The 2001 Harvard Crimson football team was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

team that represented

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

during the

2001 NCAA Division I-AA football season The 2001 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I-AA level, began in August 2001, and concluded with the 2001 NCAA Divi ...

. Harvard was undefeated and won the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

championship. In their eighth year under head coach Timothy Murphy, the Crimson compiled a 9–0 record and outscored opponents 293 to 184. Ryan FitzGerald was the team captain. Harvard's undefeated (7–0) conference record placed first in the Ivy League standings. The Crimson outscored Ivy opponents 220 to 150. Like most of the Ivy League, Harvard played nine games instead of the usual 10, after the school made the decision to cancel its September 15 season opener against Holy Cross, following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. It was the first year in more than two decades without a Crimson-Crusader football game, and the only year without the intrastate matchup between 1981 and 2015. The Crimson began the year unranked, and did not enter the national top 25 until they had recorded its seventh win without a loss. Harvard entered the season's penultimate week at No. 24 and rose to No. 19 after defeating a ranked

Penn Quakers The Penn Quakers are the athletic teams of the University of Pennsylvania. The school sponsors 33 varsity sports. The school has won three NCAA national championships in men's fencing and one in women's fencing. Sponsored teams Men's varsit ...

team. Harvard played its home games at

Harvard Stadium Harvard Stadium is a U-shaped college football stadium in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The Stadium is one of only four athletic facilities that are considered National Historic Landmarks. The stadium is owned and operated ...

in the

Allston Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most part, Allston is ...

neighborhood of

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Schedule

References

{{Ivy League football champions

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

Harvard Crimson football seasons Ivy League football champion seasons College football undefeated seasons

Harvard Crimson football The Harvard Crimson football program represents Harvard University in college football at the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Harvard's football program is one ...