# 1891 college football season

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.
The 1891 Yale Bulldogs football team, led by head coach Walter Camp, compiled a perfect 13–0 record, outscored opponents by a total of 488 to 0, and has been recognized 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 at the end of the 1890 season and continued into the 1893 season.
In the Midwest, Kansas led the way with a 7–0–1 record. In the South, Trinity (now known as Duke) was recognized as the champion.
Ten of the eleven players selected by Caspar Whitney to the 1891 All-America college football team came from the Big Three (Yale, Harvard, and Princeton). The eleventh player was center John Adams from Penn. Five of the honorees have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: quarterback Philip King (Princeton), halfback Lee McClung (Yale), end Frank Hinkey (Yale), tackle Marshall Newell (Harvard), and guard Pudge Heffelfinger (Yale).

## Conference and program changes

| School | 1890 Conference | 1891 Conference |
| Case football | Program established | Independent |
| Sewanee Tigers | Program Established | Independent |
| Tennessee Volunteers | Program Established | Independent |
| West Virginia Mountaineers | Program established | Independent |

## Awards and honors
### All-Americans

The consensus All-America team included:
| Position | Name | Height | Weight (lbs.) | Class | Hometown | Team |
| QB | Philip King | 5'6" | 154 | So. | Washington, D. C. | Princeton |
| HB | Everett J. Lake | | | Sr. | Woodstock, Connecticut | Harvard |
| HB | Bum McClung | 5'10" | 165 | Sr. | Knoxville, Tennessee | Yale |
| FB | Sheppard Homans, Jr. | | | Sr. | Englewood, New Jersey | Princeton |
| E | Frank Hinkey | 5'9" | 150 | Fr. | Tonawanda, New York | Yale |
| T | Wallace Winter | | | Jr. | Hudson, Wisconsin | Yale |
| G | Pudge Heffelfinger | 6'4" | 178 | Sr. | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Yale |
| C | John Adams | | | Sr. | | Penn |
| G | Jesse Riggs | | | Sr. | Baltimore, Maryland | Princeton |
| T | Marshall Newell | 5'7" | 168 | So. | Great Barrington, Massachusetts | Harvard |
| E | John A. Hartwell | | | Sr. | Sussex, New Jersey | Yale |

### Statistical leaders

* Player scoring most points: Bernard Trafford, Harvard, 270

## Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:
1891 Colorado Football Association standings :
| 1891 Colorado Football Association standings vteConfOverall TeamW L TW L T Colorado Mines $   –  5 –1 –1 $ – Conference champion | 1891 Eastern Intercollegiate Football Association standings vteConfOverall TeamW L TW L T Williams $ 3 –0 –18 –2 –1 Amherst 2 –0 –28 –4 –3 Dartmouth 2 –1 –12 –2 –1 MIT 1 –3 –05 –7 –2 Stevens 0 –4 –04 –7 –0 $ – Conference champion | 1891 Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association football standings vteConfOverall TeamW L TW L T Purdue $ 4 –0 –04 –0 –0 Butler 3 –2 –04 –3 –0 Wabash 1 –3 –01 –3 –0 Indiana 0 –5 –01 –5 –0 $ – Conference champion |
| 1891 Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Football Association standings vteConfOverall TeamW L TW L T Penn State $ 4 –1 –06 –2 –0 Bucknell 3 –1 –16 –2 –1 Swarthmore 3 –2 –09 –2 –0 Franklin & Marshall 2 –2 –02 –4 –0 Dickinson 1 –2 –12 –3 –1 Haverford 0 –5 –00 –6 –0 $ – Conference champion |

### Independents

1891 Eastern college football independents records :
| 1891 Eastern college football independents records vteConfOverall TeamW L TW L T Yale   –  13 –0 –0 Harvard   –  13 –1 –0 Princeton   –  12 –1 –0 Tufts   –  7 –1 –0 Penn   –  11 –2 –0 Colgate   –  4 –1 –0 Army   –  4 –1 –1 Navy   –  5 –2 –0 Cornell   –  7 –3 –0 Geneva   –  4 –2 –0 Washington & Jefferson   –  4 –2 –0 Lehigh   –  7 –4 –0 Delaware   –  5 –3 –1 Rutgers   –  8 –6 –0 Brown   –  4 –6 –0 Springfield YMCA   –  5 –8 –1 Fordham   –  1 –2 –1 Syracuse   –  4 –7 –0 Massachusetts   –  2 –5 –0 Western Univ. Penn.   –  2 –6 –0 Lafayette   –  2 –9 –1 NYU   –  1 –4 –0 Columbia   –  1 –5 –0 Wesleyan   –  1 –6 –0 | 1891 Midwestern college football independents records vteConfOverall TeamW L TW L T Ohio Wesleyan   –  4 –0 –0 Kansas   –  7 –0 –1 Illinois   –  5 –1 –0 Missouri   –  3 –1 –0 Lake Forest   –  6 –2 –0 Washington University   –  4 –1 –1 Minnesota   –  3 –1 –1 Wisconsin   –  3 –1 –1 Cincinnati   –  4 –2 –1 Iowa   –  3 –2 –0 Doane   –  2 –2 –0 Iowa College   –  1 –1 –1 Miami (OH)   –  1 –1 –0 Nebraska   –  2 –2 –0 Northwestern   –  2 –2 –3 Michigan   –  4 –5 –0 Ohio State   –  2 –3 –0 Case   –  1 –2 –0 Buchtel   –  1 –3 –0 Washburn   –  1 –5 –0 Michigan State Normal   –  0 –2 –0 | 1891 Southern college football independents records vteConfOverall TeamW L TW L T Trinity (NC)   –  3 –0 –0 Wake Forest   –  1 –0 –0 VMI   –  3 –0 –1 Vanderbilt   –  3 –1 –0 Navy   –  5 –2 –0 Virginia   –  2 –1 –2 Delaware   –  5 –3 –1 Kentucky State College   –  1 –1 –0 Georgetown   –  2 –2 –0 Sewanee   –  1 –2 –0 Central (KY)   –  0 –1 –0 Furman   –  0 –1 –0 Tennessee   –  0 –1 –0 West Virginia   –  0 –1 –0 Johns Hopkins   –  0 –2 –0 Mercer   –  0 –2 –0 North Carolina   –  0 –2 –0 Richmond   –  0 –2 –0 |
| 1891 Far West college football independents records vteConfOverall TeamW L TW L T Stanford   –  3 –1 –0 California (spring)   –  4 –2 –0 Washington   –  1 –1 –0 USC   –  1 –2 –0 Colorado   –  1 –4 –0 California   –  0 –1 –0 |