1912 Harvard Crimson football
National champion
(Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, Davis)
Co-national champion (NCF)
ConferenceIndependent
Record9–0
Head coach
CaptainPercy Wendell
Home stadiumHarvard Stadium
Seasons
← 1911
1913 →
1912 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Harvard   –   9 – 0 – 0
Penn State   –   8 – 0 – 0
Carlisle   –   12 – 1 – 1
Maine   –   7 – 1 – 0
Princeton   –   7 – 1 – 1
Swarthmore   –   7 – 1 – 1
Yale   –   7 – 1 – 1
Lehigh   –   9 – 2 – 0
Dartmouth   –   7 – 2 – 0
Wesleyan   –   7 – 2 – 0
Colgate   –   5 – 2 – 0
Washington & Jefferson   –   8 – 3 – 1
Rhode Island State   –   6 – 3 – 0
Bucknell   –   6 – 3 – 1
Temple   –   3 – 2 – 0
Penn   –   7 – 4 – 0
Army   –   5 – 3 – 0
Brown   –   6 – 4 – 0
Franklin & Marshall   –   6 – 4 – 0
Holy Cross   –   4 – 3 – 1
Rutgers   –   5 – 4 – 0
Tufts   –   5 – 4 – 0
Fordham   –   4 – 4 – 0
Villanova   –   3 – 3 – 0
Morris Harvey   –   2 – 2 – 0
Lafayette   –   4 – 5 – 1
Syracuse   –   4 – 5 – 0
Carnegie Tech   –   3 – 4 – 1
Geneva   –   3 – 4 – 0
Vermont   –   3 – 5 – 0
Pittsburgh   –   3 – 6 – 0
Boston College   –   2 – 4 – 1
Cornell   –   3 – 7 – 0
NYU   –   2 – 6 – 0

The 1912 Harvard Crimson football team was an American football team that represented Harvard University as an independent during the 1912 college football season. In their fifth season under head coach Percy Haughton, the Crimson compiled a perfect 9–0 record, shut out five of nine opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 176 to 22.[1] The season was part of an unbeaten streak that began in November 1911 and continued until October 1915.

There was no contemporaneous system in 1912 for determining a national champion. However, Harvard was retroactively named as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, and Parke H. Davis, and as a co-national champion by the National Championship Foundation.[2]

Percy Wendell was the team captain. Three Harvard players were consensus first-team selections on the 1912 All-American football team: halfback Charles Brickley, guard Stan Pennock, and end Sam Felton.[3] Other notable players included backs Percy Wendell, Huntington Hardwick, and Henry Burchell Gardner, and linemen Bob Storer, Harvey Hitchcock, Derric Choate Parmenter, Gerard Timothy Driscoll, and Francis Joseph O'Brien. Pennock, Wendell, and Hardwick were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.[4][5][6]

Schedule

DateOpponentSiteResultAttendanceSource
September 28Maine
W 7–0[7]
October 5Holy Cross
  • Harvard Stadium
  • Boston, MA
W 19–07,000[8]
October 12Williams
  • Harvard Stadium
  • Boston, MA
W 26–3[9]
October 19Amherst
  • Harvard Stadium
  • Boston, MA
W 46–0[10]
October 26Brown
  • Harvard Stadium
  • Boston, MA
W 30–10> 15,000[11]
November 2Princeton
  • Harvard Stadium
  • Boston, MA (rivalry)
W 16–630,000[12]
November 9Vanderbilt
  • Harvard Stadium
  • Boston, MA
W 9–3[13]
November 16Dartmouth
  • Harvard Stadium
  • Boston, MA (rivalry)
W 3–0> 40,000[14]
November 23at Yale
W 20–0[15]

[1]

References

  1. ^ a b "1912 Harvard Crimson Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  2. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2015). "National Poll Rankings" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. NCAA. p. 108. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  3. ^ "Football Award Winners" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2016. p. 6. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  4. ^ "Percy Wendell". National Football Foundation. Retrieved March 26, 2022.
  5. ^ "Stan Pennock". National Football Foundation. Retrieved March 26, 2022.
  6. ^ "Huntington "Tack" Hardwick". National Football Foundation. Retrieved March 26, 2022.
  7. ^ "Harvard Is Held To a 7 to 0 Win: Maine Comes Close to a Tie, But Ball Hits Goal Post". The Boston Globe. September 29, 1912. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Harvard Finds Holy Cross Easy". The Boston Sunday Globe. Boston, Mass. October 6, 1912. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Williams Scores Against Harvard: Field Goal by Michaels Makes Final Result 26 to 3". The Boston Globe. October 13, 1912. p. 18 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Harvard Has an Easy One: Amherst, Never in Running, Beaten by 46 to 0". The Boston Globe. October 20, 1912. pp. 1, 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Easy for Harvard, 30-10". The Boston Globe. October 27, 1912. pp. 1, 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Melville E. Webb Jr. (November 3, 1912). "Double Knot in Tiger's Tail: Brickley Hero of Harvard's 16-to-6 Triumph". The Boston Globe. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Harvard by 9 to 3: Vanderbilt in Poor Trim". The Boston Globe. November 10, 1912. pp. 1, 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Harvard the Winner, 3 to 0: Goal by Brickley Spells Defeat For Green". The Boston Globe. November 17, 1913. pp. 1, 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ W.D. Sullivan (November 24, 1912). "Yale Played Off Its Feet by Harvard, Getting Worst Beating in 11 Years, 20-0". The Boston Globe. pp. 1, 10 – via Newspapers.com.


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