1908 College Football Season - November

November

November 7 Yale (6-0-0) hosted a (4-3-0) Brown team and ended up being tied. Brown scored a touchdown early in the game, but missed the point after, and Yale's Ted Koy connected on 30 yard field goal. In the second half, Yale scored a TD and the extra point, to take the lead. Later in the game, Dennie of Brown intercepted Philbin's pass and returned in 40 yards to tie the game, but the point after failed. Under today's rules, Brown would have won 12-10. In 1908, however, a 4 point field goal, and 6 points for a touchdown and conversion, were equal to Brown's two five-point touchdowns. The game ended in a 10-10 tie. Pitt stayed unbeaten with an 11-0 win over visiting West Virginia, and Cornell defeated Amherst, 6-0.

At New York's Polo Grounds, a crowd of 10,000 watched unbeaten Princeton (5-0-3) face Dartmouth (5-0-1). The Princeton Tigers lost in what was considered an upset, 10-6. Harvard and Carlisle, both unbeaten at 6-0-1, met at Cambridge, and the Indians suffered their first loss, 17-0. Penn beat Lafayette, 34-4. Navy beat Villanova 30-6 and Army edged Springfield, 6-5.

In intersectional games, Michigan beat visiting Kentucky, 62-0, while St. Louis hosted Sewanee and the two played to a 6-6 tie. In Indianapolis, Notre Dame defeated Indiana 11-0. In the South, Vanderbilt handed visiting Tennessee its first loss, 16-9. LSU beat visiting Mississippi A&M 50-0, and in Atlanta, Auburn beat Georgia Tech 44-0.

In a game on Wednesday, November 10, LSU defeated Baylor, 89-0

November 14 In a major intersectional game between two unbeaten and untied teams, Cornell (6-0-0) visited Chicago (4-0-0). Playing in a snowstorm, Cornell took the lead before the Maroons, coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg tied the game with five minutes left on a triple pass play, finishing with a 6-6 store. Pennsylvania (9-0-1) visited Michigan (5-0-1) and won 29-0. Ohio State handed visiting Vanderbilt its second loss, 17-6.

The previously unbeaten and untied (6-0-0) Pitt lost to visiting, 6-1-1 Carlisle, falling 6-0. Navy beat Penn State, 5-0 and Army tied Washington & Jefferson, 6-6. Brown beat Vermont 12-0. At Omaha, St. Louis beat Creighton, 6-0. In the South, Tennessee edged Clemson, 6-5; Sewanee won at Georgia Tech 6-0, and Georgia and Alabama played to a 6-6 tie,

Harvard (7-0-1) hosted Dartmouth (6-0-1) and won, 6-0. Yale (6-0-1) visited 5-1-3 Princeton before a crowd of 30,000 and won 11-6. Both Harvard and Yale stayed unbeaten, a week away from their November 21 meeting in Cambridge.

November 21 The biggest game of the season was in New Haven, Connecticut, as Harvard (8-0-1) visited Yale (7-0-1). A crowd of 35,000 turned out to watch the Crimson vs. Blue contest, and the New York Times reported on the front page the next day that the game "would have been seen by 75,000 if the Stadium could hold that many, for that number of applications was received," Harvard won 4-0, with Vic Kennard kicking a 25 yard field goal for the win Pitt beat Gettysburg College 6-0.

In intersectional games, Carlisle lost at Minnesota, 11-6, while Michigan suffered its second straight loss, losing at Syracuse, 28-4. In St. Louis, Vanderbilt defeated Washington University 28-0.

Cornell beat visiting Trinity, 18-6. Navy defeated Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) 15-4. Army beat Villanova 25-0. Unbeaten Chicago faced unbeaten and untied (5-0-0) Wisconsin and won 18-12. St. Louis traveled to Minnesota to face Carleton College and played to a 0-0 tie. Tennessee beat Chattanooga 35-6.

On Thanksgiving Day afternoon (November 28), a crowd of 25,000 turned out in Philadelphia to watch unbeaten Pennsylvania host unbeaten Cornell. Quarterback Albert Miller guided Pennsylvania to a 17-4 win. Though Penn "found the boys from the shores of Lake Cayuga a harder proposition than she looked for", wrote a New York Times reporter, they "closed the season without once drinking from the bitter cup of defeat, and to-night her followers are claiming at least equal rank with Harvard.".

Pitt fell to Penn State, 12-6. Carlisle won at St. Louis, 17-0. Carlisle would play two more games out west, a 37-6 win at Nebraska on December 2, and an 8-4 win at Denver on December 5.

In the South, LSU finished its season unbeaten with a 36-4 win over Arkansas at Little Rock. Vanderbilt and Sewanee played to a 6-6 tie. In Montgomery, Alabama, Auburn beat Georgia, 23-0. Two days later, at their annual game, Army beat Navy, 6-4.

On September 19, 1908, Washington & Jefferson College became the college football first team to wear numbered uniforms in a game against Denison University.