Oberlin Yeomen football The Oberlin Yeomen football program represents Oberlin College in college football at the NCAA Division III level . The program is known for having begun the coaching career of legendary player and coach John Heisman , being the last in - state team to defeat Ohio State , and for having one of the worst records in college football history from 1990 to 2001 . After initially helping form the Ohio Athletic Conference in 1906 , Oberlin is now part of the North Coast Athletic Conference ( NCAC ) , of which it is a founding member . The College plays its home games at Savage Stadium in Oberlin , Ohio . Having been originally built in 1925 , Savage is one of the oldest football venues still in use . The name Yeomen arose in the early 1900s as a result of blending the former team moniker with the schools official motto . Early on in the program , football players and other athletes were known simply as Oberlin Men or " O " Men . Eventually , as the athletic department became more cohesive , the Yeomen mascot was adopted , drawing on the phonetic sound of " O " Men and the schools official motto of " Learning and Labor " . Current head coach Jeff Ramsey has been running the program for 13 years , the third longest head coaching tenure in school history . History . John Heisman . Oberlin was the first school coached by the legendary John W . Heisman . He coached the teams in 1892 and ' 94 , the second and fourth seasons that football was a varsity sport at the college . The faculty had not approved football as a sport prior to 1891 , but it agreed to hire Heisman as head coach for the ' 92 season because he was recommended by Walter Camp . Heisman was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he starred as an end in football . In those days football was quite popular in the East and was just beginning to take root in the Midwest . The hiring of Heisman enabled Oberlin to become one of the leading team ' s in the Midwest . In 1892 the " O " Men , as they were called at the time , were led by Heisman to their first undefeated season with a perfect 7 - 0 - 0 record beating their opponents by an average score of 37 - 4 which included two wins over Ohio State and one over Michigan . To this day , the Wolverines still claim they won the contest but all agree that both sides played the game as it should have been played ( without any slugging . ) Because Heisman enrolled in post graduate courses in art , he was permitted to play football for Oberlin as he participated in the late stages of some games near the end of the season . Heisman became known as the leading pioneer in developing the game of football into what it is today with formation shifts , centering the ball , and forward passing . His contribution to Oberlin was in proving that an intelligent coach was an integral part of the sport . The Heisman name is more famous today than back in 1892 , being synonymous with the award for most outstanding player in college football . As a result , Oberlin named their athletics booster club after Heisman , in an attempt encourage support for all of Oberlin ' s athletic programs . Controversial game vs . Michigan . On a cold Saturday afternoon in November 1892 , Oberlin ' s team took the field in Ann Arbor against a heavily favored Michigan squad which had trounced them handily the year before . Notable among the Oberlin visitors was their new player - coach John Heisman , who had been hired away from the University of Pennsylvania by the Oberlin Athletic Association ( a student - run enterprise in those days ) and who brought an undefeated team with him to Ann Arbor . The team ' s fastest running back was Charles Savage , who a few years later would become Oberlin ' s director of athletics and , like Heisman , a nationally prominent figure . Oberlin ' s best lineman was theology student John Henry Wise , half - German , half - Hawaiian , who after graduation returned to his island home and joined a nationalist drive to overthrow the Hawaiian government . He was sent to prison for three years charged with treason . Oberlin ' s team trainer , " nurse to the wounded , " was pre - med student Clarence Hemingway , who would go on to practice medicine in Oak Park , Illinois , and pass on his love of hunting in Michigan to his son , future novelist Ernest Hemingway . The game in Ann Arbor was close all the way . At halftime Michigan led 22 - 18 . The team captains agreed on a shortened second half , to end at 4 : 50 p . m . so Oberlin could catch the last train home . With less than two minutes remaining , Michigan drove to the 5 - yard line before Oberlin stopped them and took over on downs . Then halfback Savage entered the mists of Oberlin athletic legend by dodging through the line and sprinting 90 yards to the Michigan 5 , where Michigan ' s star player , George Jewett , caught him from behind . Two plays later Oberlin made its final touchdown . Score : Oberlin 24 , Michigan 22 , with less than a minute to go . As Michigan launched its last drive , the referee ( an Oberlin sub ) announced that 4 : 50 p . m . had arrived , time had expired , and the Oberlin squad trotted off the field to catch the train . Next the umpire ( a Michigan man ) ruled that four minutes remained on the game clock , owing to timeouts that Oberlin ' s timekeeper had not recorded . Michigan then walked the ball over the goal line for an uncontested touchdown and was declared the winner , 26 to 24 . By that time the Oberlinians were headed home clutching their own victory , 24 to 22 . Officially , each school recognizes a win for themselves in the respective archives . 1895 - 1929 . During the early part of the 20th century , Oberlin enjoyed a wide range of success . They regularly competed with , and beat , teams like Michigan and Ohio State and rarely experienced a season with a losing record . Oberlin is a charter member of the NCAA and was one of the founding members of the Ohio Athletic Conference in 1902 , along with Western Reserve College , Kenyon College , Ohio State , Ohio Wesleyan University and Case Institute of Technology . The league commonly was known as the " Big Six . " Ohio State left the league to join Michigan in the Big Ten in 1913 , signifying the widening athletic distance between liberal arts schools like Oberlin and major universities . Ohio State ' s all - time highest margin of victory was a 128 – 0 thrashing of Oberlin in 1916 , however Oberlin is also the last in - state school to defeat Ohio State . The Yeomen upset the Buckeyes 7 – 6 at Ohio Field in Columbus in 1921 . 1930 - 1989 . Since 1929 , Oberlin has been unable to duplicate the success of its early years in college football . As a result of The Great Depression and World War II many young men were enlisting in the armed forces instead of attending college and playing football . The college , as a private institution , began focusing on the liberal arts aspect of Oberlin ' s education , forgoing aggressive expansion like former rivals Michigan and Ohio State . During these years Oberlin experienced up and down seasons , though they would lose more often than win . In 1985 Oberlin helped found the North Coast Athletic Conference , based on the principle of gender equality in athletics . The conference currently recognizes 22 varsity sports , 11 men ' s and 11 women ' s , and is well respected for the academic strength of its member institutions . 1990 - 2001 . From 1990 through 2001 the Oberlin College football team lost more games than any other team in college football , winning only 4 games and nursing two separate streaks of 40 or more losses . The teams of 1994 to 2000 have been rated the fifth worst college football team of all time by ESPN . com ' s Page 2 . In 1994 , Oberlin lost all nine games of its season scoring only ten points and giving up 358 points . In 1995 , the Yeomen were outscored 469 to 72 . In August 1996 , " Sports Illustrated " featured Oberlin in its annual College Football Preview as the worst team in Division III . After four winless seasons from 1993 to 1996 , Oberlin opened its 1997 season with an 18 – 17 victory over Thiel College , sparking post - game jubilation with fans rushing the field . The victory garnered national attention as ESPN featured it on " SportsCenter " . Oberlin would not win another game for almost four years . Swarthmore College and Oberlin scheduled a 1999 matchup , with both schools nursing long losing streaks , just so one of them could end their streak . Oberlin lost 42 – 6 and continued a 44 - game losing streak , ending it with a 53 – 22 victory over Kenyon College at home in October 2001 . 2002 - present . Since the 2002 season , Oberlin has recovered from its years of college football futility . Aided in part by the first consistent head coach since 1989 in Jeff Ramsey , and improvements to the athletic facilities under the guidance of the administration . Though the program has yet to post consistent winning seasons , they have remained competitive in the NCAC , going 5 – 5 ( with better than . 500 records in conference ) in 2003 , 2006 , and 2007 . 2007 may have been the most successful season in recent Oberlin history . The team went 5 - 5 overall and finished third in the North Coast Athletic Conference , breaking multiple offensive team records along the way . The group was also successful as individuals . Of the players on the 2007 roster , 6 hold multiple school records , 16 have made the All - NCAC team , and 2 have been named All - Americans . The squad boasts the school ' s all - time passer , receiver , kick - returner , rusher , and all - time leading scorer . Chris Schubert and Chris Pisani , seniors on the 2007 squad , have each sustained professional football careers in the AFL . Rivalries . Ohio State . Oberlin is a former rival of Ohio State , both having been members of the Ohio Athletic Conference . The two first played in 1892 and would compete 26 times over the next 30 seasons before Ohio State outpaced Oberlin ' s growth and left them behind to join the Big Ten . While it lasted , the rivalry was fairly even as Oberlin posted a 10 - 13 - 3 record against the Buckeyes including blowout wins of 50 - 0 and 40 - 0 . Before the turn of the 20th century , Ohio State and Oberlin were comparative in size , but by 1921 , Ohio State ’ s enrollment grew to over four times the size of Oberlin ’ s student body . As the gap in class sizes began to grow wider , so did the talent on the gridiron . In the three previous meetings prior to 1921 , Ohio State scored a total of 211 points against Oberlin , while the Yeomen failed to score a single point against the Buckeyes . In 1921 , the teams met again as Ohio State came off a Rose Bowl appearance and a conference championship the previous year . The Buckeyes gained the lead in the first five minutes of the game after they scooped up a blocked Yeomen punt and scored . The Buckeye score would be the last time Ohio State crossed Oberlin ’ s goal line . In the third quarter , the Yeomen put together an 85 - yard drive that ended with a touchdown . Oberlin ’ s kicker completed the point after , which proved to be all the lead the Yeomen would need to seal the victory . The Five Colleges and Case Western . Oberlin has been part of traditional rivalries with several other liberal arts colleges in Ohio . These include the four other Five Colleges of Ohio : Denison , Wooster , Kenyon , and Ohio Wesleyan ; as well as traditional rival Case Western . For years the schools played each other as part of the Ohio Athletic Conference until the NCAC was formed in 1985 and Case left to join the University Athletic Association . Oberlin - Kenyon Rivalry . Kenyon has traditionally been Oberlin ' s biggest rival . The rivalry , which began over 100 years ago , stems from the school ' s many similarities , most notably the level of academic prestige . Though all of the schools in the North Coast Athletic Conference are known for their academic standards , Kenyon and Oberlin are consistently recognized as the top two academic schools in the conference and top 25 in the country . This , among other similarities , often leads to competitive recruiting of the same high school student - athletes . The rivalry on the field has been just as competitive . Oberlin faced off against Kenyon for the first time in 1892 , winning 38 - 0 , and has posted a record of 40 - 36 - 6 against the Lords . Individual awards and honors . North Coast Athletic Conference honors . Newcomer Of The Year . Sam Hobi , 2000 < br > Ricky Valenzuel , 2001 NCAC Offensive Player Of The Year . R . V . Carroll , 2007 NCAC Defensive Player Of The Year . Clay Eaton , 2012 Related books . " Oberlin history : essays and impressions " , Geoffrey Blodgett , Kent State University Press , 2006 < br > " When Oberlin Was King of the Gridiron : The Heisman Years " , Nat Brandt , Kent State University Press , 2001