The 1899 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

1899 college football season The 1899 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing Harvard and Princeton as having been selected national champions. Chicago, Kansas, and Sewanee went undefeated. With ...

. In its first season under head coach

Benjamin Dibblee Benjamin Harrison Dibblee (July 8, 1876 – November 11, 1945) was an American college football player and coach. He played halfback for Harvard University from 1896 to 1898, and was a consensus All-American in 1897 and 1898. Dibblee served as ...

, the Crimson compiled a 10–0–1 record, shut out 10 of 11 opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 210 to 10. There was no contemporaneous system in 1899 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 ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

compiled a 12–1 record and was named the national champion by two other selectors. Two Harvard players were consensus first-team selections on the 1899 All-American football team: quarterback

Charles Dudley Daly Charles Dudley Daly (October 31, 1880 – February 12, 1959) was an American football player and coach, an author, and served in the United States Army during World War I. He played college football as a quarterback at Harvard University and the ...

and end Dave Campbell. Other players included halfback George A. Sawin, end

John Hallowell John White Hallowell (December 24, 1878 – January 5, 1927) was a prominent American businessman and American football, football player. He played college football at Harvard University and was a consensus All-American at the End (American footb ...

, center Francis Lowell Burnett, guard

William A. M. Burden Sr. William Armistead Moale Burden Sr. (July 11, 1877 – February 2, 1909) was an American football guard for the Harvard Crimson football team and stock broker. Early life Burden was born on July 11, 1877, in Troy, New York, to millionaire iron man ...

, and tackle

Malcolm Donald Malcolm Donald (1877–1949) was an American lawyer, eugenicist, white nationalist, and a founder of the Pioneer Fund. He graduated Harvard College (where he played footballStaff report (October 8, 1899). ATHLETICS AT HARVARD.; Malcolm Donald Says ...

Schedule

References

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

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 ...

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