1918 college football season

American college football season August 2023 1918 DaviesPittGT1918.jpg 250 Pitt's Tom Davies running on Georgia Tech. 1 MichiganPittsburgh Not awarded until 1935 The 1918 college football season was a season of college football in the United States. There was no consensus champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Michigan and Pittsburgh as national champions.http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/football_records/DI/2009/2009FBS.pdf Official 2009 NCAA Division I Football Records Book 76–77 The National Collegiate Athletic Association August 2009 Indianapolis, IN 2009-10-16 World War I's impact on colleges in the country, and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 eliminated most of that year's scheduled college football games.War Conditions Coupled With Epidemic Have Big Effect On 1918 Sports http://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/flu/5150flu.0005.515/1 2016-02-03 2016-02-03 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20160203014916/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/flu/5150flu.0005.515/1 February 3, 2016 However, to boost morale of the troops, many military organizations fielded teams to play against collegiate programs. This is exemplified no more strongly than in a letter published in the Spalding Guide from US president Woodrow Wilson: font-size: 100%; "It would be difficult to over-estimate the value of football experience as a part of a soldier's training. The army athletic directors and the officers in charge of special training schools in the cantoments have derived excellent results from the use of elementary football and other personal contact games as an aid in developing the aggressiveness, initiative and determination of recruits, and the ability to carry on in spite of bodily hurts or physical discomforts. These qualities, as you well know, were the outstanding characteristics of the American soldier." -Woodrow Wilson (1919 letter)https://archive.org/details/officialfootball19181nati Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide 1919 Camp Walter 1919 178 A huge military offensive was planned by the Allied countries in the spring of 1919, so all able-bodied men of ages 18 to 20 were scheduled to be drafted in the fall of 1918. As an alternative, the men were offered the option of enlisting in the Student Army Training Corps, known as SATC, which would give them a chance to pursue (or continue pursuing) their educations at the same time as they participated in a 12-week war-training session. This was essentially an alternative to boot camp. The colleges were paid by the government to train the future soldiers, which enabled many of them to avoid closure. The program began on October 1, 1918.Shearer Benjamin F. August 1979 An experiment in military and civilian education: The Student Army Training Corps at the University of Illinois Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 72 3 213–224 40191276 Most of the students who were potential football players were under the auspices of the War Department's SATC program.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29942079/detroit_free_press_opinion_piece_on/ War Department's action makes serious problem for college athletics: Whether usual sports can be continued is question that must be threshed out; Difficult problem faces colleges on account of military training edict Bushnell Edward R. September 8, 1918 Detroit Free Press March 26, 2019 In an early September meeting between college and War Department officials in Plattsburg, Missouri it became clear that the training regimen envisioned for the soldiers could be incompatible with participation in intercollegiate athletics. On September 13, 1918, newspapers around the country reported that the War Department had asked colleges to reexamine their football schedules.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29918360/new_york_times_on_football_cancellation/ Colleges may drop football as a sport: Suspension of all schedules requested by Washington as war measure September 13, 1918 New York Times March 25, 2019https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29918059/boston_globe_story_on_football_abolition/ Football knockout by War Department: No elevens for colleges with training corps; Four hundred leading institutions are hit by ruling September 13, 1918 Boston Globe March 25, 2019 In August and September, athletics backers successfully argued that athletics training was an important part of military training, and the season was back on.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29896334/opinion_piece_of_football_for_satc/ Sports Review Tranter Edward September 13, 1918 The Buffalo Enquirer March 25, 2019https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29896202/general_story_about_football_in_1918/ Football season opens this week: Gridiron game will prosper in all of Uncle Sam's camps September 22, 1918 The New York Times March 25, 2019https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29703566/ Football season in United States to open within very short time September 26, 1918 Winston-Salem Journal The influenza outbreak was colloquially called Spanish flu. Most flu outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients, but the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults.https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/ The Influenza Epidemic of 1918 Archives.gov National Archives and Records Administration March 31, 2016 To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States.Vikki Valentine 20 February 2006 Origins of the 1918 Pandemic: The Case for France https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5222069 National Public Radio 13 April 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20090430101332/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5222069 30 April 2009 live Anderson Susan Analysis of Spanish flu cases in 1918–1920 suggests transfusions might help in bird flu pandemic http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/acop-aos082806.php American College of Physicians 2 October 2011 29 August 2006 November 25, 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20111125222223/http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/acop-aos082806.php dead Papers were free to report the epidemic's effects in neutral Spain (such as the grave illness of King Alfonso XIII). Maria Porras-Gallo Ryan A. Davis vanc The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919: Perspectives from the Iberian Peninsula and the Americas University of Rochester Press 2014 978-1-58046-496-3 30 Rochester Studies in Medical History https://books.google.com/books?id=-j53BQAAQBAJ&q=spanish+flu+davis&pg=PA51 Google Books This created a false impression of Spain as especially hard hit,Barry John M. John M. Barry vanc The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Greatest Plague in History Viking Penguin 2004 978-0-670-89473-4 https://archive.org/details/greatinfluenzaep00john 171 thereby giving rise to the pandemic's nickname, "Spanish Flu". Galvin John vanc Spanish Flu Pandemic: 1918 http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/natural-disasters/4219884 Popular Mechanics 2 October 2011 31 July 2007 By the end of the pandemic, between three and five percent of the world population had died as a result,Historical Estimates of World Population https://www.census.gov/population/international/data/worldpop/table_history.php https://web.archive.org/web/20120709092946/https://www.census.gov/population/international/data/worldpop/table_history.php dead 9 July 2012 29 March 2013 making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. Patterson KD, Pyle GF The geography and mortality of the 1918 influenza pandemic Bulletin of the History of Medicine 65 1 4–21 1991 2021692http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/ The 1918 Influenza Pandemic Billings Molly vanc 1997 Virology at Stanford University 1 May 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090627131620/http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/ 27 June 2009 dead Johnson NP, Mueller J Updating the accounts: global mortality of the 1918-1920 "Spanish" influenza pandemic Bulletin of the History of Medicine 76 1 105–15 2002 11875246 10.1353/bhm.2002.0022 22974230 Conference and program changes School 1917 Conference 1918 ConferenceCarlisle IndiansIndependentSchool closed Southern Methodist Mustangs Independent Southwest Season summary Perhaps the highest profile game was a highly publicized War Charities benefit staged at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh in front of many of the nation's top sports writers, including Walter Camp. The game pitted John Heisman's undefeated, unscored upon, and defending national champion Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets against "Pop" Warner's Pittsburgh Panthers who were sitting on a 30-game win streak. Pitt defeated Georgia Tech 32–0. Rose Bowl The Rose Bowl, then the only bowl game, pitted the Mare Island Marines of California and the Great Lakes Navy from Illinois. It was a celebration of victory following the end of fighting in World War I on November 11, 1918. Great Lakes Navy defeat Mare Island, 17–7. Conference standings Major conference standings Independents Minor conferences ConferenceChampion(s)Record Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association No champion — Inter-Normal Athletic Conference of Wisconsin No champion — Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference College of Emporia — Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association No champion — Nebraska Intercollegiate Conference Unknown — Ohio Athletic Conference Wittenberg 3–0 Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference No champion — Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference No champion — Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Talladega — Minor conference standings Awards and honors All-Americans 1918 College Football All-America Team The consensus All-America team included: PositionNameHeightWeight (lbs.)ClassHometownTeamQBFrank MurreySo.PrincetonHBTom Davies5'8"158Fr.Gas City, IndianaPittsburghHBWolcott Roberts5'7"160So.Elmwood, IllinoisNavyFBTank McLaren185Sr.Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburghEPaul Robeson6'3"219Sr.Princeton, New JerseyRutgersTPete Henry5'10"230Jr.Mansfield, OhioWashington & JeffersonTLou UsherJr.Chicago, IllinoisSyracuseGDoc Alexander5'11"210So.Silver Creek, New YorkSyracuseCBum Day5'10"190Fr.Nashville, GeorgiaGeorgia TechCJack Depler5'10"220So.Lewistown, IllinoisIllinoisGLyman PerrySr.Andover, OhioNavyTLeonard HiltySr.Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburghTJoe Guyon5'11"184Sr.Magdalena, New MexicoGeorgia TechEBill Fincher6'0"182So.Atlanta, GeorgiaGeorgia Tech Statistical leaders Receptions leader: Bernard Kirk, Notre Dame, 7 References