1889 Princeton Tigers football team

1889 Princeton Tigers football
National champion
Conference	Independent
Record	10–0
Head coach	None
Captain	Edgar Allan Poe
Seasons ←  1888 1890  →

1889 Eastern college football independents records

v t e	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
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

The 1889 Princeton Tigers football team was an American football team that represented Princeton University as an independent during the 1889 college football season. The team compiled a perfect 10–0 record, shut out six of ten opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 484 to 29. ^[1] The team captain and quarterback was Edgar Allan Poe, the second cousin of his namesake, the writer Edgar Allan Poe. ^[2]

There was no contemporaneous system in 1889 for determining a national champion. However, Princeton was retroactively named as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, National Championship Foundation, and Parke H. Davis. ^[3] It was Princeton's 15th national championship. ^[4]

Five players from the 1889 Princeton team were selected by Caspar Whitney for the first All-America college football team: quarterback Edgar Allan Poe; halfback Roscoe Channing; fullback Knowlton "Snake" Ames; tackle Hector Cowan; and center William George. ^[5] Three more Princeton players—guard Hugh Janeway, end Ben "Sport" Donnelly, and halfback J. S. Black—were among Whitney's eight "substitute" selections. ^[6] Ames and Cowan were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. ^{[7] [8]}

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
October 5		Lehigh	Princeton, NJ	W 16–0		[9] [10]
October 10		at Lehigh	Bethlehem, PA	W 16–4		[11]
October 19	2:40 p.m.	Stevens	Princeton, NJ	W 49–0	1,000	[12]
October 26	3:05 p.m.	at Penn	Philadelphia, PA (rivalry)	W 72–4		[13]
November 2	3:00 p.m.	vs. Wesleyan	Berkeley Oval New York, NY	W 98–0	Several hundred	[14]
November 5	3:00 p.m.	at Columbia	Berkeley Oval New York, NY	W 71–0		[15] [16]
November 16	2:45 p.m.	at Harvard	Jarvis Field Cambridge, MA (rivalry)	W 41–15		[17] [18] [19]
November 23		Orange Athletic Club	Princeton, NJ	W 54–6		[20]
November 28	2:30 p.m.	vs. Yale	Berkley Oval New York, NY (rivalry)	W 10–0	>25,000	[21] [22]
November 30		vs. Columbia Athletic Club	Capitol Park Washington, DC	W 57–0	2,500	[23]

Roster

• Knowlton Ames, HB
• Beach, HB
• J. S. Black, HB ^[24]
• Brown, G
• Casement, T
• W. S. Cash, T
• Roscoe Channing, HB
• Hector Cowan, T
• Ben "Sport" Donnelly, E
• R. Furness, E
• William George
• Hale, T
• Sheppard Homans Jr., HB
• Hugh Janeway, G
• P. C. Jones
• Lewis, FB
• Lilly, QB
• Edgar Allan Poe, QB
• Jesse Riggs, G
• James Robinson
• J. G. Symmes, C
• J. N. Thomas, C
• Wagenhurst, T
• Ralph Warren, E
• Clinton Wood, T

References

1. "1889 Princeton Tigers Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
2. "All-Time Princeton Results" (PDF). goprincetontigers.com. Princeton University. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
3. "National Poll Champions" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2017. p. 110. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
4. "Championships - Tigers Football". princetontigersfootball.com. Princeton University. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
5. "Football Award Winners" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2016. p. 6. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
6. Whitney, Caspar W. (December 15, 1894). "Amateur Sport". Harper's Weekly. p. 1201.
7. "Knowlton Ames". National Football Foundation. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
8. "Hector Cowan". National Football Foundation. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
9. "Princeton's Opening Day". The Philadelphia Times. October 6, 1889. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
10. "All on Princeton's Side". The Boston Globe. October 6, 1889. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
11. "Foot-ball At Bethlehem". The Times . Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. October 11, 1889. p. 2. Retrieved August 9, 2024– via Newspapers.com .
12. "Princeton's Big Score: Carless Playing Allows Them to Run It Up Rapidly". The Philadelphia Times. October 20, 1889. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
13. "Princeton's Victory: They Have an Easy Time with the Pennsylvania Lads". The Philadelphia Times. October 27, 1889. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
14. "Football in the Rain: Wesleyan Beaten by Princeton, 93 to Nothing". The Sun. New York, N.Y. November 3, 1889. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
15. "A Goose Egg for Columbia: The Princeton Team Has some Fun with the New Yorkers". The Sun. New York, N.Y. November 6, 1889. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
16. "Advertisement for Election Day Football". The Sun. New York, N.Y. November 5, 1889. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
17. "Jersey Sand". The Boston Sunday Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. November 17, 1889. p. 1. Retrieved March 25, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
18. "Jersey Sand (continued)". The Boston Sunday Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. November 17, 1889. p. 4. Retrieved March 25, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
19. "Harvard Went To Pieces". The New York Times. November 17, 1889. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
20. "Princeton Easily Defeats Orange". The Sun. November 24, 1889. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
21. "Princeton Wins Gloriously". The Sun (New York). November 29, 1889. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
22. "Princeton Is Champion: How She Won the Great Foot-Ball Game at New York". The Hartford Courant. November 29, 1889. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
23. "Princeton 1889 vs. Washington D.C." The New York Times. 1889. p. 3.
24. Presbrey, Frank; Moffatt, James Hugh, eds. (1901). Athletics at Princeton: A History. New York: Frank Presbrey Company. p. 337.