1907 college football season The 1907 college football season saw the increased use of the forward pass , which had been legalized the year before . Football remained a dangerous game , despite the " debrutalization " reforms , and an unprecedented eleven players were killed ( 9 high school and 2 college ) , while 98 others were seriously injured . However , there were no serious injuries reported among the major colleges . Although there was no national championship , the Yale Bulldogs , unbeaten with a record of 10 - 0 - 1 , had the best record . The Helms Athletic Foundation , founded in 1936 , declared retroactively that Yale had been the best college football team of 1907 . Rules . The rules for American football in 1907 were significantly different than the ones of a century later , as many of the present rules ( 100 yard field , four downs to gain ten yards , 6 - point touchdown , and 3 - point field goal ) were adopted in 1912 . The rules in 1907 were : More passes were thrown than in 1906 , when the new play was still experimental . However , because of problems with the rules at that time , which penalized the offense for an incomplete pass , there were predictions that the forward pass would be scrapped . Attempting a pass in 1907 was still a risky business , because an incomplete attempt would result in stiff penalties — 15 yards back from the spot from which the pass was thrown on first or second down . If the defense committed a foul , the 15 yard penalty didn ' t apply to the offense , but the defending team was not penalized either . In addition , a pass could not be caught in the end zone , nor more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage . September . The Princeton Tigers and Yale Bulldogs had both been unbeaten in 1906 , and played to a 0 - 0 tie at season ' s end , giving both teams a 9 - 0 - 1 record . Among other schools that would later be described as the Ivy League , the Harvard Crimson and Pennsylvania ( Penn ) Quakers were expected to do well . Elsewhere in the East , the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen ( referred to in the press as Annapolis ) and the Carlisle Indian School ( coached by Glenn Scobey " Pop " Warner and with Jim Thorpe as its star back ) were expected to do well . In the South , the Vanderbilt Commodores and the of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association ( SIAA ) were considered contenders , along with Georgia Tech ( coached by John Heisman ) . The University of Chicago Maroons , members of the Western Conference ( later the Big Ten ) , and coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg ) , and the ( then ) independent Michigan Wolverines , coached by Fielding " Hurry Up " Yost , were considered to be among the stronger teams in the Midwest . Carlisle opened its season early with a 40 - 0 win over Lebanon Valley on September 21 , and Brown beat New Hampshire , 16 - 0 . Colgate , which would later be a contender , lost to Niagara , 11 - 6 , and Bucknell beat Mansfield , 15 - 2 . On September 28 , Pennsylvania beat North Carolina in a driving rain at Philadelphia , 27 - 0 . Carlisle defeated Villanova 10 - 0 . Princeton crushed Stevens Tech 47 - 0 , while Harvard was held to a touchdown ( then worth five points ) in a 5 - 0 win over Bowdoin . Brown beat Massachusetts 5 - 0 , and Fordham and Rutgers played to a 5 - 5 tie . October . Yale opened its season on Wednesday afternoon , October 2 , with a 25 - 0 win over Wesleyan . The same day , Harvard beat Maine , 30 - 0 , Navy tuned up with a 26 - 0 win over St . John ' s College of Maryland , Pennsylvania beat Villanova 16 - 0 and Carlisle rolled over Susquehanna , 91 - 0 . Three days later , on Saturday October 5 , the schools played again , with Yale beating Syracuse 11 - 0 , Harvard over Bates 33 - 4 , Navy handing a 15 - 0 loss on Dickinson , Pennsylvania beating Bucknell 29 - 2 , and Carlisle beating Penn State 18 - 5 in Williamsport , Pennsylvania . At West Point , the United States Military Academy ( Army ) opened its season with a 23 - 0 win over Franklin & Marshall . Brown won over Norwich 24 - 0 . After an 18 - 0 win over Springfield on Wednesday , October 9 , Yale won its fourth game in 12 days on October 12 , crushing Holy Cross 52 - 0 to stay unbeaten and unscored upon . Playing the same Wednesday and Saturday schedule , Pennsylvania had beaten Franklin & Marshall 57 - 0 and Swarthmore 16 - 8 , to go 5 - 0 - 0 . With a 40 - 0 win over Maine , Brown University remained unscored upon as well . In Buffalo , New York , Carlisle beat Syracuse 14 - 6 to stay unbeaten . Cornell beat Colgate 18 - 0 and Princeton beat Villanova , 45 - 5 . Vanderbilt and Navy played to a 6 - 6 tie . October 19 , Pennsylvania increased its record to 7 - 0 - 0 with an 11 - 0 win over Brown . In the four weeks since its September 28 opener , Penn had played four Saturdays and three Wednesdays . Carlisle beat Bucknell 15 - 0 and Harvard beat Navy at Annapolis , 6 - 0 , as both stayed unbeaten . Yale remained unscored upon , but not untied , as it played Army to a 0 - 0 tie at West Point to " fall " to 4 - 0 - 1 . Elsewhere , Michigan stayed unscored upon with a 22 - 0 win in Indianapolis over Wabash . In the South , Sewanee beat Auburn 12 - 6 in Birmingham , then beat Alabama two days later , 54 - 4 , in Tuscaloosa . October 26 in Philadelphia , the Carlisle Indians ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) and the Pennsylvania Quakers ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) met in a battle of the unbeatens . Carlisle won 26 - 6 before a crowd of 20 , 000 . Yale registered its sixth shutout with a 45 - 0 win over Villanova . Harvard stayed unbeaten , but was surprised by a touchdown from the visitors in its 9 - 5 win over Springfield . Sewanee played Mississippi in Memphis , winning 65 - 0 , to stay unbeaten in the south . Michigan remained unscored upon in the midwest with a 22 - 0 win at home over Ohio State . Princeton suffered its first defeat , a 6 - 5 loss at Cornell . November . In a highly anticipated game , the Carlisle Indians ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) met the Princeton Tigers ( 5 - 1 - 0 ) at the Polo Grounds in New York City on November 2 before a crowd of thousands . In an upset , Princeton scored three touchdowns and a point after in a pouring rain , to win 16 - 0 . Yale recorded another shutout , beating Washington & Jefferson 11 - 0 to increase its record to 6 - 0 - 1 , while Harvard got past Brown , 6 - 5 , to stay unbeaten at 7 - 0 - 0 . Army and Michigan stayed unscored upon ; Army beat Colgate 6 - 0 , to improve its record to 4 - 0 - 1 , while the Wolverines travelled south to Nashville to face Vanderbilt , winning 8 - 0 . Sewanee defeated the University of Virginia in Norfolk , 12 - 0 , and Pennsylvania hosted Lafayette in Philadelphia , winning 15 - 0 and extending its record to 8 - 1 - 0 . On November 9 , the Harvard Crimson ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) hosted the Carlisle Indians ( 7 - 1 - 0 ) before a record crowd of 20 , 000 . After holding a 12 - 9 lead at halftime , Carlisle broke the game open when its quarterback , Frank Mount Pleasant , ran 85 yards for a touchdown in the second half as Carlisle won , 23 - 15 . Navy suffered its second loss , an 18 - 0 drubbing by Swarthmore , and Army had its first defeat , falling 14 - 10 to Cornell . Yale recorded its 8th straight shutout , a 22 - 0 win over Brown , as Ted Jones returned a punt 90 yards for the first of three touchdowns in the second half . Sewanee beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta , 18 - 0 , then defeated Georgia in Athens two days later , 16 - 0 , to extend its record to 8 - 0 - 0 . Pennsylvania hosted Penn State and won 28 - 0 to reach the 9 - 1 - 0 mark , while Princeton beat Amherst , 14 - 0 . November 16 Yale ( 7 - 0 - 1 ) hosted Princeton ( 7 - 1 - 0 ) as a crowd of 35 , 000 watched in New Haven . The Bulldogs appeared to be headed toward their first defeat . Yale yielded its first points of the season after the Tigers blocked a punt and Princeton ' s Booth returned the ball for a touchdown . A field goal — at that time , worth four points — put Princeton up 10 - 0 at the half . In the second half , Ted Coy scored two touchdowns for Yale for a 12 - 10 win . In the day ' s other big game , Pennsylvania ( 9 - 1 - 0 ) traveled to Ann Arbor , Michigan , to face the unbeaten ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) , and unscored upon , Michigan Wolverines , before a crowd of 18 , 000 at Ferry Field . Both teams had touchdowns called back by penalties , but Penn scored on an onside kick to hand Michigan its first ever home defeat , 6 - 0 . Harvard lost its second straight game , falling to Dartmouth , 22 - 0 . In another " intersectional " game , Carlisle improved its record to 9 - 1 - 0 with a 12 - 10 win at Minnesota . Navy trailed Penn State at home , 4 - 0 , until a State player fumbled a punt and the Midshipmen recovered for a touchdown to win 6 - 4 . At West Point , Army defeated visiting Tufts , 21 - 0 . In the South , Texas A & M — which had tied Texas , and beaten LSU and Oklahoma — improved its record to 6 - 0 - 1 with an 18 - 6 win over Tulane in New Orleans . November 23 marked the close of the season , as unbeaten Yale ( 8 - 0 - 1 ) traveled to Cambridge to play its annual game against Harvard . Though stung by two consecutive losses , Harvard ( 7 - 2 - 0 ) had been unbeaten and untied three weeks earlier . Harvard missed two field goal attempts in the first half after failing to get by Yale ' s goal line defense , while Yale ' s Ted Coy scored late in the first half to give the Bulldogs a 6 - 0 lead . Coy scored again in the second half , and Yale won 12 - 0 and completed its season unbeaten at 9 - 0 - 1 . Sewanee , which took a record of 8 - 0 - 0 into its final game ( against 4 - 1 - 1 Vanderbilt ) , lost in Nashville , 17 - 12 . The other unbeaten team , Texas A & M ( 6 - 0 - 1 ) , was scheduled to play a Thanksgiving Day game at the University of Texas ( 5 - 1 - 1 ) . Carlisle closed its season at the University of Chicago , which had won the title of the Western Conference ( later the Big Ten , with a 4 - 0 - 0 record . Playing before a crowd of 27 , 000 the Indians beat the Maroons 18 - 4 . Thanksgiving Day , November 28 , saw St . Louis University stun the University of Nebraska 34 - 0 before 20 , 000 at Sportsman ' s Park . Final standings . The season finished with one unbeaten team , ( 9 - 0 - 1 Yale ) and several once - beaten teams . Final records in different regions of the nation were : East South West Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings :