Burr Clark "B. C." Chamberlain (August 21, 1877 – November 11, 1933) was an American football player and coach. He played college football at Yale University from 1896 to 1898 at the center and tackle positions. Three times he was an All-Ame ...

. Other notable players included halfback Charles T. Dudley, fullback Malcolm McBride, center George Cadwalader, guard Charles Chadwick, and tackle James O. Rodgers.

Schedule

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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 ...