The Big Ten has played some very obscure teams over the years
- Thread starter THE_DEVIL
- Start date
The Gophers played the Minneapolis Boat Club?
Would those be 'row boats'?
Would those be 'row boats'?
The Olive Club was apparently pretty salty.
Olive Club 16
USC 12
USS Idaho sunk the Bruins 20-0
Rutgers got bounced by the Knickerbockers 11-0
Iowa was carved up by the Chicago Physicians and Surgeons 14-0
The Chemical Warfare Service found their nerve against Maryland and won 20-13
Penn St did not find it fun to play at the Steeltown YMCA and lost 6-5
Oh brother, did Wisconsin get the blues when they lost to the Calumet Club 27-0
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Never heard of them
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Realistically most of these games were being played just a generation or so after the Transcontinental RR was completed. I guess Michigan could have loaded the Ox carts and headed to USC...
" Vinton School of the Blind " was lost in route...
The University of Chicago leaving the Big Ten was pretty dumb in retrospect...
Harper named Stagg as UChicago’s first head football coach and director of the Department of Physical Culture. Stagg would remain in that post for 41 years until his retirement in 1932. In addition to his football duties, Stagg coached track for 32 years, baseball for 19 years, and basketball for one season.
The football team made its varsity debut in 1892 and played as an independent for four seasons. The Maroons officially joined the Western Conference – which later became known as the Big Ten Conference – starting with the 1896 football season.
Under Stagg's guidance, UChicago emerged as one of the nation's most formidable football powers during the first quarter of the 20th century. He compiled a record of 227-112-26 and led the Maroons to seven Big Ten Conference championships. The team claimed national titles in both 1905 and 1913.
Considered one of the great innovators in the development of college football, Stagg’s credited innovations include the tackling dummy, the huddle, the reverse and man in motion plays, the lateral pass, uniform numbers, and awarding varsity letters.
The Maroons competed in the Big Ten in baseball, men’s basketball, men’s cross country, men’s fencing, football, men’s golf, men’s gymnastics, men’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, men’s track & field and wrestling.
The UChicago men’s gymnastics team claimed a national team title in the 1937-38 academic year. On the conference level, the Maroons totaled 73 Big Ten team titles, which included 20 in tennis, 15 in gymnastics, 8 in fencing, 7 in football, 6 in basketball, 6 in track & field, 5 in baseball, 3 in golf, and 3 in swimming & diving.
Track & field stood out in the first few decades of the 1900s as well by producing multiple Olympians, including six-time Olympic medalist James Lightbody.
Maroon football’s decline in on-field performance started in the mid-1920s and continued up through 1939. It was that year when UChicago President Robert Maynard Hutchins made the decision to abolish the football program, based on his negative views of big-time college football’s excesses and associated problems of the time.
The unoccupied Stagg Field was later the site of the world’s first self-sustaining nuclear reaction in 1942, which was conducted by physicist Enrico Fermi as part of the Manhattan Project experiments. The site of the demolished stadium is now occupied by the Mansueto Library.
UChicago would eventually withdraw its membership in the Big Ten across all sports in the summer of 1946. After a 30-year hiatus, the Maroon football team was resurrected back to varsity status starting in the fall of 1969.
Berwanger’s original Heisman Trophy was donated to the University and currently resides as the centerpiece of the Ratner Athletics Center awards rotunda
Amos Alonzo Stagg and the Big Ten Era
The roots of the UChicago athletics department date back to the pre-existing relationship between the University’s first president, William Rainey Harper, and Amos Alonzo Stagg. Harper served as Stagg’s divinity professor at Yale University, where Stagg excelled in his collegiate playing days on the football gridiron. He was selected to the first-ever All-America team as an end in 1889.Harper named Stagg as UChicago’s first head football coach and director of the Department of Physical Culture. Stagg would remain in that post for 41 years until his retirement in 1932. In addition to his football duties, Stagg coached track for 32 years, baseball for 19 years, and basketball for one season.
The football team made its varsity debut in 1892 and played as an independent for four seasons. The Maroons officially joined the Western Conference – which later became known as the Big Ten Conference – starting with the 1896 football season.
Under Stagg's guidance, UChicago emerged as one of the nation's most formidable football powers during the first quarter of the 20th century. He compiled a record of 227-112-26 and led the Maroons to seven Big Ten Conference championships. The team claimed national titles in both 1905 and 1913.
Considered one of the great innovators in the development of college football, Stagg’s credited innovations include the tackling dummy, the huddle, the reverse and man in motion plays, the lateral pass, uniform numbers, and awarding varsity letters.
The Maroons competed in the Big Ten in baseball, men’s basketball, men’s cross country, men’s fencing, football, men’s golf, men’s gymnastics, men’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, men’s track & field and wrestling.
The UChicago men’s gymnastics team claimed a national team title in the 1937-38 academic year. On the conference level, the Maroons totaled 73 Big Ten team titles, which included 20 in tennis, 15 in gymnastics, 8 in fencing, 7 in football, 6 in basketball, 6 in track & field, 5 in baseball, 3 in golf, and 3 in swimming & diving.
Track & field stood out in the first few decades of the 1900s as well by producing multiple Olympians, including six-time Olympic medalist James Lightbody.
Maroon football’s decline in on-field performance started in the mid-1920s and continued up through 1939. It was that year when UChicago President Robert Maynard Hutchins made the decision to abolish the football program, based on his negative views of big-time college football’s excesses and associated problems of the time.
The unoccupied Stagg Field was later the site of the world’s first self-sustaining nuclear reaction in 1942, which was conducted by physicist Enrico Fermi as part of the Manhattan Project experiments. The site of the demolished stadium is now occupied by the Mansueto Library.
UChicago would eventually withdraw its membership in the Big Ten across all sports in the summer of 1946. After a 30-year hiatus, the Maroon football team was resurrected back to varsity status starting in the fall of 1969.
Jay Berwanger and the Heisman Trophy
UChicago all-around football great Jay Berwanger was notified in November 1935 that he had won a trophy for being the "most valuable football player east of the Mississippi." The prize, then known as the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, was renamed the Heisman Trophy the following year. Renowned for his versatility, Berwanger played nearly every position on offense and defense, while primarily starring at halfback. During the 1935 campaign, he rushed for 577 yards, passed for 405, returned kickoffs for 359, scored six touchdowns, and added five PATs. He went on to become the No. 1 pick in the inaugural NFL draft, but declined the opportunity to play professional football.Berwanger’s original Heisman Trophy was donated to the University and currently resides as the centerpiece of the Ratner Athletics Center awards rotunda
