1889 college football season 1889 Princeton Tigers
Champion(s) Princeton
← 1888 ·
football seasons · 1890 →
The 1889 college football season was the season of American football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1889–90 academic year.
The 1889 Princeton Tigers football team , led by team captain Edgar Allan Poe , compiled a perfect 10–0 record and was recognized as the national champion by the Billingsley Report , Helms Athletic Foundation , Houlgate System , National Championship Foundation , and Parke H. Davis .[1]
In the South, Wofford defeated Furman in the first intercollegiate game played in the state of South Carolina . The game featured no uniforms, no positions, and the rules were formulated before the game.[2]
As the popularity of the program increased, new football programs were established in 1889 at Iowa and Washington .
All eleven players selected by Caspar Whitney for the first All-America college football team came from the Big Three (Princeton, Yale , and Harvard ). Four of the honorees have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame : fullback Knowlton Ames (Princeton), end Amos Alonzo Stagg (Yale), tackle Hector Cowan (Princeton), and guard Pudge Heffelfinger (Yale).
Conference and program changes [ ] The Western Interstate University Football Association
School
1888 Conference
1889 Conference
Delaware football Program established Independent
Iowa College Pioneers Program established Independent
State University of Iowa Hawkeyes Program established Independent
Washington football Program established Independent
Awards and honors [ ] All-Americans [ ] Main article: 1889 College Football All-America Team
The consensus All-America team included:
Position
Name
Height
Weight (lbs.)
Class
Hometown
Team
QB
Edgar Allan Poe
Jr.
Baltimore, Maryland
Princeton
HB
Roscoe Channing
141
Sr.
New York, New York
Princeton
HB
James P. Lee
Jr.
New York, New York
Harvard
FB
Snake Ames
5'10"
157
Sr.
Chicago, Illinois
Princeton
E
Amos Alonzo Stagg
Sr.
West Orange, New Jersey
Yale
T
Hector Cowan
Sr.
Hobart, New York
Princeton
G
Pudge Heffelfinger
6'4"
178
So.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Yale
C
William George
Sr.
Princeton
G
John Cranston
Jr.
Sheridan, New York
Harvard
T
Charles O. Gill
Sr.
Walpole, Massachusetts
Yale
E
Arthur Cumnock
Jr.
Danielson, Connecticut
Harvard
Statistical leaders [ ] Player scoring most points: Bum McClung , Yale, 176
Conference standings [ ] The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:
Independents [ ]
1889 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W
L
T W
L
T
Princeton
–
10
–
0
–
0
Yale
–
15
–
1
–
0
Dartmouth
–
7
–
1
–
0
Harvard
–
9
–
2
–
0
Franklin & Marshall
–
5
–
1
–
1
Dickinson
–
4
–
1
–
1
Navy
–
4
–
1
–
1
Tufts
–
3
–
1
–
0
Lehigh
–
8
–
3
–
2
Cornell
–
8
–
4
–
0
Penn
–
7
–
6
–
0
Brown
–
2
–
2
–
0
Penn State
–
2
–
2
–
0
Delaware
–
1
–
1
–
1
Wesleyan
–
5
–
7
–
1
Bucknell
–
2
–
3
–
1
Amherst
–
3
–
5
–
2
Lafayette
–
3
–
4
–
2
Columbia
–
2
–
7
–
2
Fordham
–
1
–
3
–
0
Rutgers
–
1
–
4
–
0
NYU
–
0
–
2
–
0
1889 Midwestern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W
L
T W
L
T
Miami (OH)
–
4
–
0
–
0
Butler
–
2
–
0
–
0
Washington University
–
2
–
0
–
0
Iowa College
–
1
–
0
–
0
Lake Forest
–
1
–
0
–
0
Notre Dame
–
1
–
0
–
0
South Dakota
–
1
–
0
–
1
Minnesota
–
3
–
1
–
0
Purdue
–
2
–
1
–
0
South Dakota State
–
0
–
0
–
1
Northwestern
–
2
–
2
–
0
Cincinnati
–
1
–
1
–
0
Wabash
–
1
–
1
–
0
Michigan
–
1
–
2
–
0
Indiana
–
0
–
1
–
1
Iowa
–
0
–
1
–
0
Wisconsin
–
0
–
2
–
0
1889 Southern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W
L
T W
L
T
Trinity (NC)
–
2
–
0
–
0
Georgetown
–
5
–
1
–
0
Navy
–
4
–
1
–
1
Virginia
–
4
–
2
–
0
Wake Forest
–
2
–
2
–
0
North Carolina
–
1
–
1
–
0
Delaware
–
1
–
1
–
1
Johns Hopkins
–
2
–
4
–
1
Richmond
–
1
–
2
–
0
Dover Conference Academy
–
0
–
2
–
1
Furman
–
0
–
2
–
0
1889 Far West college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W
L
T W
L
T
USC
–
2
–
0
–
0
California
–
0
–
0
–
0
Washington
–
0
–
1
–
0
References [ ]
Pre-NCAA
1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 NCAA pre-divisional NCAA University Division
1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 NCAA Division I NCAA Division I-A/FBS NCAA Division I-AA/FCS NCAA College Division NCAA Division II NCAA Division III
