1890 College Football All - America Team The 1890 College Football All - America team was the second College Football All - America Team . The team was selected by Casper Whitney and published in " This Week ' s Sports " . Overview . All eleven members of the 1890 All - America team played for three teams - - Harvard , Princeton or Yale , then known as the " Big Three " of college football . Some sources indicate that Walter Camp assisted Whitney with the selection of the 1890 All - American team , while others indicate that Camp did not become involved in the selection process until some time in the early 1890s . The 1890 All - America team included three players who were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame : Harvard ' s great tackle Marshall " Ma " Newell , Yale ' s guard William " Pudge " Heffelfinger , and Yale ' s halfback Thomas " Bum " McClung . The strength of the 1890 team is demonstrated by the fact that a majority of the players selected ( seven of eleven ) were selected as All - Americans in multiple years . They are : Pudge Heffelfinger ( 1889 , 1890 and 1891 ) , John Corbett ( 1889 and 1890 ) , Marshall Newell ( 1890 and 1891 ) , Frank Hallowell ( 1890 and 1892 ) , Jesse Riggs ( 1890 and 1891 ) , " Bum " McClung ( 1890 and 1891 ) , and Sheppard Homans ( 1890 and 1891 ) . The team included men who went on to great success in their careers . McClung went on to become the Treasurer of the United States under U . S . President William Howard Taft , and his signature appears on U . S . currency issued during the years 1909 - 1912 . Heffelfinger became the first " professional " football player in 1892 when he was paid $ 25 for his expenses and a bonus of $ 500 by the Allegheny Athletic Association to play in a game against the rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club . Harvard ' s quarterback Dudley Dean enlisted in Teddy Roosevelt ' s Rough Riders and was decorated for his role in the Battle of San Juan Hill . The team also included players who met with tragic endings . Newell was killed on Christmas Eve 1897 when a railroad engine accidentally backed up over him . Princeton ' s end Ralph Warren suffered a severely twisted neck in the 1891 Princeton - Yale game and wandered off several weeks later , having reportedly suffered a mental breakdown as a combined result of the injury and despondency over the loss to Yale . Football in 1890 was a brutal sport , played before the introduction of helmets and other protective gear . Serious injuries and even deaths were common occurrences in the game . Harvard ' s All - American center , John Cranston , was the first player to wear equipment to protect his face during an American football game . In order to protect Cranston ' s " weak nose , " Harvard captain and 1889 All - American Arthur Cumnock invented a device that he called " nose armor . " Cumnock ' s invention gained popularity , and in 1892 , a newspaper article described the growing popularity of the device : " By the invention of nose armor football players who have been hitherto barred from the field because of broken or weak noses are now able to thrust an armor protected nose ( even though it be broken ) into the center of the roughest scrimmage without danger to the sensitive nasal organ . The armor is made of fine rubbber and protects both the nose and teeth . " In 1952 , Grantland Rice paid tribute to Princeton ' s fullback Sheppard Homans as the embodiment of the rough and tumble days of iron man football . Rice wrote : " Just as Ty Cobb represents the ball game of many years ago , this man represented the football that used to be . "