Parke H . Davis Parke Hill Davis ( July 16 , 1871 – June 5 , 1934 ) was an American football player , coach and historian who retroactively named the national championship teams in American college football from the 1869 through the 1932 seasons . He also named co - national champions at the conclusion of the 1933 season . Davis ' selections are included in the NCAA ' s official football record books , as the only championship teams chosen on the basis of research . Player and coach . Davis was a lineman for Princeton and a member of the Tigers ' " tug - of - war team in 1889 " before going on to coach at Wisconsin ( 1893 ) , Amherst ( 1894 ) and Lafayette ( 1895 – 98 ) , where he also served as athletic director . He displayed an admirable range of talents . In 1896 alone , Coach Davis organized Lafayette ' s Law Club ; he appeared in a leading role in a stage production of " The Rivals " at the Easton , Pennsylvania Opera House ; he read Longfellow poetry at the Freshman Initiation gala ; and he led Lafayette to its first national football championship , an honor he would , himself , bestow upon his team some 37 years after the fact . The Yost affair . The biggest win of the 1896 season came in Philadelphia against Pennsylvania on October 24 . A standout for Lafayette was a newcomer named Fielding " Hurry Up " Yost . Yost began playing football at West Virginia University in 1894 at the age of 23 . A 6 - foot , 200 - pounder , Yost was a star tackle at WVU into the 1896 season . But after his team lost three times to Lafayette in home games played on three different fields over the course of three days , Yost became a remarkable personification of " if you can ' t beat ' em , join ' em . " He transferred in mid - season to join what would be Coach Davis ' national championship team . True to his nickname , just a week after playing " against " Davis in West Virginia , " Hurry Up " was playing " for " Davis in Lafayette ' s historic 6 – 4 win over the Quakers . The fortuitous timing of Yost ' s appearance on the Lafayette roster did not go unnoticed by Penn officials . They called it " the Yost affair . " The Philadelphia " Ledger " quoted Yost as saying that he came to Lafayette only to play football . The fact that Yost appeared in a Lafayette uniform only once . . . in the Penn game . . . and that he returned to West Virginia within two weeks of the contest . . . did not help appearances . Yost assured all concerned that he would return to Lafayette for at least three years of study . But 1897 found " Hurry Up " no longer a student or a player , but a coach at Ohio Wesleyan . In 1901 , he was hired as head coach at the University of Michigan , beginning a storied 25 - year , Hall of Fame career . " Prominent attorney " of Easton , Pennsylvania . After concluding his own six - year career as a football coach , Davis became a " prominent attorney " in Easton , Pennsylvania , where Lafayette is located . He lived there the rest of his life . In the October 1900 meeting of the Lafayette Democratic Club , Davis was the " orator of the evening , " after the group unanimously endorsed the national ticket of William Jennings Bryan and Adlai E . Stevenson . In 1901 , the former coach , " favorably and widely known through his past connection with football at Lafayette , " easily won election as District Attorney of Northampton County , Pennsylvania , of which Easton is the county seat . He became such a part of Easton and the college that he was proclaimed a " loyal son of Lafayette " after giving an " enthusiastic " speech in 1901 urging on the football team before its game with Princeton , his own alma mater . The " ex - coach and loyal supporter of athletics of Lafayette " served as an umpire in football games and as starter at the college ' s track meets . Football historian and rules committee member . Davis wrote an early history of American football in 1911 , tracing the sport ' s origins to Biblical times : . . . abundant evidence may be marshalled to prove that this is the oldest outdoor game in existence . In the 22nd chapter of Isaiah is found the verse , " He will turn and toss thee like a ball . " This allusion , slight as it may be , is sufficient unto the antiquary to indicate that some sort of game with a ball existed as early as 750 years before the Christian era , the epoch customarily assigned to the Book of Isaiah . An acknowledged expert on the formative years of the sport in the 19th century , Davis described the period between 1869 and 1875 as the Pioneer Period ; the years 1876 – 93 he called the period of the American Intercollegiate Football Association ; and the years 1894 – 1933 he dubbed the Period of Rules Committees and Conferences . He helped select the 1913 College Football All - America Team while serving as Princeton ' s representative on the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee . He served on the Rules Committee from 1909 to 1915 , playing a key role in shaping the evolution of the game . Among the innovations with which he is credited are the division of the game into quarters , numbering of players , abolition of inter - locked interference and the creation of end zones . Even after leaving the Rules Committee , Davis promoted his ideas for improving the sport , which included making it illegal to advance a recovered fumble : This feature of football is uncouth , unfair and a relic of a long bygone era . . . The proper disposition of this fluke play is to change the rules so that the ball shall be put down for scrimmage at the point where a fumble is recovered by the side recovering the fumble and no run allowed . If the fumble is recovered behind an opponent ' s goal line the ball shall be put in play at the point where it was fumbled . Davis was a friend and admirer of Walter Camp , " Father of American Football . " In a 1926 authorized biography of Camp , author Harford Powel , Jr . turned to Davis for historical perspective , including accounts of Camp ' s " heavy disappointments ( which ) should be mentioned , for fear it might be thought that Camp was one of those players who do not know the feeling of failure . " He reviewed the sport ' s first half - century in " Fifty Years of Intercollegiate Football , " which appeared in the 1926 edition of " Spalding ' s Official Football Guide " . Davis ' description of football ' s earliest years paint an image of a sport very different from the game as it became known in the 20th century : The tactics of the times made the play essentially a kicking game . The backs kicked punts , drop kicks , and place kicks . . . Not only was the ball kicked as at present , but it was kicked , and cleverly kicked , while bouncing upon the ground . The game was opened , as now , by a kick - off . The player of 1880 might , if he chose , drive the ball far down the field . Or , technically kicking the ball by merely touching it with his toe , he might pick it up and run with it . Players when tackled invariably endeavored to pass the ball back to another member of their side for a further advance , a method of play so highly developed that it was not infrequent to see a ball passed as many as five times during a single play . In addition to his work on the " Guide " , Davis authored articles on football for the " Encyclopædia Britannica " and compiled a glossary of football terms . " Set all the records straight " . " Perhaps a bit irritated by the flood of experts on the scene , the most noted historian football has ever known , Parke H . Davis , decided to set all the records straight in the 1933 edition of " Spalding ' s Football Guide " , " reported Dan Jenkins in the September 11 , 1967 edition of " Sports Illustrated " . " Davis went all the way back to the first inflated pig bladder to pick the national champions for every season . He used no special formula . He simply looked at the schedules and the results and chose his teams . " For the 1896 season , Davis selected his own team and his alma mater to share the title . Lafayette and Princeton had fought to a 0 – 0 stalemate early in the season . In addition to naming each year ' s champion , Davis added statistics from the 1873 through the 1933 seasons to his annual " Guide " . These included the longest scoring plays from rushing , returns , passing plays and interceptions . The 1934 edition was Davis ’ last to include these compilations , as he died soon after its completion . Through the 1937 edition , the records were included under Davis ’ byline . Davis also named an All - Time All - America football team in 1931 . " Parke Davis Day " . Davis ' health may have been a concern in the spring of 1934 . Princeton announced that it was inviting the sporting world to honor its famous alum on " Parke Davis Day , " which was set for the following October 13 . As " The Lafayette " reported : The purpose of this event will be to commemorate the long and faithful services which Mr . Davis has given to football . Mr . Davis , a graduate of Princeton , came to Lafayette in 1895 . He raised the Maroon from a position of obscurity to a level with the football giants . . . Lafayette owes much to Parke Davis and should contribute something to this event which is being held in his honor . But within weeks of the announcement . . . and months before " Parke Davis Day " was to be held . . . the honoree was dead . Rather than attending the planned celebration in New Jersey , " ( c ) ollege associates , former football stars and members of the bench and bar were among the friends , " who arrived in Easton as mourners for June 8 funeral services held at Davis ' home . They included Congressman Abram Andrew and legendary Wisconsin coach Phil King , both former teammates at Princeton , and fellow football historian and Princeton grad William H . Edwards .