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1915College Football National Championship

Cornell quarterback Charley Barrett carrying the ball

Cornell's first national championship was carried home by superstar quarterback Charley Barrett(carrying the ball in the picture above). Cornell finished 9-0, andin a season full of contenders, they are the consensus choice for the1915 mythical national championship, and would have run away with #1had there been an AP poll that season.

Hereis how the "major selectors" listed in the NCAARecords Book, all selecting long after the fact, see the 1915 collegefootball nationalchampionship (omitting math/computerratings, which neither I noranyone else recognize as constituting titles):

Cornell:Helms,National Championship Foundation,Parke Davis (tie)
Pittsburgh: Parke Davis(tie)

Pittsburgh, who had just hired Pop Warner away from Carlisle thisseason, went 8-0, and many newspapers referred to them as the Eastern"co-champion" at the time. Unfortunately, Pitt's schedule was ratherlight, and they struggled to beat Penn 14-7, so two unbeaten and untiedWestern teams actually make better contenders to Cornell's mythicalcrown than Pitt does.

The first Western contenderis 8-0 Nebraska, who beat 7-1 Notre Dame 20-19 and routed every otherteam they played. The second is 7-0 Washington State, who defeated5-4-1 Brown 14-0 in the second Rose Bowl game ever played (and first in14 years). College football truly went national in 1915, because inaddition to the Rose Bowl, there were 4 other games played betweenteams in the far West and teams East of the Mississippi. That makesit much more possible to gauge the power of Northwestern teams this season-- and they looked tohave been pretty good, splitting those five intersectional games 2-2-1 (and major Northwestern teams were 2-1).

In addition to the 4 teams already mentioned, I will also briefly summarize 10-0 Oklahoma, 7-0 Colorado State, and 7-0Washington. Billingsley's computer selects Oklahoma as #1, itsthird lame choice in a row.

As in1914, the Western Conference (Big 10) wasmostly "walled off" from the rest of college football, so it'sdifficult to know how good any of the conference's teams were for sure,but 6-0-1 Minnesota may well have been the best team in the country.Their only loss in 1914 had come to 7-0 Illinois, and this season theysuffered their one tie to 5-0-2 Illinois. Outside of that game, theyplayed like a national champion. 1916 would bring even tougher luck forMinnesota, as they looked like an unbeatable juggernaut in every gamebut one-- losing to (who else?) Illinois in the biggest upset of thedecade. In any case, their tie in 1915 takes them out of the MNC race,especially since the Western Conference played no indicator gamesagainst tough nonconference opponents, but Minnesota was very strong,and worthy of mention.

All rankings in the following article, except as noted, come from my1915 top 25, which is based on a hypothetical post-bowl AP poll (within logical reason of course).

Cornell 1915

Gettysburg (3-6)	13-0
Oberlin (4-4)	34-7
Williams	46-6
Bucknell (2-6-3)	41-0
at Harvard (8-1)	10-0	#2
Virginia Tech (4-4)	45-0
at Michigan (4-3-1)	34-7
Washington & Lee (6-1-1)	40-21
at Penn (3-5-2)	24-9

Cornell had longbeen fielding strong football teams, but they had never come reasonablyclose to a national championship season before. They were generally a#11-20 type team, but fielded top 10 caliber teams in 1901 and for 3 straightyears 1906-1908. 1909-1913 they were mediocre, going 23-20-3, and weretop 25 caliber just twice. In 1914, they went 8-2, and would haveranked about #15. 1915 was their first season going unbeaten and untied(9-0), and the first time they ever beat Harvard.

Yalegrad Albert Sharpe was the head coach, going 34-21-1 1912-1917, and50-42-5 for his career at 3 schools. He never had a season even closeto as good as this one though, and his overall mediocrity as a coachhas me thinking that Cornell can thank their players for their 1915showing.

Cornellcaptain Charley Barrett (pictured) was generally considered the bestquarterbackof this decade. He was consensus All American in 1914 and 1915, and isin the Hall of Fame. Despite playing only one half in most of Cornell'sgames, Barrett scored an amazing 22 touchdowns, and he was the kickertoo, totaling 161 points. That is better than Michigan halfback WillieHeston's best scoring season 1901-1904, and only Carlisle halfback Jim Thorpe1911-1912 surpasses Barrett's numbers to this point. Barrett also handled thepunting, and was Cornell's best defensive player as well, but he wasn'tmuch of astudent, and he had trouble staying eligible to play. After theseason, his football eligibility expired, the school cut him loose as a student as well.

EndMurray Shelton was Cornell's other consensus AA, and he is also in theHall of Fame. He was a great blocker, a good receiver (though littleused in that regard this season), and he was also an All Americanbasketball player.

CenterWilliam "Gib" Cool was a nonconsensus AA who was great on defense, andunusually strong on kick coverage for a center. He was quarterbackBarrett's roommate and close friend, and in a 45-0 win over VirginiaTech, the two switched places so that Cool could score his only careertouchdown behind Barrett's blocking.

Tackle Fred Gillies andhalfback Fritz Shiverick would be nonconsensus AA in 1916. Shiverickhad a great game against Harvard after Barrett was knocked out, sealingCornell's biggest win with his punting and kicking. The other halfback,Carlton Collins, is in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Collins fumbledoften, but he and Shiverick were strong runners, which kept opponentsfrom keying on Barrett, enabling the tremendous season he had.

Cornell'sSeason

This team wascalled the Big Red Machine, and they defeated every opponent by morethan a touchdown. Their schedule, however, was rather weak, and theyreally played a one game season-- Harvard.

They were lessthan sharp in their opener, a 13-0 win over Gettysburg (3-6).Gettysburg actually outplayed them a bit in the first quarter, gaining3 first downs to Cornell's 1, but the game ended 12-5 for Cornell inthat regard. Barrett scored both Cornell touchdowns, in the 2nd and 4thquarters, but he missed on 2 field goal attempts, and halfback Collinsfumbled twice at the Gettysburg goal line. Barrett's kick returns keptCornell in Gettysburg territory the last 3 quarters.

Cornell mowedthrough their next 3 warm-up opponents by an average of 40-3, Barrettscoring 8 touchdowns and 10 extra points. He returned the openingkickoff for a touchdown against Bucknell, and retired from the game athalf with 4 touchdowns.

Harvard

Cornell's realseason began (and perhaps ended) with a trip to Harvard October 23rd.Harvard was 4-0, and had not lost a game in 4 years, but Cornell won10-0, their first ever victory over Harvard, and easily the biggest winin school history to that point. Harvard star Eddie Mahan fumbled theopening kickoff, and Murray Shelton recovered for Cornell at the 25yard line. Cornell then drove straight down for a Barrett touchdown,and as quickly as that, the game was as good as over. Barrett wasknocked out of the game in the first quarter, but Cornell's defense,and Fritz Shiverick's punting in Barrett's absence, ensured thefinality of the initial touchdown.

Harvardonly had 3 threats in the game. In the first quarter, they were stoppedon 4th and a half yard to go at the Cornell 33, and they were stoppedagain at the Cornell 35 in the 2nd. In the 3rd, they drove to theCornell 25, but Mahan threw an interception at the 10. Mahan also lost3 fumbles in the game, and Cornell's ends kept him from getting away for his usual bigkick returns. Cornell had a lot of fumble problemsthemselves, but only one was recovered by Harvard. Shiverick had a greatday punting, and in one key play, he punted an 86 yarder into the windfrom his own goal line. He missed 2 field goal attempts, and hadanother blocked, but kicked a 38 yarder in the 4th quarter to make the10-0 final score. Harvard finished the season 8-1, and with wins over8-1 Virginia, 6-2 Princeton, and 7-2 Penn State, Harvard would have finished ranked #2 in an AP poll this season.

The Rest of the Season

Cornell's next"big" game was a trip to Ann Arbor, but Michigan was weak this season(finishing 4-3-1), and Cornell dismayed 23,000 Michigan fans with a34-7 romp, Barrett and Collins each scoring 2 touchdowns, and Shiverickadding another. The "best team in the country" talk, which had startedafter the Harvard game, reached a fever pitch after Michigan. Believingthe hype that they were unbeatable, Cornell got a bit sloppy over theirfinal 2 games, falling behind at the half of each before pulling awayfor big wins.

First up was Washington& Lee, who was coming in at 6-0-1, and had not lost a game in 2years. W&L was a Virginia school that first emerged on the big-timecollege football scene with a pair of 8-1 seasons in 1912 and 1913,then went all the way to 9-0 in 1914. But they did all that againstweak mid-Atlantic schedules, and Cornell was a big step up incompetition for them this year. Their tie had come against 3-3-1Indiana, and though they would finish 7-1-1, W&L was not quite atop 25 caliber team this year. They would go 5-2-2 in 1916, but thatwas actually their strongest team of this time period, and their finalrecord is weaker only because they played averyambitious schedule (Army, Navy, Rutgers, Georgia Tech, Washington &Jefferson). 1912-1916 is easily the strongest period in Washington& Lee football history, though they finished #18 in the AP poll in1950, then lost to unbeaten Wyoming in the Gator Bowl. But that teamwas a one-year wonder.

Washington & Lee jumped out to a 21-13 halftime lead overCornell, scoring 2 touchdowns that were set up by Collins fumbles, butCharley Barrett was too much for them. He scored 5 touchdowns, one ofthem from 90 yards out, and kicked 4 extra points. Collins also chippedin a touchdown to make up for one of his fumbles, and Cornell won 40-21.

Cornell'sfinale had been played at Penn on Thanksgiving Day every year since1895, and that tradition would last until 1939, when the game wasplayed on a Saturday. The game continued to be held on Penn's homefield until 1964, when it became a normal home-and-home series. The twoteams still meet in their finales every year, but have not played onThanksgiving Day since 1989.Heading into the 1915 game, Penn had a commanding 18-3-1 record in theseries, but they were poor this year (finishing 3-5-2), and Cornell wasexpected to run away with the game. But they didn't do so until the 4thquarter.

Barrett opened the scoring with a touchdown in the 2nd quarter,but Penn answered with their own, set up by a 40 yard pass to theCornell 1. Penn then added a 28 yard field goal and led at halftime 9-7. Therest of the game was all Cornell, but it stayed 9-7 until the 4thbecause Barrett missed a pair of 3rd quarter field goals. He took the lead inthe 4th on a 24 yard touchdown, then kicked a field goal, and Shiverickchipped in a touchdown for the 24-9 final score. In addition to scoring18 points, Barrett was also singled out by newspapers as the defensiveplayer of the game, breaking up many plays and passes.

Pittsburgh 1915

Westminster (2-5)	32-0
at Navy (3-5-1)	47-12
Carlisle (3-6-2)	45-0
at Penn (3-5-2)	14-7
Allegheny (5-3)	42-7
Washington & Jefferson (8-1-1)	19-0	#16
Carnegie (7-1)	28-0	(#26-30)
Penn State (7-2)	20-0	(#26-30)

Pittsburgh hadlong been working their way up the college football ladder, going78-25-3 1904-1914, and posting perfect records in1904 and1910.They had been a strong 8-1 team in 1914, and Pop Warner's arrival ascoach in 1915 put them over the top. They would not lose again untilthe finale of the 1918 season, 32 straight wins, and they are creditedwith as many as 3 national championships during that time. Pop Warner (pictured at left)was a Cornell grad who had also coached there for 5 seasons. Prior to1915, he had been the coach at Carlisle, winning what I consider to bean MNC in1911, but he did even better atPitt, going 60-12-4 1915-1923. After that he moved on to Stanford,where he is credited with another MNC in 1926, and after a stint at Temple hefinished his career at 319-106-32, setting a record for major football coaching wins that stood for more than 40 years.

Pitt's players were relatively lightly regarded in 1915, and theteam had only one consensus All American, and no other nonconsensusselections, but the roster was full of players who would become AllAmericans in later seasons, and several would become Hall of Famers.Some of them, however, were substitutes who saw little or no action ingames, so I'll just focus on the players who actually contributed tothe 1915 season here.

The one consensus All American was center Robert Peck, who would repeatin 1916 and is in the Hall of Fame. End James Herron would be consensusAA in 1916. Guard Jock Sutherland, who emerged as a starter midseason,would be consensus AA in 1917, and is in the Hall of Fame as a coach.He went 33-8-2 in 5 years at Lafayette, including 9-0 in 1921, and111-20-12 at Pitt 1924-1938. That gives him a total of 144-28-14, placing him highly on the list forall time FBS coaching win percentage, and his teams wonas many as 5 national championships.

Though lightly decorated compared to many players on the roster,halfback Andy Hastings was the star. He was the team's leading rusherin 1914 and 1915, and also handled field goal kicking. His 255 careerpoints (1914-1916 and 1919) are still 3rd best in school history. Butall he has to show for it is one nonconsensus AA selection in 1916. Theother halfback, James DeHart, would also be a nonconsensus AA in 1916.Not decorated at all were quarterback Guy Williamson and fullback TedFry, who also punted and generally kicked extra points. Both were seniors, so would not be around to get nationallynoticed over the next few years like the underclassmen would.

Anotherfullback, George "Tank" McLaren, would be consensus AA in 1918, and isin the Hall of Fame. He played little this season, emerging as astarter and future star in the next-to-last game against Carnegie. Healso started against Penn State in the finale, but he was substitutedout early.

Pittsburgh'sSeason

71915 Pittsburgh vs. Washington and Jefferson football game

8-0 Pittsburgh arranged their schedule quite nicely this season, playing each of their 4 patsies the week before each of their4tough opponents. And 2 of their tough opponents turned out to be weakthis year, 3-5-1 Navy and 3-5-2 Penn, so Pitt was little challenged.

Still, a tripto one of those weak teams, 3-5-2 Penn, gave Pitt their onlytrouble, little though it was. Pitt dominated the game start tofinish, but only won 14-7. Pitt was stopped early at the Penn 2 yardline, and later missed a field goal. Hastings and Hart scored thetouchdowns in the 2nd and 4th quarters, Fry kicking the extra points.Penn's touchdown came in the 4th, and was set up by a Pitt fumble.

Washington &Jefferson (the game pictured above) came in at 5-0-1, following 10-0-1and 10-1 finishes the 2 previous seasons, but Pitt handled them easily,19-0. W&J's powerful passing offense was stymied, and they advancedno real scoring threat in the first half, managing only a missed 55yard field goal attempt. Still, the game was scoreless at halftime.Hastings changed that in the 3rd quarter with a 59 yard touchdown run,and James Herron returned a fumble 70 yards for another touchdown soonafter. A Jock Sutherland interception returned to the W&J 13 set upa Ted Fry touchdown that closed the scoring at 19-0 in the samequarter. Hastings was the bulk of the offense, and he was singledout by newspapers for his great pass defense as well. Robert Peckwas also lauded: as a blocker he was frequently able to take out both the opposing center and a defensive back.

Washington &Jefferson finished 8-1-1, but they tied a mediocre 5-2-1 West Virginiateam, and I have them ranked #16 for 1915.Still, beating them was a big deal for Pitt, as W&J was a rival who had been 9-4 against Pitt before 1915.

Carnegiewas supposed to be the patsy between the Washington & Jefferson andPenn State games, but they came into this game at 6-0, having beatentheir opponents 198-26, their closest game a 21 point win. However, allof their opponents but Pitt were minor schools, so it was not much of asurprise when Pitt belted them 28-0. Carnegie was held to just 2 firstdowns, both in the 4th quarter. Future Hall of Fame fullback TankMcLaren got the start here and had a great game, but halfback AndyHastings was, as usual, the star, scoring 3 touchdowns and 4 extrapoints. Carnegie finished 7-1, outscoring opponents 228-32 in the 7wins.

Pitt's final opponent, Penn State, was 12-5 all-time against Pittbefore this season. They came into the game 7-1, their loss 13-0 atHarvard, and though they fell just short of being top 25 caliber this season, it was a rivalry game.

But StateCollege was as little trouble as Washington & Jefferson had been, and Pittbeat them by a similar score, 20-0. PSU had the ball inside the Pitt 10yard line twice thanks to Pitt fumbles, but failed to score or advanceany other threats. Andy Hastings scored 17 of his team's 20 points,netting a touchdown, extra point, and field goal in the first quarter,and adding a 27 yard touchdown and extra point in the 3rd. A sub kickeda field goal in the 4th to get the 20.

Cornell vs. Pittsburgh

Amidstmuch speculation and debate as to who was the better team, Pittsburghtried to schedule a game with Cornell to settle the matter after their regular seasons werecomplete, proposing that the proceeds go to charity.Unfortunately, after some discussion between the two on details such aswhere to play the game, Cornell ultimately declined, claiming that theyhad a policy against "postseason" games.

Pittsburgh had apowerful team, and may well have been able to beat Cornell had the twoteams played, but there are 2 reasons Pittsburgh does not merit sharinga mythical national championship (MNC) with Cornell.

Firstof all, Pitt's schedule was rather light, and more importantly, theydid not beat anyone that compares to Harvard. Cornell's schedulewas also light, but that 10-0 win at 8-1 Harvard was easily thebiggest win by any team this season. It was Harvard's first loss in 4years, and they had been ruling college football 1908-1914. Harvardbeat 8-1 Virginia, who beat 9-1 Vanderbilt 35-10, and Vanderbiltoutscored their other 9 opponents 503-3. So Cornell sat atop thestrongest totem pole of power in college football in 1915.

Secondly,Cornell won all of their games by more than a touchdown. Pitt did not,winning only 14-7 at Penn, where Cornell won 24-9. Now, Pitt was notreally threatened in that game, and one could argue that Cornellstruggled more at Penn than Pitt did, as they trailed going into the4th quarter, but the fact is that Cornell won by 15 points, more thanPitt even scored against Penn. Interestingly, this was not the last timePenn proved to be a thorn in Pitt's paw. Pittsburgh posted aperfect record in 1917 also, but Georgia Tech is a unanimous selectionas national champion that season primarily because they beat Penn bysignificantly more than Pitt did.

The only reason to consider Pittfor a share of the 1915 MNC at all, really, is what they did in subsequent seasons, as they wouldcontinue to win every game until their finale in 1918, and in hindsightare considered the best team of this time period. This argument isenticing, but it ignores the facts of this season, and it assumes thatPitt was the same team 1916-1918 as they were in 1915, which they werenot (though nearly half the pieces were in place in 1915). Pitt hasmuch stronger arguments for sharing MNCs in each of the next 3 seasonsthan they do in 1915. In fact, Nebraska and Washington State havebetter cases for sharing an MNC in 1915 than does Pitt, so I am herebyeliminating Pitt from contention, and moving on to the Westerncontenders.

Nebraska 1915

Drake (2-6)	48-13
Kansas State (3-4-1)	31-0
Washburn (2-5-1)	47-0
Notre Dame (7-1)	20-19	#9
at Iowa State (6-2)	21-0
Nebraska Wesleyan (6-3)	30-0
at Kansas (6-2)	33-0
Iowa (3-4)	52-7

Nebraskahad not lost since 1912, and their 8-0 finish in 1915 continued anunbeaten streak that lasted for 34 games. I covered their coach, JumboStiehm, in my1913 MNC article. Nebraska returned 10 starters from 1914's 7-0-1 team.

Nebraska's star and first ever consensus All American wasrecruited away from Nebraska Wesleyan, whom the Cornhuskers routed 30-0 this season. A Hall of Famer, Guy Chamberlin(pictured at left) would later be considered the greatest end incollege football history to this point. He could reportedly run 100yards in under 10 seconds, rushed for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns in a33-0 victory over 6-2 Kansas, and totaled 15 touchdowns on the season.That's an enormous amount of touchdowns for an end, but he scored 5 ofthose touchdowns when he was moved to halfback for a 52-7 win over Iowain the finale. Chamberlin would later win 4 NFL championshipsas a player-coach, going 56-14-5 as a pro coach, and he is in the profootball Hall of Fame.

The captain was halfback Dick Rutherford, and he and Chamberlin wereamong 4 players selected for the All Western team, which was unusualbecause the selector was from Chicago and generally gave the slots toWestern Conference (Big Ten) teams, Nebraska usually getting but onetoken slot.

Nebraska's Season

Like Cornell, Nebraska basically played a one-game season. Thatone game was against Notre Dame, who replaced Minnesota this year asNebraska's annual nonconference power opponent. The Nebraska-Notre Dameseries would last 11 years, after which Notre Dame, tired of riotousanti-Catholic behavior from Nebraska fans, replaced Nebraska on theirschedule with Southern Cal. But it was a great series while it lasted,with the teams splitting it 5-5-1.

The inaugural game of the series, played in Lincoln, was razor close,and some Notre Dame partisans felt that they were "homered" by thereferee, famed Chicago alumnus Walter Eckersall, who worked all the biggames in the West. Notre Damewas hampered by penalties in this game, losing several big gains to the whistle, but they were most irritatedwhen they scored what might have been the deciding touchdown on a muffedpunt, only to have the ball brought back because an official had blownthe play dead.

NotreDame scored first, taking a 6-0 lead on a touchdown by halfback ArthurBergman. Guy Chamberlin gave Nebraska the lead 7-6 with a 20 yardtouchdown run, but Notre Dame led 13-7 at half on a Bergman touchdownreception. Chamberlin then scored touchdowns on a run and a pass for a20-13 Nebraska lead. Bergmanscored on a 40 yard touchdown run with 2 minutes left, but ND missedtheir second extra pointand lost 20-19.

GuyChamberlin was virtually a one-man team for Nebraska, scoring on 20 and10 yard touchdown runs and throwing for another touchdown.Nebraska didn't pass much, but connected on 5 of their 8 tries, andthat plus one more extra point made the difference in the game.Chamberlin was also hailed as the defensive star, and Notre Dameassistant coach Knute Rockne commented, "Without Chamberlin, Nebraskawould be easy. He's a team in himself."

Notre Dame finished out the season 7-1, but their schedule wasweak, and they struggled against a couple of mediocre opponents, soit's difficult to gauge exactly how good they were. I have them ranked#9 for 1915. Their most impressive result was this loss to Nebraska,who routedthe rest of their schedule by an average score of 37-3, beating 6-2Iowa State 21-0 and 6-2 Kansas 33-0, though neither was top 25 caliber.

Afterthe season, Nebraska was invited to play Washington State in the RoseBowl, but the University Athletic Board turned the invitation downbecause of the travel costs involved. Jumbo Stiehm contacted severalEastern powers, including Harvard, about playing an extra game, but noone was interested in coming to Lincoln in December. Partiallymotivated by anger at the Athletic Board for turning down the Rose Bowlinvitation, Stiehm requested a $750 raise, and was of course turneddown. So he left for Indiana and a $250 increase in salary. He fellfrom 35-2-3 in his last 5 years at Nebraska to just 20-18-1 in his next 6 years atIndiana, but bear this in mind-- only one football coach has had a winning record at Indiana since Stiehm's tenure there.

Cornell vs. Nebraska

Cornell and Nebraska both effectively played one-game schedules, and the differencebetween the two comes down to that one game for each. Cornell victimHarvard (8-1) was a much better opponent than Nebraska victim NotreDame (7-1), as Harvard defeated 3 top 25 caliber opponents, including 8-1 Virginia, whom I have rated #14. Notre Dame didnot beat a top 25 caliber opponent. And Cornell defeated Harvard 10-0on the road, while Nebraska beat Notre Dame 20-19 at home in a gamethat could easily have gone either way. The difference here iswide enough to eliminate Nebraska from contention.

Still,Nebraska is the only contender aside from Cornell that defeated apotential top 10 opponent, and they routed the rest of their schedule,so I think they have the best case of any contender for sharing amythical national championship with Cornell. Pitt did not play a teamlike Notre Dame, and they had the one poor performance at 3-5-2Penn. Nebraska is close to meriting a share of the MNC, but they neededat least one more top opponent, and obviously if they hadaccepted the Rose Bowl bid and beaten Washington State, that would havebeen enough. But beating Notre Dame more impressively, or Notre Damebeating a top team would have been enough to earn Nebraska a share too.

Washington State 1915

Oregon (7-2)	28-3	#24
at Oregon State (5-3)	29-0	#25
at Idaho (4-2-1)	41-0
Montana (2-2-2)	27-7
Whitman ()	17-0
at Gonzaga (3-3)	48-0
Rose Bowl Brown (5-4-1)	14-0

1915 Washington State football captain Carl Dietz

WashingtonState had 4 straight Native American head coaches 1912-1925, startingwith Nebraska grad John "Chief" Bender, followed by 3 former playersfor Carlisle Indian School:William"Lone Star" Dietz, Gus Welch, and Albert Exendine. Lone Star Dietzarrived in 1915 and had an immediate impact, leading WSU to a 7-0finish and theonly Rose Bowl win in the school's history. He went 17-2-1 at WSU1915-1917, then coached the Mare Island Marines in the Rose Bowlfollowing the 1918 season. He later made it to a third Rose Bowl as anassistant coach with Stanford. Overall he went 70-47-6 at 5 schools,20-3 with the Mare Island Marines, and 11-11-2 as an NFL coach with theRedskins. Lone Star Dietz had quite the wardrobe: the pictures aboveshow him in his Sioux gear and in his typical gameday sideline attire.

WSU's star player was team captain Carl Dietz (pictured at left), norelation to the coach. He played at end, fullback, and halfback, andhandled the punting and kicking duties as well. He was also a trackstar, and an article in Washington State's school newspaper in 1924declared him WSU's all-time greatest athlete.

WashingtonState outscored their opponents 204-10 (average 29-1), including 28-3over 7-2 Oregon and 29-0 at 5-3 Oregon State. Oregon State took a longtrain ride East this season to beat 5-1Michigan State 20-0, but they also lost 28-0 at home to 9-1-2 Syracuse.Michigan State won the rest of their games by an average score of 52-4,including 24-0 over 4-3-1 Michigan, so that was a big win for OregonState, and it's what gets Oregon ranked #24 and Oregon State #25for 1915.

The Tournament of Roses Game

Atthe end of the regular season, 6-0 Washington State was invited to playin the first Tournament of Roses game since January 1902. This relaunchwas really the beginning of the Rose Bowl, as the game was played everyyear afterward. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh was busy trying to negotiatean extra game against Cornell, andNebraska, Syracuse, and Michigan declined invitations to play, so thebest teamthe Rose Bowl could get to play WSU was 5-3-1 Brown. WSU beat them14-0, but Brownhad been tied by Trinity (Connecticut), and had lost to Amherst,Syracuse, and Harvard, and they were not at all a top 25 caliber team.

Itrained for days beforehand, and continued to rain throughout the game,resulting in a disappointing turnout of 7000-8000 spectators. Therain melted the field into mud, so the game was all line plunging.Washington State was stopped twiceat the Brown goal line, and Brown was stopped at the WSU 19, leavingthe teams scoreless at halftime. Fresh substitutes for WSU drove to atouchdown througha tired Brown line in the 3rd quarter, and that was pretty much thegame, though they added a 4 yard Carl Dietz touchdown in the 4thquarter.

WSUdroveto at least the Brown 15 yard line 5 times in the second half,outgained Brown 313 yards to 86, and they earned 19 first downs toBrown's 6. Carl Dietz carried 33 times for 105 yards and a touchdown,and referee Walter Eckersall said afterward that he was WSU's bestplayer on both offense and defense. More significantly, Eckersall, whohad also worked as an official for Cornell's game at Michigan, declaredthat Washington State was "the equal of Cornell. There is not a betterfootball team in the country."

The Northwest

While Brown was not a strong opponent, the fact that a team from the Northwest so thoroughly dominatedanymajor winning Eastern team was itself noteworthy. Oregon State had madean even bigger national impression in October with their 20-0 win atMichigan State, but the Rose Bowl result cemented nationalrespect for Northwest football that had not existed prior to thisseason.

But these were not the only intersectional games playedby Far West teams this season, because 9-1-2 Syracuse traveled out Westfor a series of 3 games at Montana, Oregon State, and Occidental inlate November and early December. The game at 2-2-2 Montana was a bitof a fiasco, not because it was played in a snowstorm, but because acrowd of drunk miners were in attendance armed with guns, and theyintimidated the referee to a degree that made the 6-6 outcome somethingof a joke. Still, however it occurred, this was another positive resultfor the Northwest. Washington State had beaten Montana 27-7.

Farlesspositive for the region was Syracuse's 28-0 win at 5-3 Oregon State.That somewhat undid the national reputation Oregon State had earnedwiththeir win at Michigan State. Syracuse's road trip ended with a 35-0 winat Occidental, who had come into the game as champions ofCalifornia with a 7-0 record.

Priorto this season, there hadbeen no games between the Northwest and the rest of the nation, so itwas impossible to gauge the power level of the region's teams. All inall, this seasonmade for a very positive intersectional debut for the region, certainlybetter than anyone outside the Northwest had expected.

Cornell vs. Washington State

WashingtonState, like Cornell, defeated every opponent by more than a touchdown,but unlike Cornell, they did not play a top opponent. Because of that,Nebraska, with their big win over 7-1 Notre Dame, makes a betterMNC candidate than WSU. Washington State is similar to the Penn State andWisconsin teams of1912, except thattheir schedule may have been even weaker. And similar to thoseteams, as well as Nebraska this season, I don't think WSU quite meritsa national championship.

Washington State needed the same thing Nebraska did-- a win againstthe other team in the Rose Bowl. As such, it's too bad Nebraska'sAthletic Board voted down making the trip. But it didn't have to beNebraska-- if Pittsburgh had given up on trying to get a game withCornell, and had come out West instead, the Rose Bowl would still haveproduced a fair claimant on the mythical national championshipregardless of who won. As it was, Brown's presence in the Rose Bowlmade the game barely relevant, and Washington State, Nebraska, andPittsburgh all come up short of an MNC curriculum vitae.

Rebutting Recent Calls for a 1915 Washington State MNC

Unlike most ofthe near-miss MNC contenders I've covered thus far in these articles,Washington State has several writers on the internet calling for themto claim a national championship for 1915, and as Lone Star Dietz biographer TomBenjey urges, to put a banner for it up in their stadium. Well,needless to say, I think that would be a silly move (though SouthernCal and Alabama claim even sillier "national championships"), and I will rebut thepro-WSU arguments here:

The Helms Foundation, which selected Cornell as 1915 national champion in 1941, was based in New York and had an Eastern bias. Not true. The Helms Foundationwas based in Los Angeles, and while I don't think their selections showmuch bias, if anything they were biased toward West Coast teams andRose Bowl champions.

Brown's only other loss aside from the Rose Bowl was to Harvard. Not true. Unfortunately, this error has been repeated inwikipedia articles related to Washington State and their 1915 team. Butas I have already established, Brown also lost to Amherst andSyracuse, and they were tied by Trinity-Connecticut, finishing 5-4-1.

Referee Walter Eckersall stated after the game that Washington State was the equal of Cornell. This is the only decent pro-WSU argument I've seen. AndEckersall also worked a Cornell game this season, so he saw both teamsup close and personal. Still, it's only one man's opinion, like whenBeano Cook told us Ron Pawlus was the greatest quarterback ever, andwould win 4 Heismans. And Eckersall, based out of Chicago, workedWestern games and was a pro-Western writer, placing more Westerners onhis All American teams than Eastern writers did. He generallychampioned the West. Of course, there is also the possibility that hewas just being polite in his post-game comments.

WashingtonState dominated 5-4-1 Brown, but only won by 14 points. The Cornellgame Eckersall worked was at 4-3-1 Michigan, where Cornell won 34-7,scoring within a minute and running wild all game long, the game endingwith Cornell sitting on Michigan's goal line again. It was the mostpoints scored on Michigan since Yost became coach in 1901.

Comparative scores favor Washington State. Not true. Oh, you can find comparative score chains thatfavor WSU over Cornell, but you can just as easily find them in theother direction. Let's look at the two pro-WSU examples I have seen.

The first is a citation of a 1915 column by Roscoe Faucett in thePortland Oregonian, but I haven't read the column myself, so I am notyet convinced that Roscoe was serious. But here's his chain:WSU 29-0 over Oregon State, OSU 20-0 over Michigan State, MSU 24-0 overMichigan, ergo WSU is 73 points better than Michigan. Syracuse 14-7over Michigan, Princeton 3-0 over Syracuse, so WSU is 63 points betterthan Princeton. Faucett then states that by another chain (notspecified), WSU is 50 points better than Harvard. He does not mentionCornell, but by his logic, since Cornell beat Harvard 10-0, WSU wouldbe 40 points better than Cornell.

The biggest problem with this chain is that it picks upSyracuse far down the line-- but Syracuse played the second team in thechain, Oregon State, and beat them 28-0. So by his logic, WSU, who beatOSU 29-0, was 1 point better than Syracuse. And Syracuse lost toPrinceton by 3, who lost to Harvard by 4, who lost to Cornell by 10--voila!, Cornell was 16 points better than WSU. But we can have more funthan that. Princeton lost to Yale by 6, who lost to Harvard by 41-- soadding Yale to the chain makes Cornell 59 points better than WSU.

The problem with cherry-picked victory chains is that they quicklyand easily become silly. For example, WSU beat Whitman by 17, OregonState beat Whitman by 27, and Oregon beat OSU by 9, so OSU was 10points better than WSU, and Oregon was 19 better, right? Yet WSU beatOSU 29-0 and Oregon 28-3.

The second comparative score example I've seen in a pro-WSUargument is much stronger because it is shorter and simpler, and theconclusion drawn is much more modest. This one comes from WSU gradMichael Baumgartner in a 2005 article for Scout.com:Washington State 14-0 over Brown, Harvard 16-7 over Brown, Cornell 10-0over Harvard, and therefore "Washington State certainly stands up toCornell." The fatal flaw here is the Harvard-Brown game. That game tookplace the week before Harvard's game with Yale, so Harvard's starterswere held out. Harvard's coach and star players were in New Haven thatday, scouting the Yale-Princeton game. Only 2 Harvard regulars playedagainst Brown at all, and neither played for long. Yet Harvard's subsnearly beat Brown by as much as WSU did. And Cornell won 10-0 overHarvard's starters--at Harvard.

And that's WSU's real problem right there. It isn't scoring-- WSUperformed perfectly, winning every game by more than a touchdown. Butthey did not play an opponent anywhere near the quality of a Harvard,whose loss to Cornell was the first and only one they had suffered in 4years. Colorado State also won every game by more than a touchdownthis season. It's a nice feat, but that alone is not enough for a national championship. To be thebest, you've got to beat the best.

Oklahoma 1915

Oklahoma's coachwas Hall of Famer Bennie Owen, a Kansas grad who had played forFielding Yost in 1899. Owen coached at Washburn (Kansas) in 1900 and atBethany (Kansas) 1901-1904, defeating Oklahoma in 1903 and 1904.Oklahoma hired him away, and he went 122-54-16 there 1905-1926, winning 2 conference titles in the SWC and 1 in the MVC.However, he only went 59-48-11 against major schoolswhile at Oklahoma;10-11 against major Texas schools and 20-29-8 against major MissouriValley teams (Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, and Nebraska). He was 8-8against Texas. Overall, he finished 155-60-19 for his career. BennieOwen is the namesake of Oklahoma's playing surface, Owen Field.

Owen inherited from his former mentor Fielding Yost a lust forcupcake blood, and his teams ran up some huge scores on their weakestopponents, scoring in triple digits 7 times 1913-1919, including a highof 179 points on Kingfisher in 1917. Oklahoma piled up 451 points thatyear, yet they were shut out 3 times and held to 14 or less 7 times,finishing 6-4-1. Similarly, they scored 472 in 1916, but were held to14 or less 6 times and finished 6-5.

Oklahoma'sstar player and captain was fullback Forest "Spot" Geyer, an excellentpasser who earned the "Spot" nickname for his accuracy with the longpass. He also handled the kicking duties. He didn't make a first-teamAll American list (the Southwest was largely ignored at this time), buthe is in the Hall of Fame. He was one of 6 Oklahoma players that wereall-conference this season.

Owen's team was pass-happy, throwing the ball 30 times a game.

Oklahoma's Season

Oklahomawon the inaugural SWC title this season, finishing 10-0 and outscoringopponents 370-54, most of those points coming against their opening 3patsies: Kingfisher 67-0,Southwestern Oklahoma State 55-0, and Northwestern Oklahoma State102-0. They had 2 close games, a pair of 14-13 wins over 6-3 Texas and6-1-1 Tulsa. Tulsa was a good minor team, but they were tied by 4-5-1Oklahoma State, beat no one, and were nowhere near top 25 caliber.

1915 Oklahoma-Texas football game

This was the first year Oklahoma played Texas at the Texas StateFair (pictured), and a state-record 11,000 fans filled the covered grandstands.Texas was favored, and they came into the game 11-5-1 in theseries. The teams combined for 71 passes. Oklahoma's Spot Geyer fumbledthe opening kickoff, and Texas recovered at the 25, setting up atouchdown for an early 7-0 lead. Texas later fumbled at the Oklahoma22, then blocked a punt to get the ball at the Oklahoma 10, but misseda field goal. Oklahoma finally got on track late in the first quarter,driving 80 yards, mostly through the air, for the tying touchdown. Thedrive opened with a 25 yard pass, then featured a big 10 yard run on4th and 2, a 20 yard pass, and a touchdown pass on 3rd and goal fromthe 9. In the second quarter, Geyer missed 2 field goals, one from only12 yards out, and Texas fumbled at the Oklahoma 12, leaving the teamstied at the half.

In the 3rd quarter, Texas returned a punt tothe Oklahoma 35, leading to a touchdown run on 4th and goal from the 5,but they missed the extra point, and that proved to be the differencein the game. Oklahoma controlled the action in the 4th, but could not getclose to the goal line until late in the game. With 3 minutes to go,Texas got off an awful 20 yard punt, giving Oklahoma the ball at theTexas 40. After a 20 yard pass, Spot Geyer hit a 20 yarder for thetouchdown, then kicked the crucial extra point for the 14-13 win. Texaswas not only done in by their kicking game, but they also suffered 9turnovers, 6 of them interceptions. Oklahoma end Montford "Hap"Johnson, Geyer's favorite target this season, caught both Oklahomatouchdown passes.

Theonly other significant win Oklahoma posted was a 23-14 victory over 6-2Kansas. None of their opponents, however, were top 25 caliber.

Not a National Championship Contender

Withno potential top 25 opponents and 2 close games, it need hardly be saidthat Oklahoma is not an MNC contender this season. They barely beat aTexas team that they appear to have been equal to in power. Texas lostto Notre Dame at home 36-7, and Nebraska beat Notre Dame. Oklahoma beatKansas 23-14, Nebraska beat them 33-0. Oklahoma beat Kansas State 21-7,Nebraska beat them 31-0. Oklahoma appears to have been a #11-20 team at best (I have them #17),and in fact Colorado State would probably make a better MNC candidate thisseason, since no one came close to them.

Colorado State 1915

Colorado Statehead coach and athletic director Harry Hughes was an Oklahoma grad whohad played for Bennie Owen, then served as assistant coach at Oklahomain 1910. He had his work cut out for him when he arrived at CSU in1911, as they had posted 7 losing seasons in a row, going 6-24-5 inthat time, and worse, only 2 members of the team were actually CSUstudents. He dismissed all the ringers, and appealed to the students totry out for the team, barely finding enough players to play thatseason, and they finished 1-6. After that first school year, he and histeam cleared the playing field of rocks, graded it, planted grass, andput up grandstands.

His teams went 9-8 over the next 3 years, but this was CSU'sbreakout season, and their 7-0 finish is still the only perfect recordColorado State has ever produced. They won the Rocky Mountain AthleticConference championship, the first of 8 conference titles Hughes wouldwin. He reigned as head coach for 32 seasons, going 126-92-18, andserved as athletic director until 1953. He was inducted into the HelmsFoundation Hall of Fame, and Colorado State's stadium is named for him.

ColoradoState won every game by more than a touchdown in 1915, including 21-9at 5-2 Utah, 35-0 over 4-2 Colorado Mines, and 24-13 at 6-2 ColoradoCollege. Those 3 teams lost only to Colorado State and to each other,but they played few meaningful intersectional games. Utah beat SouthernCal 20-13 at home, but that does the Rocky Mountain region no favors,as USC was poor at this time, losing 34-0 to Oregon, who lost 28-3 toWashington State.

The RockyMountain region was not particularly strongin general: 1902-1918 their major teams went1-8 against Nebraska, 1-4 against Haskell, 1-2 against South Dakota,and also lost games to Wisconsin, Carlisle, and Washington. But theregion went a decent 2-3-1 against other major Missouri Valley teams and 2-2against the SWC.

It need hardly be said that Colorado State's schedule leaves them out of any serious MNC discussion.

Washington 1915

This was 7-0 Washington's 8th of 9 straight unbeaten seasons. I discussed them briefly in my articles for the 1910 and1913mythical national championships, and I covered their Hall of Famecoach, Gil Dobie, in the 1910 piece. By 1915, Gil Dobie had become themost hated figure in Northwestern football, outside Seattle of course, and not just because henever lost a game at Washington (though let's face it-- that was most of it). Like Pop Warner at Pittsburgh andHarry Hughes at Colorado State, Dobie was a chronic poormouther,constantly deriding his own team and predicting that they would loseevery week, regardless of the opponent. This might have seemed amusingfor the first few years Dobie coached Washington, but the longer hiswinning streak grew, the more his poormouthing grated, until opposingcoaches despised his act.

Another reason Dobie was so hated by the rest of the Northwest is thathe refused to play the region's other major teams on their home field.He would only play Washington State at home, and against Oregon andOregon State, Washington alternated annually between home and neutralsites. By 1915, Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington State had hadenough, and all 3 refused to play Washington. Consequently,Washington needed to find new teams with which to fill out a schedule,so they played Colorado and 2 games against California, one at home,the other-- gasp-- in Berkeley.

The problem is that neither Colorado nor California were good this season, leaving Washington with anincrediblyweakschedule. This was Cal's first year fielding a football team since1905. Their rugby coach learned the game of football in the offseason,then taught it to his players in the early Fall. They were quicklearners, and Cal finished 8-5. Washington won 72-0 inBerkeley, but the next week, Cal came up to Seattle a reborn team. Caltook a 7-0 lead, and Washington needed a late touchdown drive to pullout a 13-7 win. There was speculation that Dobie purposely kept thegame close so that Cal would not give up on football after this season,but that doesn't sound like Gil Dobie at all, and following this game,Cal continued to play vastly better than they had before. They went toNevada and won 81-0, then won at Southern Cal 23-21 (USC had beatenthem 28-10 earlier in the season).

Washington's finale againstColorado was supposed to be the big game of their season, as FredFolsom's teams had been ruling the Rocky Mountain conference for years,going 34-5-1 1909-1914, including 3 perfect seasons. But this yearColorado was quite bad, finishing 1-6 after Washington routed them46-0. They also lost 23-6 to 7-0 Colorado State, 44-0 to ColoradoCollege, and 35-3 to Utah.

Washington's players, as usual for the Northwest, were little-heralded nationally, but guard LouisSeagrave would become a nonconsensus All American in 1916.

Needlessto say, Washington did not play a schedule that puts them in any kindof national championship consideration, and their close call at homeagainst Cal only serves to seal the deal. Washington State's scheduleand performance were far stronger. Still, even if 1915 saw WSU's bestteam ever to that point, it bears remembering that Washington had beenbeating WSU (as well as Oregon and Oregon State, who were also strongthis season) for many years. There's no telling what would havehappened had the two teams played. But Gil Dobie's first nationalchampionship will have to wait until the next decade, when he is thecoach of this year's champion, Cornell.

AwardsCeremony

1915 #1:9-0 Cornell
National Co-champion:None
Contenders:8-0 Pittsburgh, 8-0 Nebraska, and 7-0 Washington State

Theseare the awards I have been handing out for each season, except seasonswhen there are no contenders. For this purpose, what I mean by acontender is a team that I think is very close to being worthy ofsharing the national championship. A team that you could make anargument for, even if that argument is weak. But the contenders areteams that I myself do not see as national champions.

You'll be seeing plenty of Pittsburgh going forward-- they contendfor a mythical national championship in each of the next 3 seasons aswell. Washington State, on the other hand, never contends again, andNebraska's next potential MNC is more than 50 years away.

Gradingthe Selectors

Ihave been grading the NCAA Records Book's selectors for each season,and keeping a grade point average, so we can see who is relatively goodat selecting national champions and who is not. And although I do notconsider computer ratings to be legitimate national championshipselectors, I have been including them in this section as well,just for comparison's sake.I amgrading on a scale of 0-5 (5 being the best).

ParkeDavis selected Cornell and Pittsburgh.Grade: 3.2

Billingsley's computer selected Oklahoma. Grade: 0.1

Everyone else selected Cornell.Grade:5

Grade Averages:

1) Houlgate (math system)	4.3
2) Parke Davis	4.19
3) Helms	4.18
4) National Championship Foundation	3.42
5) Billingsley (math)	3.41

The main problem with Parke Davis' selection of Pitt is that while it iseasy to differentiate Cornell from Pitt, it is impossible to point toanything that indicates Pitt to have been better than Nebraska andWashington State, and in fact Pitt did not perform as well as the othertwo. Crowning Pitt and not Nebraska and Washington State is thereforearbitrary at best.

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