1891 Stanford football team
| 1891 Stanford football | |
|---|---|
| 100px | |
| Conference | Independent |
| 1891 record | 3–1 |
| Head coach | none |
| Captain | John Whittemore |
The 1891 Stanford football team represented Stanford University in the 1891 college football season. This was the inaugural year of both the University and the football team: the University opened in October 1891 and the four-game season was played in early 1892.
Origins
Soon after Stanford opened on October 1, 1891, students set out to form a football team.[1] One transfer student, John Whittemore, had played football at Washington University. He was chosen as captain and began to organize the team.[1]
Whittemore acted as de facto coach, drawing up plays and organizing practices.[1] The team won its first two games against Hopkins Academy and Berkeley Gym before losing to a team from San Francisco's Olympic Club.[2] In its final game of the first season, Stanford upset a more experienced team from the University of California, Berkeley, setting the stage for what would become the longstanding Big Game rivalry.[1][3][4]
Schedule
| Date | Opponent | Site | Result | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 30, 1892 | vs. Hopkins Academy | Redwood City, CA | W 10–6 | ||||||
| February 6, 1892 | vs. Berkeley Gym | Berkeley, CA | W 22–0 | ||||||
| February 13, 1892 | Olympic Club | Stanford, CA | L 6–10 | ||||||
| March 19, 1892 | California | Haight Street Grounds • San Francisco, CA (1st Big Game) | W 14–10 | ||||||
Game notes
California
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Soon after formation of Stanford's team, players at the University of California, Berkeley, which had been playing football for 10 years, contacted the team to set up a Thanksgiving Day game; as the Stanford team was still organizing, a spring game was eventually agreed to.[1][4]
On March 19, 1892, the Stanford and California teams met to play at Haight Street Grounds in San Francisco. Stanford's team manager was future U.S. President Herbert Hoover; Hoover had printed 10,000 tickets for the game, but soon an overflow crowd forced Hoover to collect cash payment for admission.[1] As the game was about to begin, both teams realized that no one had brought a ball. An owner of a sporting goods store who was in attendance was dispatched on horseback to retrieve a ball and the game eventually started an hour late.[1]
Stanford employed some trick plays and scored the first three touchdowns of the game (touchdowns were worth 4 points at that time) and held on to upset the more experienced California team 14–10.[1][4]
Legacy
The next season, Whittemore wrote to legendary Yale coach Walter Camp asking him to recommend a coach for Stanford; to Whittemore's surprise, Camp agreed to coach the team himself, on the condition that he coach the season at Yale first.[1]
Whittemore's son, also named John Whittemore and also a Stanford student, lived to the age of 104 and was renowned as a masters track and field athlete.[5]
References
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