I-AA the early years.

[OL FU]

Reading about Delaware's 1900 season made me laugh, so it might be interesting to see when teams started playing and how they did. I'll start with Furman

First Season

1889 0-2 Lost to the old nemesis Wofford 1-5 and 1-2, maybe somebody can tell me how the score worked back then

Second Season

1890 2-0 revenge year beat Wofford Twice. 12-0 and 28-2
Travel expenses must have been a major consideration or nobody else in SC was playing.

First full season
1902
4-3-4
Beat Bingham, Davidson, NC State, and South Carolina
Lost to North Carolina, Georgia, Clemson,
Tied NC State (yep must have like playing State), Georgia Tech, St Albans, Charleson Athletic Assoc.

First year in I-AA
1982 9-3

Beat USC, all SoCon Teams except Chattanooga. lost to NC State and in the playoffs to SC STate.

[Pard94]

There have been similar threads in the past. I always contribute cause it's tough to beat Lafayette Football tradition.

Lafayette fielded its first football team in 1882. In that time we have held or shared three national championships 1896, 1921 and 1926.

1898 team captain George Barclay, fed up with "cauliflower ear" resulting from the physical nature of typical Lafayette style football, sewed together a few strips of leather to invent the first football helmet.

As reported in the December 31, 1995 edition of the New York Times, Herb McCracken (member/coach of the 1924 Lafayette Leopards), had his team gather together to recieve plays. This was an effort to thwart rivals (probably Lehigh...shady bastards ;) ) from stealing their signs/plays from the sideline. This was the advent of the huddle. Some would argue that Galludette (sp?) was the first to use the huddle. But, hey, the NY Times says Lafayette. Good enough for me!

As if that wasn't enough...in 1930 Lafayette played Washington & Jefferson in the first indoor, night football game (under the lights). Clearly this means Lafayette invented Monday Night Football!! :D

Now THAT'S tradition. Hey Lehigh, stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

[89Hen]

First year:
1889
(1-1-1)
Head Coach: Unknown
Captain: Joseph B. Handy

Oct. 26 Delaware Field Club of Wilmington 74 - Delaware 0 A
Nov. 16 Delaware 30 - Warren Club of Wilmington 0 H
Dec. 7 Delaware 0 - Conference Club of Dover 0 H


First year in I-AA:
1981
(9-3)
ECAC Team of the Year
Head Coach: Harold R. “Tubby” Raymond
Captain: Ed Braceland

S 12 Delaware 38 - Western Kentucky 14 A
S 19 Delaware 13 - Temple 7 H
S 26 Delaware 61 - Princeton 8 A
O 3 Lehigh 24 - Delaware 21 H
O 10 Delaware 38 - Massachusetts 15 H
O 17 Youngstown State 24 - Delaware 21 H
O 24 Delaware 35 - Rhode Island 15 H
N 7 Delaware 40 - Pennsylvania 6 A
N 14 Delaware 42 - Maine 35 H
N 21 Delaware 31 - West Chester 14 H
N 27 Delaware 35 - Connecticut 26 A
D 5 Eastern Kentucky 35 - Delaware 28 A (NCAA I-AA Quarterfinals)

[FightinBluHen51]

There have been similar threads in the past. I always contribute cause it's tough to beat Lafayette Football tradition.

Lafayette fielded its first football team in 1882. In that time we have held or shared three national championships 1896, 1921 and 1926.

1898 team captain George Barclay, fed up with "cauliflower ear" resulting from the physical nature of typical Lafayette style football, sewed together a few strips of leather to invent the first football helmet.

As reported in the December 31, 1995 edition of the New York Times, Herb McCracken (member/coach of the 1924 Lafayette Leopards), had his team gather together to recieve plays. This was an effort to thwart rivals (probably Lehigh...shady bastards ;) ) from stealing their signs/plays from the sideline. This was the advent of the huddle. Some would argue that Galludette (sp?) was the first to use the huddle. But, hey, the NY Times says Lafayette. Good enough for me!

As if that wasn't enough...in 1930 Lafayette played Washington & Jefferson in the first indoor, night football game (under the lights). Clearly this means Lafayette invented Monday Night Football!! :D

Now THAT'S tradition. Hey Lehigh, stick that in your pipe and smoke it!
First season = 1889 as well.
Record = 1-1-1


Well crap, ya beat me too it by a few didn't ya!? xlolx

[Proud Griz Man]

There were few opponents in the early days, and the Montana Grizzlies only played one game in 1990, and had quite an assortment of opponents in the first five years. I don't know what the "Loss - No Score" is all about. Around WW1 and WW2, the Griz played in a conference with the big boys like Washington Huskies, Southern California Trojans , California Golden Bears, etc.

1900 (0-1)
Frank Bean (Wisconsin)
Montana State L 12-11

1901 (2-3)
Frank Bean
Ft. Shaw Indians L No Score
Butte High School L 25-11
Fort Missoula W No Score
Fort Missoula W 26-0
at Montana State L 31-0

1902 (0-2-0)
Dewitt Peck (Iowa State)
Montana Tech L 16-0
Montana State L 38-0

1903 (2-5)
H.B. Conibear (Illinois)
Fort Missoula W 32-0
Fort Missoula W 11-0
Montana Tech L 19-0
at Montana Tech L 23-0
at Idaho L 28-0
at Washington State L 32-0
at Montana State L 13-6

1904 (3-2)
H.B. Conibear
Fort Missoula W 10-0
at Utah L 17-0
at Utah State W 5-0
Washington State L 6-5
Montana State W 79-0

[OL FU]

A couple of thoughts -

1. In 1889, people in the mid-atlantic states could either count better or in bigger multiples than those of us in the South. i.e., FU 1 Wofford 2 and Delaware Field Club 74 UD 0
2. Lose - no score = forfeit? or maybe so many injuries that one team could not finish. Was a different game without those Lafayette invented Cauliflower ear protectors.

[Marcus Garvey]

As reported in the December 31, 1995 edition of the New York Times, Herb McCracken (member/coach of the 1924 Lafayette Leopards), had his team gather together to recieve plays. This was an effort to thwart rivals (probably Lehigh...shady bastards ;) ) from stealing their signs/plays from the sideline. This was the advent of the huddle. Some would argue that Galludette (sp?) was the first to use the huddle. But, hey, the NY Times says Lafayette. Good enough for me!


It was Penn from whom the Leopards were trying to conceal their plays.

[catbob]

1st season 1-3
MSU vs Butte High School - L 12-22
MSU vs Montana - L 6-18
MSU vs Helena High School - W 8-0
MSU vs Butte High School - 6-18

First year in BCS (1963)
6-3

First year in IAA (1978)
8-2

[RockyMtnGriz]

First year for the Griz was 1897

Fred Smith from Cornell was coach. Had a 1-2-3 record (tied Missoula Tigers 3 times, lost to Butte Business College twice, beat Montana State).

1963 was the year the Big Sky Conference was formed. Griz went 1-9 (played British Columbia-only win, Wyoming, North Dakota, Brigham Young, Idaho State, Utah State, New Mexico, Weber State, Montana State, Colorado State). The first year when teams of the Big Sky Conference played all memebers was 1965. Griz went 4-6 (beat Idaho State, Weber State, Pacific, Portland State, lost to Utah, South Dakota, Utah State, Idaho, Montana State, Western Michigan).

First year of I-AA, Griz went 5-6 (lost to Puget Sound,Portland State, Idaho, Nevada-Las Vegas, San Jose State, beat Weber State, Boise State, Idaho State, Montana State, Northern Colorado).

[ngineer]

Lehigh fielded its first team in 1884 playing only four games with no coach, and goind 0-4; however, in 1886 Walter Camp credited Lehigh with inventing the infamous 'Flying Wedge' Or "V trick" pioneered by J.S. Granson. In 1882, Goodwin Ordway of Lehigh scored on a 110 yard fumble recovery and return. At the time, the game was played on a 120 yard field, so the record will likely never be broken.
First win came against Rutgers in 1885.
Another oddity, was the 1904 Lafayette game, in which not one penalty was called--especially surprising in light of the vicious rivalry that had already developed.
One of the great games in the early history of college football occured at Lehigh against Carlisle Indian School and, who else? Jim Thorpe. Lehigh's Hall of Fame halfback, Pat Pazzetti lead the Brown & White to within a yard of upsetting Thorpe's team, when Thorpe intercepted a pass at the one and took it the distance for the winning score. The game was played at , then, Taylor Field, which was always one of the reasons I got goosebumps coming out of the tunnel and being on the same turf. Almost hallowed ground-I still miss the place.
Lehigh's only National Championship was in 1977, at the Pioneer Bowl for Division II against Jacksonville State. The only undefeated team in Lehigh history was the Lambert Cup champs of 1950 who went 9-0. Invited to the Peach Bowl but declined.
Of course, as set forth on different posts, the 1889 defeat of Penn State, 106-0 still ranks as one of the all-time victories, though no one remembers anymore! :D

[umassfan]

Our first year in I-AA we made it to the championship game... only one other team can say the same.

[DuckDuckGriz]

Montana went three games before a point for either team was scored. Gotta be one of the funniest schedules I've ever seen.

1897

Missoula "Tigers" T 0-0
Missoula "Tigers" T 0-0
Missoula "Tigers" T 0-0
Butte Business College L 20-4
Montana State W 18-6 :nod:
at Butte Business College L 26-10

Notable "early years" games

1898 vs. Helena High L 6-5
1905 vs. Fort Shaw W 88-0
1915 vs. top ranked Syracuse T 6-6 (game played in Missoula!)


Also the Griz were in the Pacific Coast Conference, which is the modern day Pac 10. I think somewhere in that time they came really close to upsetting USC??

[Go...gate]

If the '15 Syracuse squad was top-ranked, they must have defeated their arch-rival, Colgate that year. What a great series that was through the years - Colgate still leads 31-29-1.

[Hoo-ah]

First year: 1879, beat Amherst 4-0 to finish 1-0.

First year in 1-AA: 1978 9-4

Beat Nevada in Reno 44-21 in the semifinals.
Lost to Florida A&M 35-28 in the first 1-AA Championship game.

Beat Boston College 27-0

[grizbeer]

Also the Griz were in the Pacific Coast Conference, which is the modern day Pac 10. I think somewhere in that time they came really close to upsetting USC??
griz record against USC from
http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_iaa/bigsky/montana/opponents_records.php?teamid=3035
(a great resource, btw)

Record: 0-5-0

No W/L Date PF Location PA Notes
1 L 11-14-1925 7 Los Angeles, CA 27
2 L 11-25-1926 0 Los Angeles, CA 61
3 L 11-14-1931 0 Los Angeles, CA 69
4 L 09-28-1935 0 Los Angeles, CA 9
5 L 12-05-1942 0 Los Angeles, CA 38

[Husky Alum]

NU's first season was 1933 - a relative youngun among the 1-AA folk in the Northeast. Here was the schedule..

1933 (1-3-1)
Coach: Alfred M. McCoy
Captain: Brad Johnson
10/7 St. Anselm's 6-19 L
10/14 at St. Michael's 9-1 W
10/21 Colby 6-12 L
10/28 Norwich 7-7 T
11/11 at Arnold 12-13 L
Scoring Totals 40-51

Not sure about the 1 point scored by St. Mike's - perhaps they were playing Canadian Football. ;)

[The Gadfly]

2003 6-5

2004 10-1

That's it in a nutshell. :o

[Pen Guin]

Scoring for football was not consistent until the early 20th century. Previous to that, most scoring was done under Rugby rules. (players played both offense and defense). Each county in the british islands had their own style, and most US college teams chose Rugby county rules. A TD was either 1/2 points, or 3/4 points. As kicking was emphasized ... more points were awarded to TD's scored off of a kick than off of a run.

1 point for a rushing TD (1 point for the kick).
3 points for a kicking TD (1 for the kick)
2 points if you returned a kick to the opponents end-zone
1 point for a safety. A safety was not a tackle in the zone, but usually a blocked kick, or striping your oppenent of the ball and advancing it into your end zone.

However, in most cases, the kick was NOT an extra point ... you had to make it or you received no points for the TD ... only 1 point. Also I do not think the safety was worth two points until the early 20th century either.

A forward pass was not legal then either. You could only pitch or lateral. So, what made US football different than Rugby ... was that US colleges would give the advance man ('forward' I think it was called) the ball, and actually throw the player over the line of scrimage. As in Rugby, it was called a schrum (I think the spelling is correct). The helmet came from the British schrum-cap ... still used by some rugby players today.


It is also very important to remember that Pro football was always considered "inferior" to college ball until the mid-20th century (around WWII). The talent level in college was much higher. Pro ball was "old folks" that did not have to work weekends at their regular job.


Another item to remember was that record keeping did not come until 1937 with the NCAA, that is why most colleges only show records from 1938 on. For example YSU began football in the 20's, but their first season on record was 1938. Historically, YSU's first coach was Dike Beede ... 1924 to 1974 (1937 technically) ... to this day, it is still the longest continuous tenure in college football. He also created the penalty flag in 1941.

Penalty flag story (http://www.ysupenguins.com/football/pflag.html)

[OL FU]

Pen Guin,

What was a kicking TD. Was it comparable to a field goal today except that a runner kicked the ball? Or did someone catch the kick in the end zone.

And do you read alot of sports history or have a good memory? :)

[Pen Guin]

Probably a little of both OL. I am just interested.

Remember, there was no cross-bar back then, so a kick (field goal) by the advancing player was actually worth 5 points & the objective of the game. You only caught the ball in the end-zone (Touchdown) when the kick was short of the posts ... 3 points is better than 1 or none. Some leagues actually allowed you to touch the ball in the endzone and not catch it for 3/1 points ... thus the name "touchdown". The opposite of this is a touchback ... where you down the ball in your opponents end zone & gain w new series of downs. Thus the name "touchback".

If the kick was caught by your forward, it was a TD (or a Touched Down) as the ball was 'touched' and 'downed' prior to it entering the goal posts, but still in the end zone ... a goal was always better than a touchdown, or a touchback. This was worth three points (or 1 if you missed the kick).

[LEHIGH61]

Their was no Lambert Cup in 1950! Where did you get that from? The first Lambert Cup "ever" was won by Lehigh in 1957. Lehigh went 8-1 behind QB Dan
Nolan. Although that team did not go undefeated, IMO it was better than the 1950 team.
That 1957 group was quite a team - although considered small college in those days,, their only loss was to VMI by 12-7. Total first downs and yardage were identical in the game. AND VMI WAS THE 15h RANKED "MAJOR" TEAM IN THE COUNTRY.

[TxSt02]

First year: 1904 4-1
6-0 St. Edwards
18-0 West Texas Military Academy
48-0 West Texas Military Academy
18-5 Texas School for the Deaf
5-12 Texas School for the Deaf
5-0 Austin

We then took 5 years off and got beat by Baylor 55-0 in 1909.

We went 7-4 in our first year of I-AA ball in 1984.

[LBPop]

This thread had me doing a little research into Georgetown football history. The University had some real glory days in times past, but I laughed out loud when I found the following bit of history on the Hoya website. I will copy it exactly as it appears so nobody thinks I am making this up:

1889- Georgetown plays its first official intercollegiate game, against Virginia. Georgetown records list the score as Georgetown 34-0, while Virginia records claim their side prevailed, 32-0.

OK, OK...no Washington DC politician jokes, please! And NO, I wasn't at the game! :D

[89Hen]

1889- Georgetown plays its first official intercollegiate game, against Virginia. Georgetown records list the score as Georgetown 34-0, while Virginia records claim their side prevailed, 32-0.
Now, now Pop. You know that lying is against the UVA Honor Code. ;) :D

[LBPop]

Now, now Pop. You know that lying is against the UVA Honor Code. ;) :D

Perhaps we could litigate this thing. Do you know any Georgetown Law School alums who might do some pro bono work to clear their Alma Mater's sullied football record? Of course, UVA doesn't have a bad law school themselves. :p

[ngineer]

Their was no Lambert Cup in 1950! Where did you get that from? The first Lambert Cup "ever" was won by Lehigh in 1957. Lehigh went 8-1 behind QB Dan
Nolan. Although that team did not go undefeated, IMO it was better than the 1950 team.
That 1957 group was quite a team - although considered small college in those days,, their only loss was to VMI by 12-7. Total first downs and yardage were identical in the game. AND VMI WAS THE 15h RANKED "MAJOR" TEAM IN THE COUNTRY.

You are correct, there '61. I had read that Lehigh was awarded the best 'small college' team in the East in 1950 and assumed it was the Lambert--but that particular award did not exist then, so I was mistaken. However, '50 still has the distinction of the only undefeated, untied team in school history. Joe Whitnour did a nice article not long before he died attempting to rank the top 10 Lehigh teams of all time. If you can get a copy of it, it's great reading. It appeared in the program a few years ago.

[89Hen]

Do you know any Georgetown Law School alums who might do some pro bono work to clear their Alma Mater's sullied football record?
Unfortunately for you the only one I know would side with her undergrad Alma Mater. :p

[Baldy]

1st year (1924)

Parris Island Marines N/A
Savannah High School N/A
Douglas A&M W 6-0

1st year in I-AA (1984)
Florida A&M W 14 0
Presbyterian W 41 6
Central Florida W 42 28
East Carolina L 27 34
Liberty Baptist W 48 11
Bethune-Cookman W 43 33
Chattanooga W 24 17
Newberry W 41 16
Valdosta State W 38 8
East Tennessee L 17 20
Middle Tennessee L 7 42

...and screwed out of the playoffs, but we make up for it the next year ;)

[Cocky]

Started in 1904
University High L
Birmingham College W
Marion L
Chattanooga L
University High L

I-AA 1993
A rather easy schedule
Henderson St W
Alabama A&M W
Northern Iowa L
James Madison L
Western Kentucky L
Fort Valley St W
SW Missouri L
Montana L
Alcorn St W
Central St L

1 NC
2 Runner Ups