Each week the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame send out a "this week in college football history" piece.
This was sent out this week:
Nov. 17, 1900: Novelist Mark Twain is so impressed with Yale's performance in a 29-5 victory at Princeton, he was quoted as saying, "The Yale team could lick a Spanish Army." Yale would finish 12- 0.
Of course it doesn't top this one:
Nov. 14, 1899: Sewanee (now University of the South) tops Mississippi to complete an amazing five-win road trip in six days. Other key victories come over Texas 12-0, Texas A&M 10-0, Tulane 23-0, and LSU 34-0. The trip covers more than 3,000 miles, and the small charter steam train carrying the team makes stops at apple orchards along the way to feed Sewanee student-athletes.
Actually, Sewanee, which is the name of the town where the college is located, has always been the University of the South. Now it's known as Sewanee: The University of the South.
ReplyDeleteJai is correct about the formal name of Sewanee. It was founded as the University of the South a couple of years before the Civil War, but it's always been known informally as "Sewanee."
ReplyDeleteMy younger daughter is a Sewanee grad (her big sister followed me to Yale), and she's the source of a cup on my desk celebrating the 1899 Sewanee Tigers' feat. After reciting the details of the five wins in six days, the inscription on the cup concludes: "And on the Sixth Day they rested." Amen.
Mike Harrington, TD'69
Sugar Land, TX