1899 Auburn Tigers football team

1899 Auburn Tigers football
Conference	Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Record	3–1–1 (2–1–1 SIAA)
Head coach	John Heisman (5th season)
Offensive scheme	Hurry-up offense
Captain	Arthur Feagin

1899 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Sewanee $	11	–	0	–	0			12	–	0	–	0
Vanderbilt	5	–	0	–	0			7	–	2	–	0
Alabama	1	–	0	–	0			3	–	1	–	0
Nashville	4	–	1	–	0			4	–	1	–	1
Tennessee	2	–	1	–	0			6	–	2	–	0
Auburn	2	–	1	–	1			3	–	1	–	1
Texas	3	–	2	–	0			6	–	2	–	0
North Carolina	1	–	1	–	0			7	–	3	–	0
Ole Miss	3	–	4	–	0			3	–	4	–	0
Georgia	2	–	3	–	1			2	–	3	–	1
Clemson	1	–	2	–	0			4	–	2	–	0
Central (KY)	1	–	2	–	0			1	–	2	–	0
LSU	1	–	3	–	0			1	–	4	–	0
Kentucky State	0	–	1	–	0			5	–	2	–	2
SW Presbyterian	0	–	1	–	0			1	–	1	–	0
Cumberland (TN)	0	–	3	–	0			0	–	3	–	0
Georgia Tech	0	–	5	–	0			0	–	6	–	0
Tulane	0	–	5	–	0			0	–	6	–	1
$ – Conference champion

The 1899 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University in the 1899 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football season. The Tigers went 3–1–1, outscoring their opponents 148–11 and holding four opponents scoreless. This team was noteworthy as the last to be coached by Tigers head coach, John Heisman. It is also one of the first teams to employ a Hurry-up offense.^[1] As Heisman recalled:

The team of '99—my last at Auburn—was a great one. It only weighed about 160 (pounds per player), but its speed and team work were something truly wonderful. I do not think I have ever seen so fast a team as that was. It would line up and get the ball in play at times before the opposing players were up off the ground. You see it was a 'stunt' of ours to catch them off side and get the benefit of the penalty. Nowadays no team is taken by surprise by such lightning lining up; but that Auburn team of '99 was the first to show what could be done with speedy play, and then it wasn't long before all other teams were laboring with might and main to inject speed into their work.

In Heisman's opinion, this was his best team while at Auburn.^[2]

The squad is also remembered as the only team to score in the legendary 1899 Sewanee team that went undefeated and beat Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane, LSU and Ole Miss over a 6-day span. Auburn lost their matchup to the "Iron Men" by a single point.

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Source
October 14	Georgia Tech	Drill Field Auburn, AL (rivalry)	W 63–0	[3]
October 21	Montgomery Athletic Club*	Drill Field Auburn, AL	W 40–0	[4]
October 28	Clemson	Drill Field Auburn, AL (rivalry)	W 34–0	[5]
November 18	at Georgia	Piedmont Park Atlanta, GA (rivalry)	T 0–0	[6]
November 30	Sewanee	Riverside Park Montgomery, AL	L 10–11	[7]
*Non-conference game

^[8][9]

References

1. "John Heisman: Auburn 'the first to show what could be done' with the hurry-up offense".
2. "Brown Calls Vanderbilt '06 Best Eleven South Ever Had". Atlanta Constitution. February 19, 1911. p. 52. Retrieved March 8, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
3. "Auburn defeats the Techs". The Atlanta Constitution. October 15, 1899. Retrieved February 12, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "Montgomery boys show up well". The Montgomery Advertiser. October 22, 1899. Retrieved February 12, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
5. "Auburn keeps up her fast game". The Montgomery Advertiser. October 29, 1899. Retrieved February 12, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
6. "Auburn had game but darkness ended the football contest with University of Georgia". The Macon Telegraph. November 19, 1899. Retrieved February 12, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
7. "Sewanee wins the tie". The Commercial Appeal. December 1, 1899. Retrieved February 12, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
8. 2009 Auburn Football Media Guide (PDF). Auburn, Alabama: Auburn Media Relations Office. 2009. p. 182. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2014. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
9. "1899 Auburn University Football Schedule". Auburn University Athletics. Archived from the original on September 1, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2012.