The College Football Playoff Final will happen on January 9th in what we hope will be a good game between TCU and Georgia. Both are Power 5 Conference Schools and both have previously won National Championship. Knowing TCU’s last National Championship was way back in 1938, we began to scroll through the previous National Championship winners in the early history of college football. As we got to the early 1900s, we started to see some Ivy League schools who will likely never win a National Championship again and some schools we had no idea they won an officially recognized NCAA Football National Championship in football. 

There were two smaller schools who won a single (NCAA recognized*) National Championship who stood out to us. One of these schools never stopped playing college football; the other program disbanded but eventually came back at a much lower level. ****Before you get into the claimed National Championships, which we of course give credit for fully, we are using what the NCAA website lists here (https://www.ncaa.com/history/football/fbs)****

Take a trip back to the early history of College Football with us.  

The 1905 Chicago Maroons

In the 1890s and early 1900s the game of football was very different. The precursor of the Big Ten was known as the Western Conference, the points system was also very different; to wit a touchdown was worth five points and field goal from the field worth four points. Also, the halves of the games were 35 minutes each for a total of 70 minutes of game time.

The Chicago Maroons won a title in 1905 but disbanded their football program in 1939. Football returned to the school in the form of a football club in 1963. It was upgraded to varsity status in 1969 and has been in Division III since 1973. The University of Chicago claims the 1913 National Championship but the NCAA website only recognizes Harvard as the sole national championship. Nice to see the Harvard folks catch a break for once. 

Yes we beveled the University of Chicago’s Logo for this post

Their head coach was Amos Alonzo Stagg, (One of the founders of the sport of football and the namesake for the Stagg Bowl - The Division III National Title Game), in his 14th season Coach Stagg and the University of Chicago team went undefeated having an 11-0 (7-0) record. The 1905 season featured 9 home games at Marshall Field, where the Maroons did not allow a single point to any of those opponents. 

Facing their out of conference slate they lined up against the “North Division High”, Lawrence University, Wabash College Little Giants, and Beloit College. Starting their conference slate on October 7, the visiting Iowa Hawkeyes allowed 42 points and were shut out by the Maroons. The following week the Indiana Hoosiers came to Chicago and scored the only points allowed by the Maroons that season, the final score of that game 16-5. The next games were away games for the Maroons, heading to Wisconsin and Northwestern, both games were shutouts and the Maroons headed home for their final three games of the season. The Purdue Boilermakers came to town and were shut out 19-0 followed by the Fighting Illini, their in-state rivals who allowed 44 points to the University of Chicago football team. 

Another beveled University of Chicago Logo

All this culminated in the final game of the season, where the Michigan Wolverines came to Marshall Field, boasting a 56-game win streak (the longest Division I win streak is 47 games by Oklahoma from 1953-1957) and head coach Fielding Yost’s Points-a-minute teams were stymied by Chicago.

The “First Game of the Century'' featured two undefeated teams of the Western Conference playing hard to secure the conference. The game ended on a Michigan punt return that was stopped in the end-zone for a safety with around 10 minutes left in the game. This gave the Maroons a 2-0 victory, the Western Conference Championship, and an overall National Championship award. (There is a quite sad story associated with the Michigan player who committed the mistake leading to the safety in this game, causing Michigan to end their 56 game winning streak, you can read it if you like here William Dennison Clark)

Here’s how the University of Chicago season looked.

(schedule graphic via Wikipedia) 

Notice here, the University of Chicago only played games basically only once a week. When we go further back in time, just nine years earlier to 1896, look at how cluttered the schedule was. 

The 1896 Lafayette Leopards

The one team who won a title and has continuously played football are the Lafayette Leopards. These Leopards hail from Easton, PA and are definitely not associated with the other Lafayette in Louisiana. The 1896 Leopards were retroactively selected as the co-national champion by two selectors, the National Championship Foundation and Parke H. Davis. They shared the National Championship with Princeton. (The Lafayette Leopards claimed national titles in 1921 and 1926 but the NCAA only recognized California and Cornell in 1921 and Alabama and Stanford in 1926.)  

Of course we beveled a Lafayette Logo too

Lafayette's 1896 national championship season was one of the most surprising and dramatic in the early history of college football. Lafayette began its season by tying Princeton 0–0, the first tie in their series and the team with whom they would later share the National Championship.

Amazingly, Lafayette defeated West Virginia three times in three days by a combined score of 56–0 in three different cities in West Virginia. (Keep in mind, there were not any Interstate highways back then and they likely traveled by train). Just look at this insane road trip. Go to Fairmont, play a game, then pack up and hop on a train to go to Parkersburg, play a game, pack up and hop on a train to go to Wheeling, play a game and pack up and hop on a train and then seven days later make it to Philadelphia to play the mighty Penn Quakers in the midst of a 34 game winning streak. 

Lafayette was 4–0–1 and set to take on the Penn Quakers on October 24 at Franklin Field. Penn, coached by George Washington Woodruff, was in the midst of the aformentioned 34-game winning streak and was only guaranteeing Lafayette $150 ($3,547.74 today) for a game that would net $10,000. ($354,773.81 today) 

As an intense media war surrounded the game. (I’m imagining College Gameday would have been at this game, Lee Corso definitely put on the Penn Quaker headgear and Pat McAfee totally ran the Philadelphia Art Museum steps like Rocky 80 years before the movie Rocky even was released)

Lafayette enrolled Fielding H. Yost, a tackle from West Virginia, who Lafayette had defeated in the final game of their series on October 17.

Do you see how crazy this sounds? This is like an in-season transfer portal move taking a player from a team you just beat three days in a row and then leaving town with him. Bye, we just beat your team three days in a row on tour of your state and took one of your players with us. Just imagine the media firestorm if that happened now.

With Yost, Charles Rinehart, and the inventor of the football helmet George Barclay on the field, Lafayette won 6–4. It was the first victory of a "small school" over one of the Big Four (Harvard–Yale–Penn–Princeton). In a way you could say, the Leopards get credit for the first G5 over P5 upset in College Football history.

Look at this Leopard bevel. Love it.

Lafayette closed its season with an 18–6 win over Navy. Following the season, Lafayette was recognized as national champions along with Princeton (10–0–1) and was the first national champion outside the Harvard–Yale–Princeton–Penn rotation prevalent during that era. 

Noticeably absent from their 1896 schedule was the annual rivalry with Lehigh (Which is the most played rivalry in College Football with 158 Meetings overall). Lehigh canceled two games scheduled for November in protest over the eligibility and amateur status of Barclay, who had played professional baseball the previous summer. Lehigh finished 2-5 in 1896. Would playing Lehigh twice have changed Lafayette’s title hopes? Who knows, but you always throw out the records in rivalry games. 

This Leopard just popped out from behind the L unexpectedly.

Here was their schedule in 1896. Beisdes the three games in three days, they also played two games in two games in two days later in the season and three games in five days.

(schedule graphic via Wikipedia) 

One final thing, should Princeton get credit for the 1896 National Title?? Here’s their schedule. 

(schedule graphic via Wikipedia) 

You can be the judge. Noticeably absent from Princeton’s schedule was Penn. Sounds like Princeton was scared to play the Quakers. Also, Princeton played seven home games compared to Lafayette’s five home games. Lafayette only allowed 10 points all year and Princeton allowed 12. Lafayette finished 11-0-1 and Princeton finished 10-0-1.

Am I trying to manufacture drama over the 1896 split National Title? Seems like 1896 was influenced by big Ivy League conference bias! Rutgers??? Carlisle??? Lawrenceville School??? Princeton ain’t played nobody Pawwwwllll!!!!