American college football season
The1890 college football season was the season ofAmerican football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1890–91 academic year.
The1890 Harvard Crimson football team compiled a perfect 11–0 record, outscored opponents by a total of 555 to 12, and was recognized as thenational champion by theBillingsley Report ,Helms Athletic Foundation ,Houlgate System ,National Championship Foundation , andParke H. Davis .[ 1]
In the Midwest, theBaker Methodists defeated theKansas Jayhawks by a score of22–9 in the first college football game played in Kansas.[ 2] In the South,Vanderbilt Commodores defeatedNashville (Peabody), 40–0, in the first college football game played in Tennessee.[ 3]
As the popularity of the sport increased, several notable programs were established in 1890, including Ohio State,Colorado ,Illinois ,Kansas ,Missouri ,Nebraska , andVanderbilt .
All eleven players selected byCaspar Whitney for the1890 All-America college football team came from the Big Three (HarvardPrinceton , andYale ). Three of the honorees have been inducted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame : Harvard's great tackleMarshall "Ma" Newell , Yale's guardPudge Heffelfinger , and Yale's halfbackThomas "Bum" McClung .
Conference and program changes [ edit ] The consensusAll-America team included:
Position Name Height Weight (lbs.) Class Hometown Team QB Dudley Dean Sr. Lake Village,New Hampshire Harvard HB Bum McClung 5'10" 165 Jr. Knoxville, Tennessee Yale HB John J. Corbett Fr. Boston, Massachusetts Harvard FB Sheppard Homans, Jr. Jr. Englewood, New Jersey Princeton E Frank Hallowell So. Medford, Massachusetts Harvard T Marshall Newell 5'7" 168 Fr. Great Barrington, Massachusetts Harvard G Pudge Heffelfinger 6'4" 178 Jr. Minneapolis, Minnesota Yale C John Cranston Sr. Sheridan, New York Harvard G Jesse Riggs Jr. Baltimore, Maryland Princeton T William Rhodes Sr. Cleveland, Ohio Yale E Ralph Warren Jr. Montclair, New Jersey Princeton
Statistical leaders [ edit ]
Conference standings [ edit ] The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings: