The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-11
WHAT WAS THE GREATEST
COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM
OF THE LAST TEN YEARS.

! What is the strongest football team
that ever was? That is what one
eleven of Harvard, Yale, Princeton
and Pennsylvania to which four col
leges this field inquiry may be limit
ed, since it deals only with eastern
colleges, do you think had the strong
est array OF players?
1t is a very open question, one per-
hitting of wide difference of opinion.
Different rules and difference n the
! strength Of opponents the defeating
! of whom has gone toward establishing
regulations of elevens conspicuous by
their prowess makes it difficult to
compare the best teams of the various
seasons, and therefore the only way
to get at it is to consider the players
individually.
Changes in the rules need not AFFECT
! the quest on, because the players OF
any strong team could have adapted
! themselves readily enough to any set
i Of rules that might have been In ex-
! istence.
/ All Powerful Elevens.
! Taking the teams since 1890 in the
! eastern arena and picking out those
that have stood out conspicuously by
J their strength and successes, and the
field may be restricted to 10 teams.
These are the Yale team Of 1891. the
Pennsylvania team Of 1885. the Prince
ton team of 1895, the Harvard team of
| ward team of 1901, the Yale team OF
1902, the Princeton team Of 1903, the
Harvard team of 1908 and the Yale
team of 1909. Those were all power
j full combinations and were composed
! of ind viduai members above the or
| binary.
| Take a look at the players who
i made up these 10 teams and see what
large number of the gridiron giants
I! each contained. The ten teams were
| made up as follows:
Yale. 1s91-Ends, Hinkey and Green
! way; tackles. Wallis and Winter
guards, Heffelfnger and Morrison
! Center, Sanford; quarterback. Bar
! bour; halfbacks, McClung and Bliss
fullback Butterworth.
| Pennsylvania. 18o5-Ends, Dickson
| and Gilbert; tackles. Wagonhurst and
+, ruff: center, Bull; quarterback Will
liams: halfbacks. Minds and Blair;
| ful1hack, Brooke.
Princeton. 1See-Ends, Cochrane and
Brokaw; TACKLES, Church and Hille-
brand; guards Crowds and Arm
| back, Smith: halfbacks. Kelley and
Barnard; fullback Baird.
Harvard, 1S9S-Ends. Hallowell and
! Cochran; tackles Donald and Haugh-
! ton: guards, Boal and Burden; CEN
| ter, Jaffary; quarterback, Dolly: half
backs, Dibble and Warren; fullback,
Reid. -
| tackles, Stillman and Bloomer; guards.
| Brown and Sheldon; center Olcott:
quarterback, Fincke; half-backs,
Chadwick and Sharpe; fullback. Hale.
Harvard, 1901-Ends. Campbell and
| Bowditch; tackles, Cults and Blag-
4 H.,
| ter. Greene; quarterback. Marshall;
halfhacks, Herman and Rfstine; full
back. Kraydon.
yale, 1a62-Ends. shevlin and Raj
| ferty; tackles, Hogan and Kinney;
/ guards. Glass and Goss; center Holt;
| Chadwick and Metcalf; fullback, Bow
| man.
Princeton. 1sO3-Ends. Davis and
! Henry; tackles Cooney and Reed;
| guards, De Witt and Dillon; center,
| Short; quarterback. Vetter1ein; half
| backs, Kafer and Hart; fullback. Mil
| Ter.
Harvard, 1sns-Ends, Brown and
Crowley; tackles, Mckay and Fish;
guards. Dunlap and Hoar; center,
Nourse; quarterback, Cutler; half
backs Corbett and White; fullback,
Yer Wiebe..
Yale, 1eoa-Ends Fitzpatrick and Lo-
.
| guards. Andrus and Goebe1; center,
! Cooney; quarterback. Howe; half
i backs, Philbin and Murphy; fullback,
Coy.
Won Every Came
| The Yale 1891 team won every game
F.! and wasn't scored on. The Quaker
| combination of the fall Of 1898 was,
/ like it's predecessor Of 1894, one Of the
| best teams Penn. ever had, and
| dof tod
ward. Princeton's team Of 1896 was
| a slash ng aggregation and beat Yale
| "a to 6 the biggest total of points
ever made against Old Eli. Harvard
| in 1898 beat Pennsylvania 10 to 0, and
| beat Yale IL to 0. Yale in 1900 had q
wonderful array of players and beat
Princeton 20 to 5. and downed Har-
ward % to O.
Harvard had a mighty team in 1901
| and put Pennsylvania away. 33 to 6,
and buried Yale under % to score.
| In 1902 Yale came along with another
| IL to 5. and slamming Harvard. % to
o. Princeton turned out fin; shed
| team in 1903 and got away with Yale
| II to e. Harvard's 1903 eleven was a
| versatile and strong outfit and beat a
| good Yale team, to O. In 1903 Yale
had a notably vig;lant. well drilled
! and strong all-around team and beat
| O. and wasn't scored on all <eason.
There are those who think Browns
! 1900 Yale team had more actual pow
| er than any that ever played. It's
total of points against Princeton and
Harvard was imposing. So was Har-
wards total against Pennsylvania and
! Yale in 1901, and that was a tremen-
| dously powerful array, with great
! drive in hurricane attack. The
Yale 1902 team had a denolishing as
| well as varied attack.
Classify Players.
In order to compare the players OF
! these different teams as individual
performers the ends, tackles. guards
| and he player of all the other posi-
| lions and then rated. In those posi-
lions IN which there are two players
to a team ends. tackles, guards and
halfbacks-the idea hos been to Sc
lect the best pair possible, to select
two men who as a pair excelled any
other pair, though individually one or
both may not have been as efficient
as some other one end
Each pair of ends has been ranked
from 1 to 10 and the occupants of all
the other positions sim larly ranked,
Then the total points for each team
/ have been computed. According to
this plan the team with the smallest
total of points is the best Of the 10
elevens chosen at the start for COM
pa-ison.
This system. so far as the jude
ment of the writer is concerned.
makes the Yale team iof 1901 the srron-
est array Of all. IT mas the smaii to-