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1889 college football season

1889 college football season
1889 Princeton Tigers
Champion(s)Princeton
← 1888 · football seasons · 1890 →

The 1889 college football season was the season of American football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1889–90 academic year.

The 1889 Princeton Tigers football team, led by team captain Edgar Allan Poe, compiled a perfect 10–0 record and was recognized as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, National Championship Foundation, and Parke H. Davis.[1]

In the South, Wofford defeated Furman in the first intercollegiate game played in the state of South Carolina. The game featured no uniforms, no positions, and the rules were formulated before the game.[2]

As the popularity of the program increased, new football programs were established in 1889 at Iowa, Syracuse,[3] and Washington.

All eleven players selected by Caspar Whitney for the first All-America college football team came from the Big Three (Princeton, Yale, and Harvard). Four of the honorees have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: fullback Knowlton Ames (Princeton), end Amos Alonzo Stagg (Yale), tackle Hector Cowan (Princeton), and guard Pudge Heffelfinger (Yale).

Conference and program changes

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School 1888 Conference 1889 Conference
Delaware Program established Independent
Iowa Hawkeyes Program established Independent
Washington Program established Independent

Awards and honors

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All-Americans

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Main article: 1889 College Football All-America Team

The consensus All-America team included:

Position Name Height Weight (lbs.) Class Hometown Team
QB Edgar Allan Poe Jr. Baltimore, Maryland Princeton
HB Roscoe Channing 141 Sr. New York, New York Princeton
HB James P. Lee Jr. New York, New York Harvard
FB Snake Ames 5'10" 157 Sr. Chicago, Illinois Princeton
E Amos Alonzo Stagg Sr. West Orange, New Jersey Yale
T Hector Cowan Sr. Hobart, New York Princeton
G Pudge Heffelfinger 6'4" 178 So. Minneapolis, Minnesota Yale
C William George Sr. Princeton
G John Cranston Jr. Sheridan, New York Harvard
T Charles O. Gill Sr. Walpole, Massachusetts Yale
E Arthur Cumnock Jr. Danielson, Connecticut Harvard

Statistical leaders

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Conference standings

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The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1889 Eastern Intercollegiate Football Association standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Dartmouth $ 4 – 0 – 0 7 – 1 – 0
MIT 2 – 2 – 0 3 – 3 – 0
Williams 1 – 1 – 1 4 – 5 – 1
Amherst 1 – 2 – 1 3 – 5 – 2
Stevens 0 – 3 – 0 1 – 10 – 0
  • $ – Conference champion

Independents

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1889 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Princeton   –   10 – 0 – 0
Massachusetts   –   2 – 0 – 0
Yale   –   15 – 1 – 0
Harvard   –   9 – 2 – 0
Franklin & Marshall   –   5 – 1 – 1
Dickinson   –   4 – 1 – 1
Navy   –   4 – 1 – 1
Tufts   –   3 – 1 – 0
Lehigh   –   8 – 3 – 2
Cornell   –   8 – 4 – 0
Penn   –   7 – 6 – 0
Brown   –   2 – 2 – 0
Penn State   –   2 – 2 – 0
Delaware   –   1 – 1 – 1
Wesleyan   –   5 – 7 – 1
Bucknell   –   2 – 3 – 1
Lafayette   –   3 – 4 – 2
Columbia   –   2 – 7 – 2
Fordham   –   1 – 3 – 0
Rutgers   –   1 – 4 – 0
NYU   –   0 – 2 – 0
1889 Midwestern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Miami (OH)   –   4 – 0 – 0
Butler   –   2 – 0 – 0
Washington University   –   2 – 0 – 0
Iowa College   –   1 – 0 – 0
Lake Forest   –   1 – 0 – 0
Notre Dame   –   1 – 0 – 0
South Dakota   –   1 – 0 – 1
Minnesota   –   3 – 1 – 0
Purdue   –   2 – 1 – 0
South Dakota Agricultural   –   0 – 0 – 1
Northwestern   –   2 – 2 – 0
Cincinnati   –   1 – 1 – 0
Wabash   –   1 – 1 – 0
Michigan   –   1 – 2 – 0
Indiana   –   0 – 1 – 1
Iowa   –   0 – 1 – 0
Wisconsin   –   0 – 2 – 0
1889 Southern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Trinity (NC)   –   2 – 0 – 0
Georgetown   –   5 – 1 – 0
Navy   –   4 – 1 – 1
Virginia   –   4 – 2 – 0
Wake Forest   –   2 – 2 – 0
North Carolina   –   1 – 1 – 0
Delaware   –   1 – 1 – 1
Johns Hopkins   –   2 – 4 – 1
Richmond   –   1 – 2 – 0
Dover Conference Academy   –   0 – 2 – 1
Furman   –   0 – 2 – 0
1889 Far West college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
USC   –   2 – 0 – 0
California   –   0 – 0 – 0
Washington   –   0 – 1 – 0

References

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  1. ^ "National Poll Champions" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2017. p. 110. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  2. ^ Furman 2014 FB Record Book
  3. ^ Alandt, Anthony (November 2, 2022). "The storied history of Syracuse football began well before its 1889 loss to Rochester". The Daily Orange. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
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