1897 Harvard Crimson football team

American college football season

1897 Harvard Crimson football

Conference| Independent
Record| 10–1–1
Head coach|

* William Cameron Forbes (1st season)

Captain| Norman Cabot
Home stadium| Soldiers' Field

Seasons

<- 1896

1898 ->

1897 Eastern college football independents records

* v
* t
* e

| Conf |  |  | Overall

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Team | W |  | L |  | T |  |  | W |  | L |  | T
Penn |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 15  | - | 0  | - | 0
Princeton |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 10  | - | 1  | - | 0
Washington & Jefferson |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 10  | - | 1  | - | 0
Yale |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 9  | - | 0  | - | 2
Buffalo |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 9  | - | 1  | - | 0
Harvard |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 10  | - | 1  | - | 1
Army |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 6  | - | 1  | - | 1
Vermont |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 3  | - | 0  | - | 2
Lafayette |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 9  | - | 2  | - | 1
Drexel |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 6  | - | 2  | - | 1
Colgate |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 5  | - | 2  | - | 1
Dickinson |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 7  | - | 3  | - | 2
Swarthmore |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 7  | - | 3  | - | 2
Fordham |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 2  | - | 1  | - | 1
Cornell |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 5  | - | 3  | - | 1
Syracuse |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 5  | - | 3  | - | 1
Brown |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 7  | - | 4  | - | 0
Carlisle |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 6  | - | 4  | - | 0
Boston College |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 4  | - | 3  | - | 0
Holy Cross |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 4  | - | 3  | - | 1
Bucknell |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 3  | - | 3  | - | 1
NYU |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 3  | - | 3  | - | 0
Temple |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 3  | - | 3  | - | 0
Trinity (CT) |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 4  | - | 4  | - | 1
Wesleyan |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 6  | - | 6  | - | 0
Tufts |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 6  | - | 7  | - | 0
Geneva |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 3  | - | 4  | - | 1
Pittsburgh College |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 3  | - | 5  | - | 2
Villanova |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 3  | - | 5  | - | 1
Penn State |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 3  | - | 6  | - | 0
Amherst |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 2  | - | 6  | - | 2
Frankin & Marshall |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 2  | - | 6  | - | 2
Lehigh |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 3  | - | 7  | - | 0
New Hampshire |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 2  | - | 5  | - | 0
Rutgers |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 2  | - | 5  | - | 0
Western Univ. Penn. |  |  | - |  |  |  |  | 1  | - | 3  | - | 0

The 1897 Harvard Crimson football team represented Harvard University in the 1897 college football season. The Crimson finished with a 10–1–1 record and shut out 10 of 12 opponents under first-year head coach William Cameron Forbes, who later served as Governor-General of the Philippines (1908–13) and Ambassador of the United States to Japan (1930–32). The 1897 team won its first ten games by a combined 227-5 score. It then closed the season playing to a scoreless tie with Yale and losing by a 15-6 score against Penn.[1][2]

Two Harvard players received consensus honors on the 1897 College Football All-America Team: center Allan Doucette and halfback Benjamin Dibblee. Other notable players on Harvard's 1897 team included end Norman Cabot and tackle Malcolm Donald.

## Schedule

[edit]

Date| Opponent| Site| Result| Attendance| Source

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October 2|  Williams|

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA

| W 20–0| 2,000| [3]
October 6|  Bowdoin|

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA

| W 24–0|  | [4]
October 9|  Dartmouth |

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA (rivalry)

| W 13–0| 5,000| [5]
October 13|  Amherst|

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA

| W 38–0|  | [6]
October 16| at Army|

* The Plain
* West Point, NY

| W 10–0| 2,000| [7]
October 20|  Newton Athletic Association|

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA

| W 24–0|  | [8]
October 23|  Brown|

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA

| W 18–0| 8,000| [9][10]
October 26|  Newtowne Athletic Club|

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA

| W 22–0| 1,500| [11]
October 30|  Cornell|

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA

| W 24–5| 6,000| [12]
November 3|  Wesleyan|

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA

| W 34–0| 1,200| [13][14]
November 13|  Yale |

* Soldiers' Field
* Boston, MA (rivalry)

| T 0–0| 25,000| [15]
November 20| at Penn |

* Franklin Field
* Philadelphia, PA (rivalry)

| L 6–15| 25,000| [16]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "1897 Harvard Crimson Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
2. ^ "Harvard Football Yearly Records". GoCrimson.com. Harvard University. Archived from the original on August 14, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
3. ^ "Harvard 20, Williams 0: Regular Football Season Opened on Soldiers Field". The Boston Globe. October 3, 1897. p. 1 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
4. ^ "Harvard Wins Easily: Play Against Bowdoin Hardly Up to Expected Standard". The Boston Globe. October 7, 1897. p. 9 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
5. ^ "Harvard Wins Easily: Dartmouth Is Outgeneraled and Beaten By Score of 13 to 0". The Boston Globe. October 10, 1897. p. 1 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
6. ^ "Harvard Scores Well: Amherst Gets Near Crimson's Line Only Once in the Game". The Boston Globe. October 15, 1897. pp. 1, 4 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
7. ^ "Hot Work on the Gridiron: Harvard Defeats West Point 10-0 After a Stubborn Contest". The Boston Globe. October 17, 1897. p. 1 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
8. ^ "Surpasses Yale: Harvard Team Piles Up 24 Points Against Newton". Boston Post. October 21, 1897. p. 3 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
9. ^ "Fierce Onslaughts: Brown's Line Was Unable to Withstand Harvard's Determined Rushes". The Boston Globe. October 24, 1897. p. 1 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.(attendance 8,000 at Soldiers Field)
10. ^ "Harvard's Football Giants Keep Brown From Scoring: Crimson's Men Piled Up 18 Points, and Their Line Was Impenetrable". Boston Post. October 24, 1897. pp. 1, 3 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
11. ^ "Weak Showing: Harvard's Play Against Newtowne a Discouraging Exhibition; Final Score Was 22 to 0". Boston Post. October 27, 1897. p. 3 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
12. ^ "Harvard Wins: Crimson Football Team Defeats Cornell's Brave Warriors, 24 to 5". Boston Post. October 31, 1897. pp. 1, 3 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
13. ^ "Easy Victory: Harvard Eleven Defeats Wesleyan 34 to 0". Boston Post. October 4, 1897. p. 3 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.(1,200 attendance)
14. ^ "Harvard Plays Well: Some Encouragement From The Game With Wesleyan Which Ends 34-0". The Boston Globe. November 4, 1897. p. 1 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
15. ^ Langdon Smith (November 14, 1897). "Harvard and Yale Tie: Neither Side Able to Score a Point During 70 Minutes of Fierce Play". The Boston Globe. p. 1 - via NewspaperARCHIVE.
16. ^ "Pennsylvania Lowered Fair Harvard's Colors: In a Pretty Contest Witnessed by a Crowd of Twenty-Five Thousand People". The Times (Philadelphia). November 21, 1897. p. 1 - via Newspapers.com.

* v
* t
* e

Harvard Crimson football

Venues|

* Boston Baseball Grounds (1877–1881)
* Holmes Field (1881–1882, 1888)
* Jarvis Field (1883–1893)
* Soldier's Field (1894–1903)
* Harvard Stadium (1903–present)

Bowls and rivalries|

* 1920 Rose Bowl
* Dartmouth
* Penn
* Princeton
* Yale

Culture and lore|

* "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard"
* 1874 McGill game
* 1921 Centre game
* 1968 Yale game (Harvard Beats Yale 29–29)
* 2004 Harvard–Yale prank

People|

* Head coaches
* NFL draftees

Seasons|

* 1873
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National championship seasons in bold

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*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
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*[Conf]: Conference record
*[W]: Wins
*[L]: Losses
*[T]: Ties