1900 College Football Summary

A new century of college football would begin this season; but it would be the same old teams that would produce on the field.

Yale and Pennsylvania would each win 12 games; the Quakers lost 1, but the East Coast powers never met to decide who the better of the two was.

Yale had the superior defense, allowing only a pair of 5-point touchdowns: first in a 12-5 win at Columbia and 29-5 three games later at Princeton.

Penn scored just once in 17-5 loss on the opening weekend of the month of November. This game followed a 41-0 victory over Chicago.

Teams from the Western Conference all finished with a .500 over better records and all but Purdue (4-4-0) compiled a winning mark.

All of the Boilermakers' setbacks came in conference play with three of the wins coming against small colleges.

In one of the games against an in-state opponent, Rose Poly, Purdue's kicker Edwin Robertson would attempt 12 field goals, making 7 scoring all of his team's points in a 28-0 victory.

Princeton won its first 8 games of the season, giving-up only 10 points. Over the last 3 games, the Tigers would score just a pair of touchdown worth 5 points.

Early college football, a coach, per se, was not a part of the picture. Often teams were led by player-coaches (captains) or volunteer mentors.

Because of its success, Princeton would record more wins without a true coach than any other school; compiling a 216-21-11 record.

One school that would have a coach was the University of Chicago; and a legendary one at that.

In his 11th season Amos Alonzo Stagg would win his 100th career game as Chicago defeated Michigan, 15-6. (The win snapped a 6 games without a victory [0-5-1]; scoring just 17 points.

Henry Williams, after 9 years away from the game, would come back and begin his successful career at the University of Minnesota. He would win 137 of his 141 victories at the Big 10 school.

Louis "Red" Salmon, who played for Notre Dame, 1900-03, would score his first touchdowns of his career; before winding-up with 60 for his career.

In the history of All-American Teams, five players have been selected four times three earned the honor while playing this season.

• Gordon Brown, G, Yale, 1897-1900
• Charles Daly, B, Harvard, 1898-1900 and Army, 1901
• T. Truxton Hare, G, Pennsylvania, 1897-1900

1900 Leaders (min. of 4 games) show:

• Offensive Scoring Leader (Most Scored)
  Yale (12-0-0), 336 points
• Defensive Scoring Leader (Least Allowed)
  Villanova (9 games), 6 points
• National Champions (Retroactive)
  Yale (12-0-0)
  

Yale was also named National Champion by Harper's Review writers Charles Patterson and Caspar Whitney; also in the New York World and Leslie's Weekly publications and by Walter Camp.

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