The 1919 Big Ten Conference football season was the 24th season of
college football
College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
played by the member schools of the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...
(also known as the Western Conference) and was a part of the
1919 college football season
The 1919 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing 1919 Centre Praying Colonels football team, Centre, 1919 Harvard Crimson football team, Harvard, 1919 Illinois Fighti ...
.
The
1919 Illinois Fighting Illini football team, under head coach
Robert Zuppke
Robert Carl Zuppke (July 2, 1879 – December 22, 1957) was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Illinois—now known as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign–from 1913 until 1941, compili ...
, compiled a 6–1 record, won the Big Ten championship, and was selected retroactively as the national champion by the
Billingsley Report
The Billingsley Report is a college football rating system developed in the late 1960s to determine a national champion. Billingsley has actively rated college football teams on a current basis since 1970. Beginning in 1999, Billingsley's ratings ...
and
Boand System, and as a co-national champion by the College Football Researchers Association,
Parke H. Davis, and
Jeff Sagarin
Jeff Sagarin (born 1948) is an American sports statistician known for his development of a method for ranking and rating sports teams in a variety of sports. His Sagarin Ratings have been a regular feature in the ''USA Today'' sports section from ...
(using his alternate ELO-Chess methodology).
Fullback
Jack Crangle and guard
Jack Depler received first-team All-Big Ten honors.
The
1919 Ohio State Buckeyes football team, under head coach
John Wilce
John Woodworth Wilce (May 12, 1888 – May 17, 1963) was an American college football player and coach, physician, and university professor. He served as the head football coach at Ohio State University from 1913 to 1928, compiling a record of 78 ...
, also compiled a 6–1 record and led the conference in scoring defense (1.7 points allowed per game). Ohio State defeated Michigan for the first time in the history of the
Michigan–Ohio State football rivalry
The Michigan–Ohio State football rivalry, referred to as The Game by some fans and sports commentators, is an American college football rivalry game that is played annually between the Michigan Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes. As of ...
. However, the Buckeyes lost to Illinois by two points in the final game of the season and finished in second place in the conference standings. Halfback
Chic Harley was selected, for the third time, as a consensus first-team All-American.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
center
Charles Carpenter was a consensus first-team All-American.
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
led the Big Ten in scoring offense with 29.3 points per game.
Season overview
Results and team statistics
Key
PPG = Average of points scored per game; team with highest average in bold
PAG = Average of points allowed per game; team with lowest average in bold
Regular season
September 27
On September 27, 1919, the Big Ten season opened with one non-conference game.
* Indiana 20, Wabash 7
October 4
On October 4, 1919, the Big Ten football teams played seven non-conference games, resulting in five wins, one loss, and a tie. Chicago, Illinois, and Northwestern had bye weeks.
* Ohio State 38, Ohio Wesleyan 0
* Wisconsin 37, Ripon 0
* Minnesota 39, North Dakota 0
* Iowa 18, Nebraska 0
* Michigan 34, Case 0
* Centre 12, Indiana 3
* Purdue 14, Franklin 14
October 11
On October 11, 1919, the Big Ten teams played one conference game and six non-conference games. The non-conference games resulted in six victories, giving the Big ten a 12–1–1 record up to that point in the season. Michigan and Iowa had a bye week.
* Illinois 14, Purdue 7
* Ohio State 46, Cincinnati 0
* Chicago 123, Great Lakes Navy 0
* Wisconsin 13, Marquette 0
* Minnesota 6, Nebraska 6
* Northwestern 20, DePauw 0
* Indiana 24, Kentucky 0
October 18
On October 18, 1919, the Big Ten teams participated in four conference games and two non-conference games. The non-conference games resulted in two victories, giving the Big ten a 14–1–1 record up to that point in the season.
* Illinois 9, Iowa 7
* Chicago 16, Purdue 0
* Wisconsin 10, Northwestern 6
* Minnesota 20, Indiana 6
* Ohio State 49, Kentucky 0
* Michigan 26, Michigan Agricultural 0
October 25
On October 25, 1919, the Big Ten teams played four conference games. Illinois and Indiana had bye weeks.
* Wisconsin 14, Illinois 10
* Ohio State 13, Michigan 3
* Chicago 41, Northwestern 0
* Iowa 9, Minnesota 6
November 1
On November 1, 1919, the Big Ten teams played three conference games and three non-conference games. The non-conference games resulted in two victories and one defeat, giving the Big ten a 16–2–1 record up to that point in the season. Ohio State had a bye week.
* Illinois 10, Chicago 0
* Minnesota 19, Wisconsin 7
* Michigan 16, Northwestern 13
* Iowa 26, South Dakota 13
* Notre Dame 16, Indiana 3
* Purdue 13, Michigan Agricultural 7
November 8
On November 8, 1919, the Big Ten teams played four conference games. Indiana and Wisconsin had bye weeks.
* Illinois 10, Minnesota 6
* Ohio State 20, Purdue 0
* Chicago 13, Michigan 0
* Iowa 14, Northwestern 7
November 15
On November 8, 1919, the Big Ten teams played four conference games and one non-conference game. The non-conference game resulted in a victory, giving the Big ten a 17–2–1 record up to that point in the season. Minnesota had a bye week.
* Illinois 29, Michigan 7
* Ohio State 3, Wisconsin 0
* Chicago 9, Iowa 6
* Northwestern 3, Indiana 2
* Purdue 24, DePauw 0 (game played on Monday, November 17)
November 22
On November 22, 1919, the Big Ten teams played three conference games and three non-conference games. The non-conference games resulted in two wins and a loss, giving the Big Ten a 19–3–1 record up to that point in the season. Northwestern had a bye week.
* Illinois 9, Ohio State 7
* Wisconsin 10, Chicago 3
* Minnesota 34, Michigan 7
* Iowa 10, Iowa State 0
* Indiana 12, Syracuse 6
* Notre Dame 33, Purdue 13
November 27
On Thanksgiving Day, one Big Ten team played a game and lost, giving the Big Ten a 19–4–1 record.
* Rutgers 28, Northwestern 0
Bowl games
No Big Ten teams participated in any bowl games during the 1919 season.
Awards and honors
All-Big Ten players
The following players were selected as first-team players on the 1919 All-Big Ten Conference football team by at least two of the following five selectors: E. C. Patterson in ''Collier's Weekly
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''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...
'' (ECP),[ Frank G. Menke (FM),][ the ]International News Service
The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909. (INS),
All-Americans
Three Big Ten players were selected as consensus first-team players on the 1919 College Football All-America Team. They were:
References
{{Big Ten Conference football navbox