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110 years of ND FB History


So out of curiousity I decided to look and see if this year with only two wins and the possibility (but not probability) of not winning anymore games would constitute the worst season in Notre Dame football. But then I saw what a cluster%*%* your 1956 season was. They were actually ranked 3rd (as in number three) in the country and proceeded to finish 2-8. Talk about a giant letdown.

Also, why did you only play 6 games in 1918? Was it the Spanish Flu?
 
So in 1956 you had a Heisman Trophy winner (Paul Hornsby) despite it being 50 years after the forward pass was invented who ran for a measly 4.5 yards a carry and passed for 1,300 yards on a 2-8 team. How the #*%* did that happen?
 
So out of curiousity I decided to look and see if this year with only two wins and the possibility (but not probability) of not winning anymore games would constitute the worst season in Notre Dame football. But then I saw what a cluster%*%* your 1956 season was. They were actually ranked 3rd (as in number three) in the country and proceeded to finish 2-8. Talk about a giant letdown.

Also, why did you only play 6 games in 1918? Was it the Spanish Flu?
You didn't have the level of info back then that you have today. Sportswriters around the country just assumed we would be good every year. They didn't follow recruiting and they didn't pay attention to roster rollover, because there was no place to go to get that info. So you could be preseason #3 and go 2-8.
 
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So in 1956 you had a Heisman Trophy winner (Paul Hornsby) despite it being 50 years after the forward pass was invented who ran for a measly 4.5 yards a carry and passed for 1,300 yards on a 2-8 team. How the #*%* did that happen?
Paul Hornung, no relation to Rogers Hornsby. He was a controversial Heisman winner, but was an outstanding player on a very bad team. He showed his muster in the NFL. Back then almost no games were on TV, so everyone got their info from the media. If some sportswriter told you Hornung was the best player in the country, you probably believed him.
 
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Paul Hornung, no relation to Rogers Hornsby. He was a controversial Heisman winner, but was an outstanding player on a very bad team. He showed his muster in the NFL. Back then almost no games were on TV, so everyone got their info from the media. If some sportswriter told you Hornung was the best player in the country, you probably believed him.
Moreover ... the Heisman trophy and what it stood for got further away from the definition of it as years had gone on.

Somewhere along the way it got deemed you had to basically be on this spectacular team to win it...or standout so ridiculously much and nobody else have a career type season (Tim brown)

Paul Hornung might have been the best player in college then just didn't have much help.

Today such a situation would NEVER happen.

However controversy still is in full swing.

Mcaffrey was the best player in college last year by definition..

He didn't win it though...
 
So out of curiousity I decided to look and see if this year with only two wins and the possibility (but not probability) of not winning anymore games would constitute the worst season in Notre Dame football. But then I saw what a cluster%*%* your 1956 season was. They were actually ranked 3rd (as in number three) in the country and proceeded to finish 2-8. Talk about a giant letdown.

Also, why did you only play 6 games in 1918? Was it the Spanish Flu?

Well, you guys were founded in 1851 and didn't play a down until 1947......
 
Well, you guys were founded in 1851 and didn't play a down until 1947......

Not true. Here's a pic of our 1899 team looking like kids in the era preroids and pre knowledgeable nutrition and workout.

west-florida-seminary-football-team-tallahassee-florida-1899-D5386X.jpg


FSU started life as an all male seminary college in 1851 as West Florida Seminary College. Then right before the Civil War it became Florida military College. Students from FSU became one of only three colleges the other two being the VMI and Texas A&M I believe to fight as a unit while in school. The from Tallahassee participated in the battle of natural Bridge where marines and troops from the Yankee military tried to burn down Tallahassee. The cadets, old men and soldiers on furlough due to injury won a convincing Battle over the US Marines and Army which is why Tallahassee remained the only unburnt Southern capital East of the Mississippi.

The name reverted back to West Florida Seminary College and they started playing football in the late 1880s or early 1890s. They played a number of seasons but then in 1905 the previously coed College was broken in two with the men shipped to Gainesville to merge with the East Florida Seminary College to become the University of Florida while the now all female campus in Tally became first the Florida Female College then the Florida State College for Women. Football obviously stopped while it was an all female college. Then in 1947 the school accepted men again and became Florida State University. Our garnet color is a mix of the red used by West Seminary's football team and the purple used by FSCW. FSU picked back up playing football in 1951.
 
Not true. Here's a pic of our 1899 team looking like kids in the era preroids and pre knowledgeable nutrition and workout.

west-florida-seminary-football-team-tallahassee-florida-1899-D5386X.jpg


FSU started life as an all male seminary college in 1851 as West Florida Seminary College. Then right before the Civil War it became Florida military College. Students from FSU became one of only three colleges the other two being the VMI and Texas A&M I believe to fight as a unit while in school. The from Tallahassee participated in the battle of natural Bridge where marines and troops from the Yankee military tried to burn down Tallahassee. The cadets, old men and soldiers on furlough due to injury won a convincing Battle over the US Marines and Army which is why Tallahassee remained the only unburnt Southern capital East of the Mississippi.

The name reverted back to West Florida Seminary College and they started playing football in the late 1880s or early 1890s. They played a number of seasons but then in 1905 the previously coed College was broken in two with the men shipped to Gainesville to merge with the East Florida Seminary College to become the University of Florida while the now all female campus in Tally became first the Florida Female College then the Florida State College for Women. Football obviously stopped while it was an all female college. Then in 1947 the school accepted men again and became Florida State University. Our garnet color is a mix of the red used by West Seminary's football team and the purple used by FSCW. FSU picked back up playing football in 1951.
I am on a cell phone now so it is a bother to look stuff up. Is there a track record on CFB data warehouse? Thanks.
 
I am on a cell phone now so it is a bother to look stuff up. Is there a track record on CFB data warehouse? Thanks.

I don't think it's in CFB. It's complicated due to the name changes (apparently even I missed from 1902 to 1905 it was called Florida State College). And there's almost zero news coverage from the time because football would be like covering the schools frisbee golf team now.

But here's the 1902 team.

c161cc_39d51c99322942ae959c675295af89f8.jpg
 
I am on a cell phone now so it is a bother to look stuff up. Is there a track record on CFB data warehouse? Thanks.

So this info is from Wiki but it's clearly wrong because I posted a pic of the 1899 team and there some before as well (plus in 1905 the name was Florida Female College). I think it's because there's little info and it IS correct to say 1902 is the first FSC team as it was the West Florida Seminary College before 1902. But it's all the same school, same location and professors just a name change.

"In 1902, the Florida State College in Tallahassee fielded its first varsity football team. The FSC program posted a record of 7–6–1 over the next three seasons, including a record of 3–1 against their rivals from the old University of Florida (formerly known as Florida Agricultural College) in Lake City. In 1904, the Florida State College football team became the first-ever state champions of Florida after beating both the University of Florida and Stetson University. In 1905, however, the Florida Legislature reorganized the state's higher education system by abolishing the existing state-supported colleges, and creating the new University of the State of Florida in Gainesville, and the new Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee. "
 
I don't think it's in CFB. It's complicated due to the name changes (apparently even I missed from 1902 to 1905 it was called Florida State College). And there's almost zero news coverage from the time because football would be like covering the schools frisbee golf team now.

But here's the 1902 team.

c161cc_39d51c99322942ae959c675295af89f8.jpg
Can you send Porky one of those sweaters?
PS would a deep shot be an F bomb?
Great stuff! Thank you.
Tell your Rivals boys to head back here. They are funny.
 
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So this info is from Wiki but it's clearly wrong because I posted a pic of the 1899 team and there some before as well (plus in 1905 the name was Florida Female College). I think it's because there's little info and it IS correct to say 1902 is the first FSC team as it was the West Florida Seminary College before 1902. But it's all the same school, same location and professors just a name change.

"In 1902, the Florida State College in Tallahassee fielded its first varsity football team. The FSC program posted a record of 7–6–1 over the next three seasons, including a record of 3–1 against their rivals from the old University of Florida (formerly known as Florida Agricultural College) in Lake City. In 1904, the Florida State College football team became the first-ever state champions of Florida after beating both the University of Florida and Stetson University. In 1905, however, the Florida Legislature reorganized the state's higher education system by abolishing the existing state-supported colleges, and creating the new University of the State of Florida in Gainesville, and the new Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee. "
Way cool. Thank you.
 
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152049
Way cool. Thank you.

I think this is the 1898 team but it might be the 1900 or 1901 team. They're not in uniform and they don't have a football with the year. Kind of funny looking by today's standards.

rc02435.jpg


This is the 1902 East Florida Seminary College (aka what became UF).

n044027.jpg



For comparisons purposes as you probably think there's no way those tiny weenies could be "real" college football, here's the 1904 Georgia Tech team that was coached by Heisman and went 8-1 in the old SIAA which is the precursor to the SEC and beat what became FSU 35-0 but beat what became UF 77-0.

290px-04gatech.jpg


And this is the 1902 Yale team that "won the national championship".

1902yale_team_photo.png
 
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I will say looking at the other football teams from the late 1890s early 1900s that the Yale team looks like it's stocked full of 30 yo ringers. Maybe some preroid prehgh cheating?

Also I don't know the name of those short little tie thingies some of the players are wearing. I've never seen them before.
 
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