The 1906 college football season was the first in which the forward pass was permitted. Although there was no clear cut national championship, there were two teams that had won all nine of their games as the 1906 season drew to a close, the Princeton Tigers and the Yale Bulldogs, and on November 17, 1906, they played to a 0–0 tie. St. Louis University finished at 11–0–0. The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, declared retroactively that Princeton had been the best college football team of 1906.The 2001 ESPN Information Please Sports Almanac (Hyperion ESPN Books, 2000), p152 Other selectors recognized Yale as the national champions for 1906.
New rules to save football
Although his nearsightedness kept him off the Harvard varsity squad, Theodore Roosevelt was a vocal exponent of football's contribution to the "strenuous life", both on and off the field. He helped revive the annual Harvard–Yale football series after it had been canceled for two years following the violent 1894 clash that was deemed "the bloodbath at Hampden Park." His belief that the football field was a proving ground for the battlefield was validated by the performance of his fellow Rough Riders, who were former football standouts. "In life, as in a football game," he wrote, "the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!" In 1903, the president told an audience, "I believe in rough games and in rough, manly sports. I do not feel any particular sympathy for the person who gets battered about a good deal so long as it is not fatal." He summoned the head coaches and representatives of the premier collegiate powers—Harvard, Yale, and Princeton—to the White House on October 9, 1905. Roosevelt urged them to curb excessive violence and make an example of fair play for the rest of the country. The schools released a statement condemning brutality and pledging to keep the game clean.How Teddy Roosevelt helped save football – The Washington Post
Following the 1905 season, Stanford and California switched to rugby while Columbia, Northwestern, and Duke dropped football. Harvard president Charles William Eliot, who considered football "more brutalizing than prizefighting, cockfighting or bullfighting", warned that Harvard could be next, a move that could have been a crushing blow to the college game. Roosevelt wrote in a letter to a friend that he would not let Eliot "emasculate football", and that he hoped to "minimize the danger" without football having to be played "on too ladylike a basis." Roosevelt again used his bully pulpit. He urged radical rule changes and invited other school leaders to the White House during the off-season.
An intercollegiate conference, which would become the forerunner of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), approved radical rule changes for the 1906 season. They legalized the forward pass, abolished the dangerous flying wedge, created a neutral zone between offense and defense, and doubled the first-down distance to 10 yards, to be gained in three downs. Georgia Tech coach John Heisman had seen the forward pass attempted in 1895 in a Georgia vs. North Carolina game, and lobbied for its legalization starting in 1903. After unsuccessfully attempting for three years to convince Rules Committee chairman Walter Camp to legalize the play, Heisman enlisted the valuable support of committee members John C. Bell and Paul Dashiell instead. Finally, in 1906, the Rules Committee, college football's governing body at the time, legalized the forward pass.
The American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee met at the Murray Hill Hotel in New York City beginning January 12, 1906, to create measures "for squelching brutality and all forms of unnecessary roughness." Numerous changes were made, the primary one being the legalization of the forward pass. Various persons are given credit for the suggestion. Heisman, Bell, and Dr. J. William White were later credited with designing rules that would permit a pass while still being acceptable to a majority of the rules committee. Among the other rule changes made for the 1906 season included:
Length of game reduced from 70 minutes to two halves of 30 minutes each. The two teams would be separated by a neutral zone (the length of the ball) at the line of scrimmage. Team had to gain 10 yards in 3 plays rather than 5 yards for a first down (see 1905 Fairmount vs. Washburn football game). Hurdling was penalized. Offensive linemen had to drop back five yards behind scrimmage if not moving forward. Field marked with lines every five yards. A fourth official added to enforce the rules.
Even with the approval of a forward pass, the rules for American football in 1906 were still significantly different than the ones of a century later, as many of the present rules (100-yard field, four downs to gain ten yards, 6-point touchdown and 3-point field goal) were adopted in 1912.Danzig (1956), 70–71. The rules in 1906 were:
Field 110 yards in length Kickoff made from midfield Three downs to gain ten yards Touchdown worth 5 points Field goal worth 4 points Forward pass legal, but subject to penalties
Although a forward pass was made legal, that play in 1906 was still a risky business, because an incomplete attempt would result in stiff penalties — 15 yards back from the spot from which the pass was thrown on first or second down. If the defense committed a foul, the 15-yard penalty did not apply to the offense, but the defending team was not penalized either. In addition, a pass could not be caught more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, nor beyond the goal line (the end zone had not yet been invented). The passing game in the west (typified by St. Louis University) was closer to today's version than that in the east; the quarterback would fire the ball directly to an open receiver. The style used by Yale and Harvard, recounted later by a referee of the day, Horatio B. Hackett, was "the ball is thrown high in the air, and the runner who is to catch it is protected by several of his teammates forming an interference for him."Danzig (1956), 34.
Not everyone was impressed with the improved version of college football, particularly in California. "I do not believe the present experiment in American college football can survive," said the President of the University of California, Benjamin Ide Wheeler. He added, "In my opinion, the whole country will within five years be playing the Rugby game."
Conference and program changes School 1905 conference 1906 conference California Golden Bears Independent Program suspended Carnegie Tech Tartans Program Established Independent Florida Gators Program Established Independent
September The Yale Bulldogs had enjoyed a 10–0–0 record in 1905, shutting out all of their opponents except for the Princeton Tigers, whom they had allowed a touchdown. In the West, the Michigan Wolverines, coached by Fielding "Hurry Up" Yost, had shut out their first 12 opponents, before playing the 9–0–0 University of Chicago Maroons. Chicago not only avoided a shutout, but handed Michigan a 2–0 loss. In the South, Georgia Tech had gone 6–0–1.
September 5 marked the first use of the forward pass in a college football game. In its 22–0 win over Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on a Wednesday afternoon, St. Louis University unveiled a new offensive style. SLU's coach, Eddie Cochems, had his team secretly practice the play. Though the first attempt was incomplete (resulting in a turnover), the next one was successful, as Bradbury Robinson threw to Jack Schneider, who then ran the rest of the way for a touchdown.Football's Forward Pass Turns 100 Years Old : Saint Louis University : SLU St. Louis would go on to an 11–0–0 record, outscoring its opponents 407–31, including Marquette (30–0), Kansas (34–2), Drake (32–9) and Iowa (39–0).Danzig (1956), 495.
The season began in earnest on September 22, with some of the more powerful teams holding their lesser opposition scoreless, and on their home field. Harvard beat Williams 7–0, Carlisle over Villanova 6–0, Dartmouth defeated Norwich 5–0. Penn State had a 24–0 win over Lebanon Valley. In the west, Kansas had an 18–0 victory over William Jewell College. In one of the few games where both teams scored, Holy Cross hosted Massachusetts in Philadelphia and won 6–4. Harvard played a midweek game on September 26, beating Bowdoin 10–0.
On September 29, Princeton opened its season with a 24–0 win over Villanova, and Penn beat Lehigh 32–6. At West Point, the United States Military Academy ("Army") won 12–0 over Tufts. The universities of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts were all shut out by, respectively, Harvard (17–0), Dartmouth (8–0), Brown (12–0) and Williams (5–0). Penn State, Swarthmore and Dickinson all registered 26–0 wins over, Allegheny, Johns Hopkins and Lebanon Valley, respectively. Pitt defeated Westminster 17–0. Colgate and Cornell played to a 0–0 tie at Ithaca, while out west, another Cornell (of Iowa) lost to Iowa State, 81–0. Carlisle went one better, beating Albright 82–0. In the South, Georgia Tech and Maryville tied 6–6 in Atlanta, and Davidson and North Carolina were scoreless.
October October 6: Harvard won its fourth game, but its 27–6 win over Bates took the Crimson out of the ranks of the unscored upon. Meanwhile, other teams recorded their third consecutive shutouts. Swarthmore beat visiting Villanova 4–0, and Penn State won at Carlisle by the same 4–0 score. Dartmouth bested Holy Cross, 16–0 and Princeton beat Stevens 22–0. Army over Trinity (24–0), Yale had opened its season midweek (October 3, 21–0 over Wesleyan) and then beat Syracuse (51–0) (Wesleyan itself lost 17–0 to Brown). In the west, Iowa State's team beat Coe College 36–0 on Friday, then Des Moines 45–0 the next day. Maryville, at that time a regular southern opponent powerhouse, lost at Alabama, 6–0; two days earlier, it had lost to Ole Miss 16–6. Michigan opened its season with a 28–0 win over visiting Case.
October 13: Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown remained unscored upon, as did Lafayette, Pittsburgh and Swarthmore. Playing on 3 Saturdays and 2 Wednesdays, the Princeton Tigers played five games in fifteen days (Sep 29 to Oct 13), beating Villanova, Stevens, Washington & Jefferson, Lehigh (52–0), and in Annapolis on this date, a 5–0 win over Navy. Brown had beaten Massachusetts 17–0 on a Wednesday afternoon. Yale defeated Holy Cross 17–0 and Maine 4–0. Swarthmore eked out a win at Penn, 4–0. Harvard, 5–0–0 but not scorefree, defeated Massachusetts 21–0. Army and Colgate played to a 0–0 tie.
In the West, Kansas defeated Arkansas 37–5 and Nebraska beat Drake 5–0. In the South, Vanderbilt defeated Ole Miss at home, 29–0 and Texas beat TCU 22–0. Georgia Tech beat Tennessee-Chattanooga 18–0 to reach 2–0–1. Clemson opened its season with a 0–0 tie with visiting Virginia Tech. Other colleges stayed unscored upon, but against smaller opponents (Iowa State 32–0 over Morningside, Mississippi State 62–0 over Marion).
October 20: Yale stayed unscored on with a 10–0 win over Penn State, and Dartmouth beat Massachusetts 26–0. Princeton, however, gave up points in a 32–4 win over Bucknell. Swarthmore beat GWU 17–0. Harvard had a 44–0 win over Springfield. Lafayette defeated North Carolina in Norfolk, VA, 28–6. Brown was handed its first defeat, a 14–0 loss at Pennsylvania, while Pitt lost to Carlisle, 22–0.
After warming up with small colleges, Iowa State won at Nebraska, 14–2, while Kansas beat visiting Oklahoma 20–4. Michigan won at Ohio State, 6–0. In the South, Vanderbilt handed Alabama a 78–0 loss. After tuneup wins against Mooney and Rhodes, Sewanee won at Georgia Tech, 16–0. Clemson beat Georgia 6–0, and played a Thursday afternoon 0–0 tie against NC State.