Yale Bulldogs football | |||
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First season | 1872; 152 years ago | ||
Athletic director | Victoria Chun | ||
Head coach | Tony Reno 12th season, 74–46 (.617) | ||
Stadium | Yale Bowl (capacity: 61,446) | ||
Field surface | Grass (1914-2018) Field Turf (2019-present) | ||
Location | New Haven, Connecticut | ||
Conference | Ivy League | ||
All-time record | 944–393–55 (.698) | ||
Claimed national titles | 27 (1872, 1874, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1897, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1909, 1927) [1] | ||
Conference titles | 18 (1956, 1960, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1989, 1999, 2006, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023) | ||
Rivalries | Harvard (rivalry) Princeton (rivalry) | ||
Heisman winners | Larry Kelley – 1936 Clint Frank – 1937 | ||
Consensus All-Americans | 100 | ||
Current uniform | |||
Colors | Yale blue and white [2] | ||
Fight song | "Down the Field" | ||
Mascot | Handsome Dan | ||
Website | yalebulldogs.com |
The Yale Bulldogs football program represents Yale University in college football in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Yale's football program, founded in 1872, is one of the oldest in the world. Since their founding, the Bulldogs have won 27 national championships, two of the first three Heisman Trophy winners (Larry Kelley in 1936 and Clint Frank in 1937), 100 consensus All-Americans, 28 College Football Hall of Fame inductees, including the "Father of American Football" Walter Camp, the first professional football player Pudge Heffelfinger, and coaching giants Amos Alonzo Stagg, Howard Jones, Tad Jones and Carmen Cozza. With over 900 wins, Yale ranks in the top ten for most wins in college football history.
The Bulldogs were the dominant team in the early days of intercollegiate football, winning 27 college football national championships, including 26 in 38 years between 1872 and 1909. [3] Walter Camp, known as the "Father of Football," graduated from Hopkins Grammar School in 1876, and played college football at Yale College from 1876 to 1882. He later served as the head football coach at Yale from 1888 to 1892. [4] It was Camp who pioneered the fundamental transition of American football from rugby when in 1880, he succeeded in convincing the Intercollegiate Football Association to discontinue the rugby "scrum," and instead have players line up along a "line of scrimmage" for individual plays, which begin with the snap of the ball and conclude with the tackling of the ballcarrier. [5] In 1916, against the advisement of coach Tad Jones, Yale quarterback Chester J. LaRoche (1918s) helped lead the Yale team in a win against Princeton by turning the momentum of the game with a fourth-down call in the huddle to go for first down rather than punt. The team made the down and went on to win the game in one of Yale's greatest victories in its history. LaRoche went on to spearhead the creation of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. [6]
By the 1940s, however, Yale's success in football had waned at the national level. The famed sportswriter Grantland Rice wrote that Yale, along with Harvard and Princeton, was one of the top teams in the late 19th and early 20th century. However, "It was has been a different story in the later years when the far west, the midwest, the southwest, and the south have taken charge as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton fell behind." [7]
When the Ivy League athletic conference was formed in 1955, conference rules prohibited post-season play in football. While Yale had always abstained from post-season play, other member schools had participated in bowls before, and the new policy further insulated Yale and the Ivy League from the national spotlight.
The NCAA decided to split Division I into two subdivisions in 1978, then called I-A for larger schools, and I-AA for the smaller ones. The NCAA had devised the split, in part, with the Ivy League in mind, but the conference did not move down for four seasons despite the fact that there were many indications that the ancient eight were on the wrong side of an increasing disparity between the big and small schools. In 1982, the NCAA created a rule that stated a program's average attendance must be at least 15,000 to qualify for I-A membership. This forced the conference's hand, as only some of the member schools met the attendance qualification. Choosing to stay together rather than stand their ground separately in the increasingly competitive I-A subdivision, the Ivy League moved down into I-AA starting with the 1982 season. [8]
Yale has been both an independent and affiliated with the Ivy League. [9]
Yale has won 27 national championships from NCAA-designated major selectors. [10] [11] : 110–112 Yale claims each of these championships. [12]
Season | Coach | Selectors | Record |
---|---|---|---|
1872 | No coach | Parke Davis | 1–0 |
1874 | No coach | National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 3–0 |
1876 | No coach | Billingsley, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 3–0 |
1877 | No coach | Billingsley, [13] National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 3–0–1 |
1879 | No coach | Parke Davis | 3–0–2 |
1880 | No coach | Billingsley, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 4–0–1 |
1881 | No coach | National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 5–0–1 |
1882 | No coach | Billingsley, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 8–0 |
1883 | No coach | Billingsley, Helms, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 9–0 |
1884 | No coach | Billingsley, [13] Helms, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 8–0–1 |
1886 | No coach | Billingsley, [13] Helms, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 9–0–1 |
1887 | No coach | Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 9–0 |
1888 | Walter Camp | Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 13–0 |
1891 | Walter Camp | Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 13–0 |
1892 | Walter Camp | Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 13–0 |
1893 | William Rhodes | Parke Davis | 10–1 |
1894 | William Rhodes | Billingsley, Helms, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 16–0 |
1895 | John A. Hartwell | Parke Davis | 13–0–2 |
1897 | Frank Butterworth | Parke Davis | 9–0–2 |
1900 | Malcolm McBride | Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 12–0 |
1901 | George S. Stillman | n/a [a] [b] | 11–1–1 |
1902 | Joseph R. Swan | Parke Davis | 11–0–1 |
1905 | Jack Owsley | Parke Davis, Whitney | 10–0 |
1906 | Foster Rockwell | Billingsley, Parke Davis, Whitney | 9–0–1 |
1907 | William F. Knox | Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis, Whitney | 9–0–1 |
1909 | Howard Jones | Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis | 10–0 |
1927 | Mal Stevens | Football Research | 7–1 |
Yale has won 18 conference championships, all in the Ivy League, as of 2023 with nine outright and nine shared. [16]
Year | Conference | Coach | Overall record | Conference record |
---|---|---|---|---|
1956 | Ivy League | Jordan Olivar | 8–1 | 7–0 |
1960 | 9–0 | 7–0 | ||
1967 | Carmen Cozza | 8–1 | 7–0 | |
1968 | 8–0–1 | 6–0–1 | ||
1969† | 7–2 | 6–1 | ||
1974† | 8–1 | 6–1 | ||
1976† | 8–1 | 6–1 | ||
1977 | 7–2 | 6–1 | ||
1979 | 8–1 | 6–1 | ||
1980 | 8–2 | 6–1 | ||
1981† | 9–1 | 6–1 | ||
1989† | 8–2 | 6–1 | ||
1999† | Jack Siedlecki | 9–1 | 6–1 | |
2006† | 8–2 | 6–1 | ||
2017 | Tony Reno | 9–1 | 6–1 | |
2019† | 9–1 | 6–1 | ||
2022 | 8–2 | 6–1 | ||
2023† | 7–3 | 5–2 |
† Co-championship
Career records of Yale head coaches. [17]
Coach | Years | Record | Pct. |
---|---|---|---|
No coach | 1872–1887 | 79–5–8 | .902 |
Walter Camp | 1888–1892 | 67–2–0 | .971 |
William Rhodes | 1893–1894 | 26–1–0 | .963 |
John A. Hartwell | 1895 | 13–0–2 | .933 |
Sam Thorne | 1896 | 13–1–0 | .929 |
Frank Butterworth | 1897–1898 | 18–2–2 | .864 |
James O. Rodgers | 1899 | 7–2–1 | .750 |
Malcolm McBride | 1900 | 12–0–0 | 1.000 |
George S. Stillman | 1901 | 11–1–1 | .885 |
Joseph R. Swan | 1902 | 11–0–1 | .958 |
George B. Chadwick | 1903 | 11–1–0 | .917 |
Charles D. Rafferty | 1904 | 10–1–0 | .909 |
Jack Owsley | 1905 | 10–0–0 | 1.000 |
Foster Rockwell | 1906 | 9–0–1 | .950 |
William F. Knox | 1907 | 9–0–1 | .950 |
Lucius Horatio Biglow | 1908 | 7–1–1 | .833 |
Howard Jones | 1909, 1913 | 15–2–3 | .825 |
Ted Coy | 1910 | 6–2–2 | .700 |
John Field | 1911 | 7–2–1 | .750 |
Art Howe | 1912 | 7–1–1 | .833 |
Frank Hinkey | 1914–1915 | 11–7–0 | .611 |
Tad Jones | 1916–1917, 1920–1927 | 60–15–4 | .785 |
Albert Sharpe | 1919 | 5–3–0 | .625 |
Mal Stevens | 1928–1932 | 21–11–8 | .625 |
Reginald D. Root | 1933 | 4–4–0 | .500 |
Ducky Pond | 1934–1940 | 30–25–2 | .544 |
Spike Nelson | 1941 | 1–7–0 | .125 |
Howard Odell | 1942–1947 | 35–15–2 | .692 |
Herman Hickman | 1948–1951 | 16–17–2 | .486 |
Jordan Olivar | 1952–1962 | 61–32–6 | .646 |
John Pont | 1963–1964 | 12–5–1 | .694 |
Carmen Cozza | 1965–1996 | 179–119–5 | .599 |
Jack Siedlecki | 1997–2008 | 71–48 | .597 |
Tom Williams | 2009–2011 | 16–14 | .533 |
Anthony Reno | 2012–present | 74-46 | .617 |
Harvard and Yale have been competing against each other in football since 1875. The annual rivalry game between the two schools, known as "The Game", is played in November at the end of the football season. As of 2023, Yale leads the series 70-61-8. [18]
The Game is the second oldest continuing rivalry and also the third most-played rivalry game in college football history, after the Lehigh–Lafayette Rivalry (1884) and the Princeton–Yale game (1873). Sports Illustrated On Campus rated the Harvard–Yale rivalry the sixth-best in college athletics in 2003.
Harvard had been unbeaten versus Yale from 2007 to 2015. The nine game winning streak was the longest during the rivalry. Yale's 21–14 victory over Harvard in Cambridge in 2016 ended the streak.
The Game is significant for historical reasons as the rules of The Game soon were adopted by other schools. Football's rules, conventions, and equipment, as well as elements of "atmosphere" such as the mascot and fight song, include many elements pioneered or nurtured at Harvard and Yale. [19] [20]
The series with Princeton dates to 1873.
The Yale Bowl is Yale's football stadium in New Haven, Connecticut about 1-1/2 miles west of Yale's main campus. Completed in 1914, the stadium seats 61,446, reduced by renovations from the original capacity of 70,869. [21]
Ground was broken on the stadium in August 1913. It was the first bowl-shaped stadium in the country, and provided inspiration for the design of such stadiums as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, and Michigan Stadium. Through its inspiration of the Rose Bowl stadium, its name is also the origin of college football's bowl games. It was the perfect setting for New Haven native Albie Booth, also known as "Little Boy Blue" to perform his heroics vs. Army in November 1929 and for the 47-yard "kick that made history" by Randall "Randy" C. Carter, '77, snapped by the stalwart center from Illinois, Ralph Bosch, '77 and surely placed by John "Nubes" Nubani, '78, in the last seconds of the 1975 Yale-Dartmouth game to win the game for Yale, 16–14. The victory lifted head coach Carm Cozza into a tie with the legendary Walter Camp for most victories by a Bulldog mentor. [22] The current scoreboard (notable for the time clock being arranged vertically instead of horizontally) was added in 1958, and in 1986 the current press box was added. Yale hosted Penn in the first night football game at the Bowl on October 21, 2016. Penn defeated Yale in the game, 42–7. The Bowl was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. [21] [23]
As of 2017, 29 Yale Bulldogs players and coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. [24]
Name | Position | Years | Inducted |
---|---|---|---|
Mal Aldrich | HB | 1919–1921 | 1972 |
Doug Bomeisler | End | 1910–1912 | 1972 |
Albie Booth | HB | 1929–1931 | 1966 |
Gordon Brown | G | 1897–1900 | 1954 |
Walter Camp | Coach | 1888–1895 | 1951 |
Pa Corbin | C | 1886–1888 | 1969 |
Ted Coy | FB | 1907–1909 | 1951 |
Carmen Cozza | Coach | 1965–1996 | 2002 |
Clint Frank | HB | 1935–1937 | 1955 |
Pudge Heffelfinger | G | 1888–1891 | 1951 |
Bill Hickock | G | 1892–1894 | 1971 |
Frank Hinkey | End | 1891–1894 | 1951 |
James Hogan | T | 1901–1904 | 1954 |
Art Howe | QB | 1909–1911 | 1973 |
Dick Jauron | RB | 1970–1972 | 2015 |
Howard Jones | Coach | 1908–1940 | 1951 |
Tad Jones | Coach | 1909–1927 | 1958 |
Larry Kelley | End | 1934–1936 | 1969 |
Hank Ketcham | C, G | 1911–1913 | 1968 |
John Kilpatrick | End | 1908–1910 | 1955 |
Alex Kroll | C | 1956, 1960–1961 | 1997 |
Bill Mallory | FB | 1921–1923 | 1964 |
Lee McClung | HB | 1888–1891 | 1963 |
Century Milstead | T | 1920–1921, 1923 | 1977 |
Tom Shevlin | End | 1902–1905 | 1954 |
Amos Alonzo Stagg | End | 1885–1889 | 1951 |
Mal Stevens | QB, HB | 1919–1921, 1923 | 1974 |
Herbert Sturhahn | G | 1924–1926 | 1981 |
Sam Thorne | HB | 1893–1895 | 1970 |
This section needs additional citations for verification .(October 2018) |
More than 30 players from Yale have gone on to play in the National Football League, including running backs Calvin Hill, Chuck Mercein and Chris Hetherington, defensive backs Dick Jauron, Gary Fencik and Kenny Hill, tight ends Eric Johnson and John Spagnola, quarterback Brian Dowling, and linemen Fritz Barzilauskas, Century Milstead and Mike Pyle.
Since the first All-American team was selected by Caspar Whitney in 1889, more than 100 Yale football players have been selected as first-team All-Americans. Consensus All-Americans are noted below with bold typeface.
The Harvard–Yale football rivalry is renewed annually with The Game, an American college football match between the Crimson football team of Harvard University and the Bulldogs football team of Yale University.
The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media outlets. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game.
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William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger, also spelled Hafelfinger, was an American football player and coach. He is considered the first athlete to play American football professionally, having been paid to play in 1892 for the Allegheny Athletic Association.
The Ohio State Buckeyes football team competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, representing Ohio State University in the Big Ten Conference. Ohio State has played its home games at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, since 1922.
The Virginia Cavaliers football team represents the University of Virginia (UVA) in the sport of American football. Established in 1887, Virginia plays its home games at Scott Stadium, capacity 61,500, featured directly on its campus near the Academical Village. UVA played an outsized role in the shaping of the modern game's ethics and eligibility rules, as well as its safety rules after a Georgia fullback died fighting the tide of a lopsided Virginia victory in 1897.
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The 1922 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1922. The only selector recognized by the NCAA as "official" for the 1922 season is Walter Camp, whose selections were published in Collier's Weekly. Additional selectors who chose All-American teams in 1922 included: Athletic World magazine, selected by 214 coaches; Norman E. Brown, sports editor of the Central Press Association; the New York Tribune, selected by Ray McCarthy with advice from Grantland Rice and William B. Hanna; Walter Eckersall, of the Chicago Tribune; Frank G. Menke; and Billy Evans, who polled 200 sports editors.
The 1890 College Football All-America team was the second College Football All-America Team. The team was selected by Caspar Whitney and published in This Week's Sports.
The 1889 College Football All-America team was the first College Football All-America Team. The team was selected by Caspar Whitney and published in This Week's Sports.
The 1891 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected by Caspar Whitney as the best players at their positions for the 1891 college football season. Whitney began publishing his All-America Team in 1889, and 1891 was the first year Whitney's list was published in Harper's Weekly.
The 1889 college football season was the season of American football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1889–90 academic year.
The 1892 college football season was the season of American football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1892–93 academic year.
The 1891 college football season was the season of American football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1891–92 academic year.
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The 1891 Yale Bulldogs football team represented Yale University in the 1891 college football season. The team finished with a 13–0 record and a 488-0 season score. It was retroactively named as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, National Championship Foundation, and Parke H. Davis. Yale's 1891 season was part of a 37-game winning streak that began with the final game of the 1890 season and stopped at the end of the 1893 season.
The 2015 Yale Bulldogs football team represented Yale University in the 2015 NCAA Division I FCS football season. This season marked the Bulldogs's 143rd overall season and the team played its home games at Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut. They were led by fourth year head coach Tony Reno. They were a member of the Ivy League. They finished the season 6–4 overall and 3–4 in Ivy League play to tie for fourth place. Yale averaged 20,614 fans per game.
The Princeton–Yale football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Princeton Tigers of Princeton University and the Yale Bulldogs of Yale University. The football rivalry is among the oldest in American sports.