1904 College Football Summary

Every team in the Big 10 Conference, aka the Western Conference finished the season with a winning record and at least 5 victories.

The conference's powerhouse elevens, Michigan and Minnesota would once again sore through their respective schedules without a blemish.

In fact, the Golden Gophers were in the midst of a 21-game winning streak; as its defensive unit would allow only 12 points that coming in the seventh game of this season, in a 16-12 win against Nebraska.

Maybe the Minnesota players were tired in the game against the Cornhuskers; as they had won the game before, 146-0 against Grinnell.

Highlighting the latter game was Bobby Marshall's kicking. He would convert 6 goals from the field, on his way to 13 for the season and 31 in a career one away from the most ever kicked in Pre-1937 stathistory.

A reverse of the score against Wisconsin, in 1905, defeated Minnesota, 16-12; snapped not only the winning streak, but the consecutive games in blanking their opponents.

Not to be outdone by Minnesota, Michigan was involved in a 26-game winning streak that would end late in 1905 but more on this during the 1905 review.

The last team to come close to defeating the Wolverines was Minnesota, in 1903; but that game ended in a deadlock, 6-6.

Back east, the Pennsylvania Quakers had their own winning and defensive unit to be proud of. They had surrendered just 4 points from the season finale of 1903 and throughout all of the 1904 season, a stretch of 13 straight victories.

The team hadn't experienced defeat since the eleventh game of last season, 16-6 against Carlisle.

It what could be called the "upset of the year", as Army won its first game ever against mighty Yale, 11-6; who had entered the contest 6-0-0 on the season and 8-0-3 against the Cadets all-time. Yale won the series' opener, which began in 1893, a 28-0 victory.

Another eastern school, Pittsburgh, made a complete turn-around in 1904. After finishing 1903 at 0-8-1, the Panthers zipped through this season while shutting-out all comers till the finale when rival Penn State to score the lone TD and points in a 22-5 victory to be put on Pitt's scoreboard. A year before PSU won 59-0!

Vanderbilt was the South's leading team; as it zipped through a 9-game schedule, allowing just 4 points, that coming in a 29-4 triumph over Missouri Mines. The team would just miss hitting the century mark a week later; but won 97-0 over Centre.

The Commodores' John "Honus" Craig, was the workhorse; as he carried the ball 176 times in 1904.

In Michigan's third game of 1904, Willie Heston became the second back in stathistory to rush for over 400 yards and the first since 1897 in a 95-0 thrashing of Kalamazoo. Later in the season, he would carry the ball 38 times and rush for 240 yards, in 22-12 triumph over the Maroons of Chicago. (It was the second consecutive game against Chicago he would rush for over 200 yards.)

Chicago had its own star player, Walter Eckersall, who returned 3 kick-offs for scores in 1904. One was for 106 yards in an 18-11 victory over Wisconsin.

Ray Hill's length of the field (110 yards) kickoff return aided Army's 41-0 win over New York University.

In 1904 Leaders (min. of 4 games) show:

• Offensive Scoring Leader (Most Scored)
  Minnesota (13-0-0), 725 points
• Defensive Scoring Leader (Least Allowed)
  Pennsylvania (12-0-0) and Vanderbilt (9-0-0), 4 points
• National Champions (Retroactive)
  Michigan (10-0-0), Minnesota (12-0-0), Pennsylvania (12-0-0)
  

Yale was named No. 1 by Caspar Whitney.

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