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American college football season
The 1911 college football season was the last one before major reforms were made to the American game in 1912. In 1911, touchdowns were worth five points, the field was 110 yards in length, and a team had three downs within which to advance the ball ten yards. The United States Naval Academy (Navy) finished with a record of 6 wins and 3 ties (6–0–3). Two of the ties were 0–0 games with the other major unbeaten teams, Penn State (8–0–1) and Princeton (8–0–2). Other teams that finished the season unbeaten were Minnesota (6–0–1) and Florida (5–0–1). The Helms Athletic Foundation , founded in 1936, declared retroactively that Princeton had been the best team of 1911 [ 1]
The rules for American football in 1911 included:[ 2]
Field 110 yards in length
Kickoff made from midfield
Three downs to gain ten yards
Touchdown worth 5 points
Field goal worth 3 points
Forward pass legal, but subject to penalties:
A pass could not be caught beyond the goal line, nor more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.[ 2]
Conference and program changes [ edit ]
Carlisle beat Lebanon Valley 53–0, and in a Wednesday (Sep. 27) game beat Muhlenberg 32–0
Lafayette beat Bloomsburg College 53–0
Brown beat New Hampshire 56–0
Brown beat Rhode Island 12–0
Princeton beat Stevens 37–0, and three days later, beat Rutgers 37–0
Carlisle beat Dickinson 17–0
Lafayette beat Ursinus College 3–0
Penn State beat Geneva College 57–0
Arkansas beat visiting Southwest Missouri State College, 100–0
Georgia beat Alabama Presbyterian 51–0
Minnesota opened its season with a 5–0 win over Iowa State.
Vanderbilt opened with a 40–0 win over visiting Birmingham College
Harvard beat Bates 15–0
Navy beat Johns Hopkins 27–5, and on Wednesday the 11th, beat St. John's College of Maryland, 21–0
Princeton beat Villanova 31–0 and on October 11, played Lehigh to a 6–6 tie
Carlisle beat Mount St. Mary's 46–5
Penn State beat Gettysburg 31–0
Army beat Vermont 12–0
After a 39–0 win against the Seamen Gunners, Georgetown beat William & Mary 66–0
Harvard beat Holy Cross 8–0
Michigan beat Case 24–0
Minnesota beat South Dakota 5–0
Chicago beat Indiana 23–6
Texas A&M beat Southwestern 22–0.
Vanderbilt beat Maryville 46–0
Florida beat The Citadel 15–3
Georgia beat South Carolina 38–0
Oklahoma beat Kingfisher 104–0
At Annapolis, Navy and Princeton played to a 0–0 tie.
Carlisle won at Pittsburgh 17–0
Harvard defeated Amherst 11–0
Penn State beat Villanova 18–0
Army beat Yale 6–0
Florida and South Carolina played to a 6–6 tie, and three days later, the Gators won at Clemson, 6–5.
Vanderbilt beat visiting Centre College 45–0; in its first four games, Vandy had outscored its opposition 164–0.
Georgia beat visiting Sewanee 12–3.
Texas A&M beat Auburn 16–0
Michigan beat Ohio State 19–0
Georgetown won at Richmond 65–0
Minnesota stayed unbeaten with a 21–3 win over Nebraska
Chicago defeated Illinois 24–0
In an intersectional meeting of unbeaten teams, Michigan edged visiting Vanderbilt , 9–8
Navy and Western Reserve played to a 0–0 tie.
Carlisle beat Lafayette 19–0
At Philadelphia, Penn State beat Pennsylvania, 22–6.
Army beat Lehigh 20–0
Georgetown beat St. John's College of Maryland, 20–0.
Princeton beat Holy Cross 20–0
Minnesota won at Iowa 24–6.
Wisconsin , after shutouts against Lawrence (15–0), and Ripon (24–0) *Colorado College (26–0) won at Northwestern 28–3
Harvard was defeated by visiting Brown, 20–6
Georgia beat Mercer 8–5
In a Friday game, Texas A&M beat Ole Miss, 17–0
Carlisle (8–0) handed Harvard (5–1) its second straight loss, winning 18–15
Navy beat West Virginia 32–0.
Army was scored upon for the first time in six games, as it beat Bucknell 20–2.
Michigan (4–0–1) lost at Cornell, 6–0
Chicago won at Northwestern 9–3
Penn State beat Colgate 17–9
Princeton beat Dartmouth 3–0
Florida won at Stetson 27–0
Vanderbilt beat Kentucky 18–0
On Monday the 13th, Texas A&M lost to Texas 6–0
On Wednesday, November 29, in Savannah, Georgia and Auburn played to a 0–0 tie.
November 30 (Thanksgiving)[ edit ]
The last five-point American football touchdown was scored on January 1, 1912, in a game played in Havana, Cuba. Mississippi A&M College (now Mississippi State University ) defeated the Club Atletico de Cuba, 12–0.[ 4]
Conference standings [ edit ]
Major conference standings [ edit ]
For this article, major conferences defined as those including multiple state flagship public universities.
Minor conference standings [ edit ]
The consensus All-America team included:
Position
Name
Height
Weight (lbs.)
Class
Hometown
Team
QB
Art Howe
5'10"
153
Sr.
South Orange, New Jersey
Yale
QB
Earl Sprackling
5'9"
150
Sr.
Cleveland, Ohio
Brown
HB
Percy Wendell
Jr.
Roxbury, Massachusetts
Harvard
HB
Jim Thorpe
6'1"
180
Jr.
Shawnee, Oklahoma
Carlisle
FB
John Dalton
5'11"
174
Sr.
St. Louis, Missouri
Penn
E
Sanford White
Sr.
Fall River, Massachusetts
Princeton
T
Ed Hart
5'11"
208
Sr.
Exeter, New Hampshire
Princeton
G
Bob Fisher
Sr.
Boston, Massachusetts
Harvard
C
Hank Ketcham
6'0"
175
So.
Englewood, New Jersey
Yale
G
Joseph Duff
Sr.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Princeton
T
Leland Devore
6'4"
225
Jr.
Wheeling, West Virginia
Army
E
Doug Bomeisler
5'11"
190
Jr.
Brooklyn, New York
Yale
Statistical leaders [ edit ]
Rushing yards leader: Jim Thorpe , Carlisle, 899
Rushing avg. leader: Jim Thorpe, 8.0