1909 Western Conference football season

1909 Western Conference football season
Sport	Football
Champion	Minnesota
Football seasons
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1909 Western Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Minnesota $	3	–	0	–	0			6	–	1	–	0
Chicago	4	–	1	–	1			4	–	1	–	2
Illinois	3	–	1	–	0			5	–	2	–	0
Wisconsin	2	–	1	–	1			3	–	1	–	1
Indiana	1	–	3	–	0			4	–	3	–	0
Northwestern	1	–	3	–	0			1	–	3	–	1
Iowa	0	–	1	–	0			2	–	4	–	1
Purdue	0	–	4	–	0			2	–	5	–	0
$ – Conference champion

The 1909 Western Conference football season was the fourteenth season of college football played by the member schools of the Western Conference (later known as the Big Ten Conference) and was a part of the 1909 college football season.

Season overview

Minnesota was declared the Western Conference champion with an undefeated league record of 3-0, going 6-1 overall. Their only loss was to former conference-mate Michigan, in the first-ever game played for the Little Brown Jug.

After finishing the last two seasons as conference champion, Chicago came in second at 4-1-2 (4-1-1 in league play). Illinois was third at 5-2 (3-1) and Wisconsin fourth with an overall record of 3-1-1 (2-1-1), which rounded out the schools with league records over .500.

Indiana wound up at 4-3, but went 1-3 in conference play; tying Northwestern, who finished overall at 1-3-1.

Iowa and Purdue went winless on the year, but both managed to secure two non-conference victories.

Minnesota

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 25		Lawrence *	Northrop Field Minneapolis, MN	W 25–0	3,000
October 2		Iowa	Northrop Field Minneapolis, MN (rivalry)	W 41–0	6,000	[1]
October 9		Iowa State *	Northrop Field Minneapolis, MN	W 18–0	2,000
October 16		vs. Nebraska *	Omaha, NE (rivalry)	W 14–0	7,000
October 30		Chicago	Northrop Field Minneapolis, MN	W 20–6	26,000
November 13		at Wisconsin	Randall Field Madison, WI (rivalry)	W 34–6	7,500
November 20	1:01 p.m.	Michigan *	Northrop Field Minneapolis, MN (Little Brown Jug)	L 6–15	22,000–25,000
*Non-conference game All times are in Central time

Chicago

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
October 2	Purdue	Marshall Field Chicago, IL (rivalry)	W 40–0
October 9	Indiana	Marshall Field Chicago, IL	W 21–0
October 16	Illinois	Marshall Field Chicago, IL	W 14–8
October 30	at Minnesota	Northrop Field Minneapolis, MN	L 6–20	26,000
November 6	Northwestern	Marshall Field Chicago, IL	W 34–0
November 13	at Cornell *	Percy Field Ithaca, NY	T 6–6
November 20	Wisconsin	Marshall Field Chicago, IL	T 6–6
*Non-conference game

Illinois

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
October 2		Millikin *	Illinois Field Champaign, IL	W 23–0
October 9		Kentucky State College *	Illinois Field Champaign, IL	L 2–6
October 16		at Chicago	Marshall Field Chicago, IL	L 8–14
October 30		Purdue	Illinois Field Champaign, IL(rivalry)	W 24–6
November 6		Indiana	Illinois Field Champaign, IL (rivalry)	W 6–5
November 13		at Northwestern	Northwestern Field Evanston, IL (rivalry)	W 35–0
November 20	2:15 p.m.	at Syracuse *	Archbold Stadium Syracuse, NY	W 17–8	7,000	[2]
*Non-conference game

Wisconsin

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance
October 9	Lawrence *	Randall Field Madison, WI	W 22–0
October 23	Indiana	Randall Field Madison, WI	W 6–3
October 30	at Northwestern	Northwestern Field Evanston, IL	W 21–11
November 13	Minnesota	Randall Field Madison, WI (rivalry)	L 6–34	7,500
November 20	at Chicago	Marshall Field Chicago, IL	T 6–6
*Non-conference game Homecoming

Indiana

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
October 2		DePauw *	Jordan Field Bloomington, IN	W 28–5		[3]
October 9		at Chicago	Marshall Field Chicago, IL	L 0–21		[4]
October 16		Lake Forest *	Jordan Field Bloomington, IN	W 27–5		[5]
October 23		at Wisconsin	Randall Field Madison, WI	L 3–6
October 30	4:00 p.m.	at Saint Louis *	League Park St. Louis, MO	W 30–0	4,000	[6] [7]
November 6		at Illinois	Illinois Field Champaign, IL (rivalry)	L 5–6
November 20		Purdue	Bloomington, IN (rivalry)	W 36–3		[8]
*Non-conference game All times are in Eastern time

^{[9] [10] [11]}

Northwestern

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
October 2	Illinois Wesleyan *	Northwestern Field Evanston, IL	T 0–0
October 9	at Purdue	Stuart Field West Lafayette, IN	W 14–5
October 30	Wisconsin	Northwestern Field Evanston, IL	L 11–21
November 6	at Chicago	Marshall Field Chicago, IL	L 0–34
November 13	Illinois	Northwestern Field Evanston, IL (rivalry)	L 0–35
*Non-conference game

Iowa

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
October 2	at Minnesota	Northrop Field Minneapolis, MN (rivalry)	L 0–41	6,000	[12]
October 9	Cornell (IA) *	Iowa Field Iowa City, IA	W 3–0		[13]
October 23	at Nebraska	Nebraska Field Lincoln, NE (rivalry)	T 6–6		[14]
October 30	Missouri	Iowa Field Iowa City, IA	L 12–13		[15]
November 6	at Drake	Haskins Field Des Moines, IA	L 14–17	5,000	[16]
November 13	Iowa State	Iowa Field Iowa City, IA (rivalry)	W 16–0		[17]
November 20	at Kansas	McCook Field Lawrence, KS	L 7–20		[18] [19]
*Non-conference game

^[20]

Purdue

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
October 2	at Chicago	Stagg Field Chicago, IL (rivalry)	L 0–40
October 9	Northwestern	Stuart Field West Lafayette, IN	L 5–14
October 16	DePauw *	Stuart Field West Lafayette, IN	W 15–12
October 30	at Illinois	Illinois Field Champaign, IL (rivalry)	L 6–24
November 6	Wabash *	Stuart Field West Lafayette, IN	L 17–18
November 13	Rose Polytechnic *	Stuart Field West Lafayette, IN	W 26–3
November 20	at Indiana	Jordan Field Bloomington, IN (Old Oaken Bucket)	L 3–36		[21]
*Non-conference game

^[22]

Bowl games

No Western Conference schools participated in any bowl games during the 1909 season.

All-American honors

Main article: 1909 College Football All-America Team

Ends

• Harlan Page, Chicago (WC-3)

Tackles

• James Walker, Minnesota (TC-1)

Centers

• H. E. Farnum, Minnesota (WC-3)

Quarterbacks

• John McGovern , Minnesota (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC-1; TC-1)
• Harlan Page, Chicago (NYT-2)

Key

NCAA recognized selectors for 1909

• WC = Collier's Weekly as selected by Walter Camp ^[23]

Other selectors

• NYT = The New York Times ^{[24] [25]}
• TC = Tommy Clark, noted sports writer whose work appeared in several papers ^{[26] [27] [28] [29] [30]}
• UP = United Press consensus All-American team, based on selections from 22 of "the best football experts." The numbers shown in parentheses reflect the number of voters (out of the total of 22) who selected the person as a first-team All-American. ^[31]
• AC = The Atlanta Constitution based on aggregating the All-America selections of ten leading Eastern newspapers. The numbers shown in parentheses reflect the number of voters (out of the total of 10) who selected the person as a first-team All-American. ^[32]

Bold = Consensus All-American ^[33]

• 1 – First-team selection
• 2 – Second-team selection
• 3 – Third-team selection

All-Western selections

Main article: 1909 All-Western college football team

• Harlan Page, End, Chicago (ECP-1, WE)
• James Dean, End, Wisconsin (ECP-2, WE)
• Walter Henry Rademacher, End, Minnesota (ECP-1)

• James Walker, Tackle, Minnesota (ECP-1, WE)
• F. E. Boyle, Tackle, Wisconsin (ECP-2)
• Homer W. Dutter, Tackle, Indiana (ECP-2)

• Glenn D. Butzer, Guard, Illinois (ECP-2)
• Harry W. Powers, Guard, Minnesota (ECP-2)

• Henry E. Farnum, Center, Minnesota (ECP-1)

• John McGovern, Quarterback, Minnesota (ECP-1, WE) (CFHOF)
• Otto E. Seiler, Quarterback, Illinois (ECP-2)

• William Lucas Crawley, Halfback, Chicago (ECP-2)

• Earle T. Pickering, Fullback, Minnesota (ECP-1)
• John Wilce, Fullback, Wisconsin (ECP-2) (CFHOF)

References

1. Frank E. Force (October 3, 1909). "Gophers Swamp Iowa by Brilliant Play: Gophers Trample over Hawkeyes Winning Easily by Score of 41 to 0". The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune. pp. 1, 3 (sporting section) – via Newspapers.com.
2. "Victory For Illinois By Score Of 17 To 8". The Syracuse Herald . Syracuse, New York. November 21, 1909. p. 1B. Retrieved December 26, 2024– via Newspapers.com .
3. "1909 Football Schedule - DePauw University". DePauw University. Retrieved November 9, 2024.
4. "Saturday's Football". The evening times. October 11, 1909. p. 3. Retrieved November 21, 2024– via Chronicling America.
5. "Football Results". Rock Island Argus. October 18, 1909. p. 3. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
6. "Warner's Warriors Meet Indiana To-day". St. Louis Globe-Democrat . St. Louis, Missouri. October 30, 1909. p. 10. Retrieved January 6, 2023– via Newspapers.com .
7. "Hoosiers Humble St. Louis U., 30-0". St. Louis Globe-Democrat . St. Louis, Missouri. October 31, 1909. p. 1B. Retrieved January 6, 2023– via Newspapers.com .
8. "Purdue Bites Dust". Richmond, Virginia: The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. November 21, 1909. p. 2. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
9. "1909 Indiana Hoosiers Schedule and Results". College Football @ Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference . Retrieved December 29, 2023.
10. "1909 Football Schedule". Indiana University . Retrieved December 29, 2023.
11. "Indiana Football 2023 Record Book" (PDF). Indiana University. p. 11. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
12. Frank E. Force (October 3, 1909). "Gophers Swamp Iowa by Brilliant Play: Gophers Trample over Hawkeyes Winning Easily by Score of 41 to 0". The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune. pp. 1, 3 (sporting section) – via Newspapers.com.
13. "Iowa Won From Cornell: Close Score Was 3 to 0; Brilliant Exhibition of Early Season Football was Given". The Iowa Citizen. October 11, 1909. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
14. "Hawkeye Team Held To a Tie: The Cornhuskers Met a Very Worthy Foe In the Players From Iowa City". The Lincoln Daily Star. October 24, 1909. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
15. "Iowa Bows To Missouri: Let the Visitors Win Game; Close Score of 12 to 13 Tells Relative Consistency of Teams". The Iowa City Citizen. November 1, 1909. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
16. "Drake Wins Fierce Contest With Iowa". The Register and Leader (Des Moines, Iowa). November 7, 1909. pp. 1, 15 – via Newspapers.com.
17. "Won Great Victory: Iowa Humbled Her Ancient Adversary from Ames; Score Was 16 to 0 for Her". The Iowa City Citizen. November 15, 1909. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
18. "Kansas Takes Scalps: Iowa Lost Saturday 20 to 7". Iowa City Citizen. November 22, 1909. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
19. "Iowa Goes Down Before Kansas; Only Tigers Left". The Topeka Daily Capital. November 21, 1909. p. 18 – via Newspapers.com.
21. "Purdue Bites Dust". Richmond, Virginia: The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. November 21, 1909. p. 2. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
22. "2022 Purdue Football Record Book" (PDF). Purdue University Athletics. p. 81. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
23. "Six Yale Men on Camp's First Team" (PDF). The New York Times. December 19, 1909.
24. "All-America Team Picked on Form Shown During 1909: Problems Confronting Experts Who Take Up This Thankless and Difficult Task of Choosing the So-Called "Best."" (PDF). The New York Times. November 28, 1909.
25. "Benbrook of Michigan Is Picked For First Team--Captain Allerdice and Magidsohn Are on Second--Western Football Receives Warm Praise". Detroit Free Press. December 15, 1909. p. 11. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013.
26. "All-American Team Chosen". The Daily Review. Decatur, IL. December 1, 1909.
27. Tommy Clark (December 6, 1909). "All American Football Team For Season Of 1909". Lowell Sun.
28. Tommy Clark (December 8, 1909). "The All American Team Has Been Selected". The Piqua Daily Call.
29. Tommy Clark (December 9, 1909). "All American Football Team For Season Of 1909". Fresno Morning Republican.
30. Tommy Clark (December 5, 1909). "All American Football Team For Season Of 1909". Waterloo Times-Tribune.
31. "Greatest Football Team Is Selected". The Des Moines News. December 26, 1909.