The Washington & Jefferson Presidents football team represents Washington & Jefferson College in college football. The team competes in NCAA Division III and is affiliated with the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC). Since its founding in 1890, the team has played their home games at College Field, which was remodeled and renamed Cameron Stadium in 2001.
A number of players were named to the College Football All-America Team, and two players, Pete Henry and Edgar Garbisch, have been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Several other former players have gone on to play professionally, including "Deacon" Dan Towler, Russ Stein, and Pete Henry, who was also elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the National Football League (NFL) 1920s All-Decade Team. The team has been coached by some of the best-known coaches in football history, including John Heisman, Greasy Neale, and Andy Kerr.
Founded in 1890, the team quickly became well known for drawing large crowds and defeating a number of prominent football teams. The faculty and administration expressed concern over the strength of the team and made efforts to reduce the influence of professionalism on the players. During the 1910s, some sportswriters suggested that the Presidents were one of the top teams in the nation. The greatest achievement in the team's history was in 1921, when the Presidents appeared in the 1922 Rose Bowl, playing the heavily favored California Golden Bears to a scoreless tie. The Red and Black finished the season with a share of the 1921 national championship, as retrospectively named in the 1930s by the Boand System. As college football evolved in the 1930s and 1940s, the Presidents fell far behind their larger competitors, who were able to offer scholarships for their players. Controversy over the poor play of the football team, and a lack of play against larger teams, contributed to the resignation of a college president. In 1958 the team joined the newly-formed NCAA College Division and the Presidents' Athletic Conference. In the 1970s the team joined NCAA Division III when the NCAA split the College Division. By the 1980s, the team had learned to thrive in that environment, winning a number of conference championships and regularly qualifying for the NCAA Division III playoffs.
History Early history (1890–1899) The development of intercollegiate athletics at Washington & Jefferson College began in 1890, when students formed the Athletic Association, charging the 75 members a $1 membership fee that went to fund athletics.Scarborough 1979 p. 24 The football team played its first game on November 1, 1890, a 34–0 win against the Western University of Pennsylvania.North 1991 pp. 25–36 The Red and Black's third game of the inaugural season, against College of Wooster, remains disputed to this day, with both schools claiming a victory. Controversy erupted over the referees' clock management when W&J's team, under the impression that the game was over, left the field with a 4–0 lead; Wooster continued to play and scored a touchdown and extra point to give them a disputed 6–4 victory. By 1894, the college community's interest in the sport had grown considerably, with stronger opponents and the team's first paid coach, E. Gard Edwards. A special train from Washington to Pittsburgh was chartered to carry fans and students to a watch a 6–0 victory against the semi-pro Pittsburgh Athletic Club.
As the team developed, the college community, especially certain members of the faculty, began to express concerns regarding the influence of professionalism in college sports, especially the use of itinerant and semi-professional students. John Brallier, who was the first openly professional football player, played football for Washington & Jefferson College in 1895 before returning to the Greensburg Athletic Association.Scarborough 1979 pp. 36–40 This incident, and others, caused the faculty to adopt the college's first eligibility requirements for student athletes.
At the same time its activities were becoming more scrutinized, the football team became more successful. The season finale in 1896 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh was one of the largest crowds in western Pennsylvania history, when an overflow crowd of 12,000 watched W&J defeat Duquesne Country and Athletic Club 4–0.North 1991 pp. 36–44 But it was the September 29, 1897, game against the University of Pennsylvania Quakers that marked the "birth of big-time football" at W&J. The Red and Black lost 18–4 to the eventual national champions, but W&J counted it a moral victory, since they were missing 4 of their 11 starters due to new eligibility requirements. In a game against Denison University on Sept. 19, 1908, W&J became the first college football team in history to wear numbered uniforms.
New residency requirements and near-dissolution (1900–1911) By the early 1900s, "football fever" had swept through the student body, leading the College administration to take steps to further integrate the sport into the educational framework, including the development of a new governance structure. The new Student Athletic Committee and Faculty Athletic Committees instituted a minimum one-year residency requirement to combat transient students and created an alumni coach system, so the coaches would be more sympathetic to the educational objectives of the college.Scarborough 1979 p. 42
In 1910, the football program was in danger of being dissolved due to crushing debt.Scarborough 1979 pp. 47–48 The Student Athletic Committee proposed a $1 per term student fee to fund the team, a proposal that was met with initial resistance from the student body. However, team manager and beloved student solicitor Robert M. Murphy, was able to convince the students to accept the fee. The Student Athletic Committee agreed to retract the residency rule, as it was blamed for contributing to losses, but instituted other student athlete requirements, including a ban on the use of preparatory students at Washington & Jefferson Academy, an increase in entrance requirements, and a stringent system of recording absences. However, the Faculty Athletic Committee balked, vetoing the new rules.
The firings of Dr. G.H. Winchester and Dr. H.E. Wells highlighted the growing tension between athletics and academics.Scarborough 1979 pp. 68–70 As orchestrated by a group of alumni football supporters, the two professors were brought before a faculty committee for not having the requisite support for the athletic programs. At the time, Dr. Winchester was serving in France during World War I and Wells maintained during the hearing that he did not object to athletics per se, but rather the way it was run at Washington & Jefferson. The event, known nationally as the Winchester-Wells case, was investigated by the American Association of University Professors and was the profiled in Upton Sinclair's book The Goose-Step, a muckraking investigation into the state of American colleges.
Bob Folwell era (1912–1920) In 1912, head coach Bob Folwell was recruited away from Lafayette College by the team manager Robert M. Murphy. An early high point came in 1912 when Folwell's team held Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indians to a scoreless tie. The 1913 team posted a 10-0-1 record and were the highest scoring team in the nation. That season featured a scoreless tie with Yale, a 100–0 defeat of Grove City College, and a 17–0 victory over Penn State that broke the Nittany Lions' 19-game winning streak, earning the entire school a day off to celebrate. 1913 was the first season that the team was able to hire trained athletic coaches.Scarborough 1979 p. 4 Three players were named All-Americans. Sportswriter Walter S. Trumbull of The New York Sun suggested that the Michigan Aggies, Washington & Jefferson, Chicago University, and Notre Dame were the new "Big 4 of College Football" instead of the traditional grouping of Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and Penn.
The 1914 squad lost at Harvard University in front of 15,000 fans by a score of 10–9. If not for an errant kick that hit the crossbar, W&J would have won the game and at least a share of the mythical national championship. That squad saved face by becoming only the seventh team to ever defeat Yale University, with a decisive 13–7 victory. The game received national press coverage, and the team received a personal note of congratulations by Theodore Roosevelt.North 1991 pp. 62–74
Folwell left to coach at Penn, his alma mater, following the 1915 season. He was succeeded by Sol Metzger, who led the team to a 15–5 record during the 1916 and 1917 seasons. Ralph Hutchinson took over the team for the 1918 season, which ended with a 2–2 record in a World War I-shortened season. David C. Morrow, who had coached the team a decade earlier, returned for his second stint during 1919 and 1920.
Neale, Heisman, and Kerr years (1921–1928)
The 1921 team, coached by Greasy Neale, went 10–0 in the regular season, defeating powerhouses Pitt, University of Detroit, and Syracuse. The 7–0 victory over rival Pitt was celebrated with a day of canceled classes and a bonfire with inspirational speeches in front of the Washington County Courthouse. As the best team from the east, W&J was invited to the 1922 Rose Bowl to play the best team from the west: the undefeated and heavily favored California Golden Bears. Some had even begun to call Cal the best team in college football history.Scarborough 1979 p. 79 The Red and Black could only afford to send 11 men on the cross-country trip and Robert M. Murphy had to mortgage his home to pay his way. Thus, W&J would be the last Rose Bowl team to play the same 11 men the entire game. During the train ride to Pasadena, in which Greasy Neale continued to prepare his men, Lee Spillers caught pneumonia and could not finish the journey. Ross "Bucky" Buchannan, a reserve player who had stowed away on the train and was fed smuggled sandwiches during the trip, filled Buchannan's roster spot.
Cal had outscored their opponents that season by a margin of 312–33; nevertheless, the W&J defense held the Golden Bears' potent offense, led by Brick Muller, to no points, 2 first downs, no completed passes, and only 49 yards rushing. In one of the most disputed plays in Rose Bowl history, a rushing touchdown for W&J was overturned for an offside penalty called on Wayne Brenkert.North 1991 pp. 97–107Scarborough 1979 p. 7 On another play, W&J's Hal Erickson slipped and fell on his way to scoring a sure touchdown. The contest ended in a scoreless draw. The game was notable as the last time a "small school" would be represented in the Rose Bowl. W&J's team featured two Rose Bowl firsts: Herb Kopf was the first freshman to play and Charlie "Pruner" West was the first African American to play quarterback. W&J's team captain, Russ Stein, was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1991. The Red and Black finished the season with a share (along with California and Lafayette) of the 1921 national championship, as retroactively determined in 1930 by the Boand System, recognized as a "major selector" by the NCAA.