1896 Princeton Tigers football team

1896 Princeton Tigers football
National champion (Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate) Co-national champion (NCF, Davis)
Conference	Independent
Record	10–0–1
Head coach	Franklin Morse (1st season)
Captain	Garrett Cochran

1896 Eastern college football independents records

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Fordham			–					1	–	0	–	0
Lafayette			–					11	–	0	–	1
Princeton			–					10	–	0	–	1
Washington & Jefferson			–					8	–	0	–	1
Penn			–					14	–	1	–	0
Yale			–					13	–	1	–	0
Pittsburgh College			–					11	–	2	–	0
Buffalo			–					9	–	1	–	2
Villanova			–					10	–	4	–	0
Bucknell			–					5	–	2	–	1
Harvard			–					7	–	4	–	0
Boston College			–					5	–	3	–	0
Storrs			–					5	–	3	–	0
Cornell			–					5	–	3	–	1
Syracuse			–					5	–	3	–	2
Temple			–					3	–	2	–	0
Army			–					3	–	2	–	1
Rutgers			–					6	–	6	–	0
Carlisle			–					5	–	5	–	0
Holy Cross			–					2	–	2	–	2
Brown			–					4	–	5	–	1
Wesleyan			–					4	–	5	–	1
Frankin & Marshall			–					3	–	4	–	2
Geneva			–					3	–	4	–	0
Penn State			–					3	–	4	–	0
Colgate			–					3	–	4	–	1
Amherst			–					3	–	6	–	1
Western Univ. Penn.			–					3	–	6	–	0
Lehigh			–					2	–	5	–	0
Tufts			–					2	–	6	–	1
Swarthmore			–					2	–	6	–	0
New Hampshire			–					1	–	4	–	0
Drexel			–					1	–	5	–	0
Massachusetts			–					0	–	4	–	0
Rhode Island			–					0	–	4	–	0

The 1896 Princeton Tigers football team was an American football team that represented Princeton University as an independent during the 1896 college football season. The team finished with a 10–0–1 record, shut out 10 of 12 opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 266 to 5.^[1] Franklin Morse was the head coach, and Garrett Cochran was the team captain.

There was no contemporaneous system in 1896 for determining a national champion. However, Princeton was retroactively named as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, and Houlgate System, and as a co-national champion with Lafayette by the National Championship Foundation (NCF) and Parke H. Davis.^[2] In head-to-head competition, Princeton and Lafayette played to a scoreless tie on October 7, 1896.^[3]

Four Princeton players were selected as consensus first-team players on the 1896 All-America team: halfback Addison Kelly; fullback John Baird; center Robert Gailey; and tackle William W. Church.^[4] Other notable players included quarterback F. L. Smith, halfback William Bannard, end Garrett Cochran, and guard Edward Crowdis.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
October 3		Rutgers	Princeton, NJ (rivalry)	W 44–0		[5]
October 7		at Lafayette	March Field Easton, PA	T 0–0	5,000	[3]
October 10		Lehigh	Princeton, NJ	W 16–0		[6]
October 14		Carlisle	Princeton, NJ	W 22–6		[7]
October 17	3:20 p.m.	at Army	The Plain West Point, NY	W 11–0	5,000	[8]
October 21		Virginia	Princeton, NJ	W 48–0	> 6,000	[9]
October 24		Penn State	Princeton, NJ	W 39–0	1,000	[10]
October 26		Lawrenceville School	Princeton, NJ	W 46–0		[11]
October 31		Cornell	Princeton, NJ	W 37–0	6,000	[12]
November 7		at Harvard	Soldiers' Field Boston, MA (rivalry)	W 12–0	20,000	[13]
November 21		vs. Yale	Manhattan Field New York, NY (rivalry)	W 24–6	35,000–50,000	[14][15]

^[1]

References

1. "1896 Princeton Tigers 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. 107. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
3. "Princeton 0, Lafayette 0". The Boston Globe. October 8, 1896. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "Football Award Winners" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2016. p. 6. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
5. "Tigers Score 44 Points". The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 4, 1896. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
6. "Princeton, 16; Lehigh, 0". The Philadelphia Times. October 11, 1896. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
7. "Princeton, 22; Carlisle, 6". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 15, 1896. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
8. "Cadets Worry the Tigers: Princeton's Men Compelled to Play Hard to Win". The Sun. New York, N.Y. October 18, 1896. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "Princeton 48, Virginia 0". The Boston Globe. October 22, 1896. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
10. "Princeton, 39; P.S.C., 0". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 25, 1896. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
11. "Princeton 46, Lawrenceville 0". The Boston Globe. October 27, 1896. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
12. "Tigers Made a Hearty Meal: Cornell Was Beaten by a Score of 37 to 0". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. November 1, 1896. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
13. "Princeton, 12; Harvard, 0". Boston Post. November 8, 1896. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
14. "Nassau Beats Eli: Princeton Football Players Bowled Over Yale's Warriors and Won Easily on Manhattan Field". The New York Times. November 22, 1896. pp. 1, 2 – via Newspapers.com.
15. "Princeton Won at Manhattan Field and the Blow Almost Killed Eli". The Philadelphia Inquirer. November 22, 1896. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.