1894 Yale Bulldogs football team

1894 Yale Bulldogs football
National champion (Billingsley, Helms, NCF) Co-national champion (Davis)
Conference	Independent
Record	16–0
Head coach	William Rhodes (2nd season)
Captain	Frank Hinkey
Home stadium	Yale Field
Seasons ←  1893 1895  →

1894 Eastern college football independents records

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Yale			–					16	–	0	–	0
Penn			–					12	–	0	–	0
Villanova			–					1	–	0	–	0
Penn State			–					6	–	0	–	1
Harvard			–					11	–	2	–	0
Geneva			–					5	–	1	–	0
Princeton			–					8	–	2	–	0
Temple			–					4	–	1	–	0
Holy Ghost College			–					7	–	2	–	1
Washington & Jefferson			–					5	–	2	–	1
Brown			–					10	–	5	–	0
Bucknell			–					5	–	3	–	0
Colgate			–					2	–	1	–	1
Army			–					3	–	2	–	0
Franklin & Marshall			–					6	–	4	–	0
Cornell			–					6	–	4	–	1
Amherst			–					7	–	5	–	0
Trinity (CT)			–					4	–	3	–	0
Syracuse			–					6	–	5	–	0
Tufts			–					6	–	5	–	0
Massachusetts			–					3	–	3	–	0
Swarthmore			–					5	–	5	–	0
Western Univ. Penn			–					1	–	1	–	0
Lafayette			–					5	–	6	–	0
New Hampshire			–					2	–	3	–	0
Rutgers			–					4	–	6	–	0
Lehigh			–					5	–	9	–	0
Williams			–					1	–	3	–	0
Drexel			–					1	–	3	–	0
MIT			–					1	–	4	–	0
Boston College			–					1	–	6	–	0
Carlisle			–					1	–	8	–	0
Buffalo			–					0	–	2	–	0
NYU			–					0	–	3	–	0
Wesleyan			–					0	–	5	–	0

The 1894 Yale Bulldogs football team was an American football team that represented Yale University as an independent during the 1894 college football season. The team finished with a 16–0 record, shut out 13 of 16 opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 485 to 13. ^[1] William Rhodes was the head coach, and Frank Hinkey was the team captain.

There was no contemporaneous system in 1894 for determining a national champion. However, Yale was retroactively named as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, and National Championship Foundation, and as a co-national champion by Parke H. Davis. ^[2]

Five Yale players were selected as consensus first-team players on the 1894 All-America team. The team's consensus All-Americans were: quarterback George Adee, fullback Frank Butterworth, end Frank Hinkey, center Phillip Stillman, and guard Bill Hickok. ^[3]

The Bulldogs' 16–0 record was not matched again at any level of college football until 125 years later when North Dakota State won the 2019 FCS National Championship. ^[4] In 2026, Indiana matched the record in the CFP National Championship with a victory over Miami (FL) for its first national championship. ^[5]

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 29		at Trinity (CT)	Hartford, CT	W 42–0		[6]
October 3		Brown	Yale Field New Haven, CT	W 28–0	2,500	[7]
October 6		at Crescent Athletic Club	Eastern Park Brooklyn, NY	W 10–0	3,000	[8]
October 10		Williams	Yale Field New Haven, CT	W 23–4		[9]
October 13		Lehigh	Yale Field New Haven, CT	W 34–0		[10]
October 17		vs. Dartmouth	Hampden Park Springfield, MA	W 34–0	700	[11] [12]
October 20		at Orange Athletic Club	Orange Oval East Orange, NJ	W 24–0	2,500	[13]
October 24		Boston Athletic Association	Yale Field New Haven, CT	W 23–0		[14]
October 27		at Army	The Plain West Point, NY	W 12–5	6,000	[15]
October 31		Volunteer (NY) Athletic Association	Yale Field New Haven, CT	W 42–0		[16]
November 3	3:15 p.m.	at Brown	Adelaide Park Providence, RI	W 12–0	5,000	[17] [18]
November 7		Tufts	Yale Field New Haven, CT	W 67–0		[19]
November 10		vs. Lehigh	Polo Grounds New York, NY	W 50–0		[20]
November 14		Chicago Athletic Association	Yale Field New Haven, CT	W 48–0	1,500	[21]
November 24		vs. Harvard	Hampden Park Springfield, MA (rivalry)	W 12–4	23,000	[22]
December 1	2:08 p.m.	vs. Princeton	Manhattan Field New York, NY (rivalry)	W 24–0	20,000–30,000	[23] [24] [25] [26]
Source: [1]

Roster

• George Adee, QB
• Bill Armstrong, HB
• Anson M. Beard, C
• Lyman M. Bass, E
• Alexander Brown
• J. M. Brown, G
• Frank Butterworth, FB
• Charles Chadwick, T
• Harry P. Cross, C
• Alfred W. Dafer
• Clarence DeWitt, HB
• Feeter, T
• Clarence Fincke, QB
• Gerens, FB
• Gillette, HB
• John Campbell Greenway, E
• George B. Hatch, E
• Bill Hickok, G
• Ross A. Hickok
• Louis Hinckey, E
• Frank Hinkey, E
• Alexander Jerrems, HB
• Judd, T
• Harold W. Letton, FB
• Marks, HB
• James A. McCrea, G
• Paul D. Mills, FB
• Charles S. Morris, QB
• Fred T. Murphy, T
• Pond, HB
• George O. Redington, FB
• James O. Rodgers, T
• Phillip Stillman, C
• Dudley Sutphin, T
• Sam Thorne, FB
• Whitcomb, T

^[27]

References

1. "1894 Yale Bulldogs Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
2. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2015). "National Poll Rankings" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. NCAA. p. 107. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
3. "Football Award Winners" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2016. p. 6. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
4. "North Dakota State beats James Madison, wins eighth FCS title". ESPN.com. Associated Press. January 11, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
5. Singh, Sanjesh (January 19, 2026). "Live updates: Indiana beats Miami 27-21 in CFP National Championship game". www.nbcmiami.com. NBC Miami . Retrieved January 20, 2026.
6. "Yale, 44; Trinity, 0". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. September 30, 1894. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
7. "Yale 28, Brown 0". The Boston Daily Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. October 4, 1894. p. 2. Retrieved March 8, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
8. "On the Gridiron: Yale Surprised at the Crescent Team's Strength". The Brooklyn Citizen. October 7, 1894. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "Yale Scored Against Williams by the Williams Football Team -- Captain Hinckey is Charged with Kicking a Man". Boston Evening Transcript. October 11, 1894. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
10. "Yale Walks Over Lehigh". The Philadelphia Times. October 14, 1894. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
11. "Yale 34, Dartmouth 0". The Boston Daily Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. October 18, 1894. p. 4. Retrieved March 22, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
12. "Yales Wins Over Dartmouth". Boston Evening Transcript . Boston, Massachusetts. October 18, 1894. p. 5. Retrieved March 22, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
13. "Yale, 24; Orange A.C, O". The Sun. October 21, 1894. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
14. "Small Score: B.A.A. Holds Yale Down to 23 Points". The Boston Globe. October 25, 1894. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
15. "Yale 12, West Point 5". The Boston Globe. October 28, 1894. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
16. "'Twas Easy for Yale: The Volunteers Make a Weak Showing Against the Blue's Team". The Philadelphia Inquirer. November 1, 1894. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
17. "Yale 12, Brown 0". The Boston Sunday Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. November 4, 1894. p. 2. Retrieved March 8, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
18. "Brown's Plucky Fight". New York Tribune . New York, New York. November 4, 1894. p. 9. Retrieved March 8, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
19. "Yale's Big Score: The Blue Beats Tufts College Sixty-seven to Nothing". The Philadelphia Inquirer. November 8, 1894. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
20. "Yale's Heavy Scoring: With Many Substitutions She Rolls Up Fifty Points on Lehigh". The Philadelphia Times. November 11, 1894. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
21. "Yale Scores 48". The Boston Daily Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. November 15, 1894. p. 4. Retrieved March 22, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
22. "Yale 12, Harvard 4". The Boston Globe. November 25, 1894. pp. 1, 2, 4 – via NewspaperArchive.
23. "Yale, 24 Princeton, 0: The Blue Has an Easy Triumph Over the Tiger". The Philadelphia Times. December 2, 1894. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
24. "Tigers Downed". The Sunday Times . Minneapolis, Minnesota. December 2, 1894. p. 1. Retrieved March 22, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
25. "Yale 24, Princeton 0". The Boston Sunday Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. December 2, 1894. p. 1. Retrieved March 8, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
26. "Yale 24, Princeton 0 (continued)". The Boston Sunday Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. December 2, 1894. p. 4. Retrieved March 8, 2022– via Newspapers.com .
27. "All-Time Lettermen (DOC)". Yale University Athletics. Retrieved January 29, 2025.