The 1909 Western Conference football season was the fourteenth season of college football played by the member schools of the Western Conference (later known as the Big Ten Conference) and was a part of the 1909 college football season.
Season overview Minnesota was declared the Western Conference champion with an undefeated league record of 3–0, going 6–1 overall. Their only loss was to former conference-mate Michigan, in the first-ever game played for the Little Brown Jug.
After finishing the last two seasons as conference champion, Chicago came in second at 4-1-2 (4-1-1 in league play). Illinois was third at 5-2 (3–1) and Wisconsin fourth with an overall record of 3-1-1 (2–1–1), which rounded out the schools with league records over .500.
Indiana wound up at 4–3, but went 1–3 in conference play; tying Northwestern, who finished overall at 1–3–1.
Iowa and Purdue went winless on the year, but both managed to secure two non-conference victories.
Minnesota
Chicago
Illinois
Wisconsin
Indiana
Northwestern
Iowa
Purdue
Bowl games No Western Conference schools participated in any bowl games during the 1909 season.
All-American honors
Ends Harlan Page, Chicago (WC-3)
Tackles James Walker, Minnesota (TC-1)
Centers H. E. Farnum, Minnesota (WC-3)
Quarterbacks John McGovern, Minnesota (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC-1; TC-1) Harlan Page, Chicago (NYT-2)
Key NCAA recognized selectors for 1909 WC = Collier's Weekly as selected by Walter Camp
Other selectors NYT = The New York Times TC = Tommy Clark, noted sports writer whose work appeared in several papers UP = United Press consensus All-American team, based on selections from 22 of "the best football experts." The numbers shown in parentheses reflect the number of voters (out of the total of 22) who selected the person as a first-team All-American. AC = The Atlanta Constitution based on aggregating the All-America selections of ten leading Eastern newspapers. The numbers shown in parentheses reflect the number of voters (out of the total of 10) who selected the person as a first-team All-American.
Bold = Consensus All-American 1 – First-team selection 2 – Second-team selection 3 – Third-team selection
All-Western selections
Harlan Page, End, Chicago (ECP-1, WE) James Dean, End, Wisconsin (ECP-2, WE) Walter Henry Rademacher, End, Minnesota (ECP-1) James Walker, Tackle, Minnesota (ECP-1, WE) F. E. Boyle, Tackle, Wisconsin (ECP-2) Homer W. Dutter, Tackle, Indiana (ECP-2) Glenn D. Butzer, Guard, Illinois (ECP-2) Harry W. Powers, Guard, Minnesota (ECP-2) Henry E. Farnum, Center, Minnesota (ECP-1) John McGovern, Quarterback, Minnesota (ECP-1, WE) (CFHOF) Otto E. Seiler, Quarterback, Illinois (ECP-2) William Lucas Crawley, Halfback, Chicago (ECP-2) Earle T. Pickering, Fullback, Minnesota (ECP-1) John Wilce, Fullback, Wisconsin (ECP-2) (CFHOF)
References