The 1912 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 wi ...

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 high ...

as an independent during the 1912 college football season. In their fifth season under head coach

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 ...

, the Crimson compiled a perfect 9–0 record, shut out five of nine opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 176 to 22. The season was part of an unbeaten streak that began in November 1911 and continued until October 1915. There was no contemporaneous system in 1912 for determining a national champion. However, Harvard was retroactively named as the national champion by 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 ...

, Helms Athletic Foundation,

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 th ...

, and Parke H. Davis, and as a co-national champion by the

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 ...

. Percy Wendell as the team captain. Three Harvard players were consensus first-team selections on the 1912 All-American football team: halfback

Charles Brickley Charles Edward Brickley (November 24, 1891 – December 28, 1949) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the Johns Hopkins University in 1915, at Boston College from 1916 to 1917, and at Fordham Univer ...

, guard

Stan Pennock Stanley Bagg "Bags" Pennock (June 15, 1892 – November 27, 1916) was an American football player. He was selected as a first-team All-American at the guard position three consecutive years while leading Harvard University to three undefeated sea ...

, and end Sam Felton. Other notable players included backs Percy Wendell,

Huntington Hardwick Huntington Reed "Tack" Hardwick (October 15, 1892 – June 26, 1949) was an American football player. He played at the halfback and end positions for Harvard University and was selected as a unanimous first-team All-American in 1914. He was e ...

, and Henry Burchell Gardner, and linemen Bob Storer, Harvey Hitchcock, Derric Choate Parmenter, Gerard Timothy Driscoll, and Francis Joseph O'Brien. Pennock, Wendell, and Hardwick were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Schedule

References

Harvard 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 ...

1910s in Boston {{collegefootball-1912-season-stub