1897 Harvard Crimson football team

1897 Harvard Crimson football
ConferenceIndependent
Record10–1–1
Head coach
CaptainNorman Cabot
Home stadiumSoldiers' Field
1897 Eastern college football independents records
Conf. Overall
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
  –   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
Wesleyan   –   8 – 7 – 0
Bucknell   –   3 – 3 – 1
NYU   –   3 – 3 – 0
Temple   –   3 – 3 – 0
Trinity (CT)   –   4 – 4 – 1
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

DateOpponentSiteResultAttendanceSource
October 2 WilliamsW 20–02,000[3]
October 6 Bowdoin
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 24–0 [4]
October 9 Dartmouth
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA (rivalry)
W 13–05,000[5]
October 13 Amherst
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 38–0 [6]
October 16at ArmyW 10–02,000[7]
October 20 Newton Athletic Association
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 24–0 [8]
October 23 Brown
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 18–08,000[9][10]
October 26 Newtowne Athletic Club
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 22–01,500[11]
October 30 Cornell
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 24–56,000[12]
November 3 Wesleyan
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA
W 34–01,200–3,000[13][14][15]
November 13 Yale
  • Soldiers' Field
  • Boston, MA (rivalry)
T 0–025,000[16]
November 20at Penn L 6–1525,000[17]

References

  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. ^ "Harvard Plays Well.—Some Encouragement From the Game With Wesleyan Which Ends 34-0". The Boston Daily Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. November 4, 1897. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved July 27, 2025 – via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
  14. ^ "Easy Work For Harvard—Wesleyan Eleven Defeated 34 To 0". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. November 4, 1897. p. 1. Retrieved July 27, 2025 – via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
  15. ^ "Easy Victory: Harvard Eleven Defeats Wesleyan 34 to 0". Boston Post. October 4, 1897. p. 3 – via NewspaperARCHIVE.(1,200 attendance)
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ "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.