1916 Kendall Orange and Black football team

American college football season February 2026 August 2023 1916 Kendall Orange and Black football Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference OIC 10–0 4–0 Sam P. McBirney 4th Association Park OIC champion The 1916 Kendall Orange and Black football team represented Henry Kendall College, which was later renamed the University of Tulsa, during the 1916 college football season. In their fourth year under head coach Sam P. McBirney, the Orange and Black compiled a 10–0 record, won the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference championship, shut out five of ten opponents, and outscored their opponents by a total of 566 to 40, including high-scoring wins against 1916 Missouri Mines Miners Missouri Mines (117–0), 1916 St. Gregory's Cavaliers St. Gregory's (82–0), 1916 Arkansas Cumberland Arkansas Cumberland (81–0), and Haskell (46–0). In 1916, Kendall College's enrollment increased to 400 students, and McBirney petitioned the school to hire a full-time physical education teacher and assistant football coach. McBirney recommended that the school hire Arkansas City, Kansas, high school coach Francis Schmidt,Brett Perkins Frantic Francis: How One Coach's Madness Changed Football 23–26 who would later be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. With McBirney as head coach and Schmidt as his assistant coach, the 1916 Tulsa team became the highest scoring college football team during the 1916 college football season.Kendall College Lead in Scoring Wisconsin State Journal December 12, 1916 The 1916 team featured John Young, who had played for McBirney at Tulsa High School and who had been recruited by Fielding H. Yost to play for the University of Michigan, and Ivan Grove, who had played for Schmidt at Arkansas City High School and became the top scoring player in college football in 1916 with 196 points. The 1916 team gained renown for its short passing offense and for the deceptive and unique play calling of McBirney and Schmidt. In one game, Ivan Grove completed 12 consecutive passes on a single scoring drive. In another game, the team successfully executed a play the called the "tower play." Ivan Grove threw a pass to Vergil Jones as he sat on the shoulders of Puny Blevins. The play resulted in a touchdown and was declared illegal the following year. Schmidt's biographer, Brett Perkins, has suggested that the short-passing game developed by McBirney and Schmidt in 1916 was later absorbed and perfected at TCU by Dutch Meyer and Sammy Baugh. In the lowest scoring game of the 1916 season, Kendall College defeated the Oklahoma Sooners by a score of 16 to 0 at the Sooners' home field in Norman, Oklahoma. The victory at Norman broke an 18-game winning streak for Oklahoma, and was the first time that the Sooners were beaten in football by another school from Oklahoma. In the three games preceding the 1916 Oklahoma-Kendall game, Oklahoma had outscored its opponents 27–0, 107–0, and 140–0. The 1916 victory over the undefeated Sooners put Tulsa football on the map. Historian and Tulsa journalist Jenk Jones recalled, "In 1916, there was a lot of agitation here to declare Tulsa the Champion of Mid America."Chad Bonham Golden Hurricane football at the University of Tulsa 2004 Arcadia Publishing 9 After the 1916 season, McBirney retired as Kendall's football coach to devote his full-time to the National Bank of Commerce where he served as vice president. McBirney had hand-picked Francis Schmidt as his successor, but Schmidt enlisted in the U.S. Army after the United States entered World War I in April 1917. After two years of military service, Schmidt led the team to back-to-back undefeated seasons in 1919 and 1920 before moving on to a successful coaching career with Arkansas, TCU and Ohio State. Schedule y y September 30 1916 Arkansas Cumberland Arkansas Cumberland<ncg> Association Park Tulsa, OK W 81-0 October 6 at 1916 Phillips Haymakers Phillips Enid, OK W 50-7 October 14 at Oklahoma Boyd Field Norman, OK W 16-0 https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star-the-sooners-were-be/141805796/ The Kansas City Star The Sooners were beaten October 15, 1916 February 21, 2024 Newspapers.com October 21 1916 Northwestern Oklahoma State Rangers Northwestern Oklahoma State Association Park Tulsa, OK W 60-7 October 28 1916 Pittsburg Normal Gorillas Pittsburg Normal<ncg> Association Park Tulsa, OK W 49-3 November 4 Oklahoma A&M Association Park Tulsa, OK (rivalry) W 17-13 3,000 https://www.newspapers.com/article/tulsa-morning-times-kendall-monarchs-las/141741037/ Tulsa Morning Times Kendall Monarchs lasso State crown from Aggies November 5, 1916 February 20, 2024 Newspapers.com November 11 at Kansas City Veterinary<ncg> Federal Park Kansas City, MO W 48-10 November 18 Haskell<ncg> Association Park Tulsa, OK W 46-0 Duffy Lou Indomitable Kendall Contingent Tomahawks Haskell Indians https://www.newspapers.com/article/tulsa-morning-times/158697745/ Tulsa Morning Times Tulsa, Oklahoma November 19, 1916 8 November 8, 2024 Newspapers.com November 25 1916 St. Gregory's Cavaliers St. Gregory's<ncg> Association Park Tulsa, OK W 82-0 November 30 1916 Missouri Mines Miners Missouri Mines<ncg> Association Park Tulsa, OK W 117-0 Tulsa Golden Hurricane Football Record & Fact Book 2022 https://tulsahurricane.com/documents/2022/8/19/TU_FB22_MediaGuide_Web_220819.pdf University of Tulsa 177 January 22, 2023 References Kendall Category:Tulsa Golden Hurricane football seasons Category:Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference (1914–1928) football champion seasons Category:College football undefeated seasons Kendall Football