1919 Centre Praying Colonels football team

1919 Centre Praying Colonels football
Centre players after the defeat of West Virginia
National champion (Sagarin)
ConferenceSouthern Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Record9–0 (1–0 SIAA)
Head coach
Offensive schemeSingle-wing
CaptainBo McMillin
Home stadiumCheek Field
Uniform
Seasons
← 1918
1920 →
1919 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Auburn $ 5 1 0 8 1 0
Alabama 6 1 0 8 1 0
Centre 1 0 0 9 0 0
Kentucky 3 1 1 3 4 1
Georgia Tech 3 1 0 7 3 0
Tulane 3 1 1 6 2 1
Vanderbilt 3 1 2 5 1 2
Furman 2 1 1 6 2 1
Mississippi A&M 5 2 0 6 2 0
Georgia 4 2 2 4 2 3
LSU 3 2 0 6 2 0
Clemson 3 2 2 6 2 2
Florida 2 2 0 5 3 0
Wofford 1 1 0 3 2 1
Transylvania 1 1 0 2 4 0
Ole Miss 1 4 0 4 4 0
The Citadel 1 4 0 4 4 1
Sewanee 1 4 0 3 6 0
Georgetown (KY) 0 0 0 0 2 0
Tennessee 0 3 2 3 3 3
South Carolina 0 4 1 1 7 1
Mercer 0 1 0 0 2 0
Mississippi College 0 4 0 3 5 1
Howard (AL) 0 4 0 3 5 2
  • $ – Conference champion

The 1919 Centre Praying Colonels football team represented Centre College in the 1919 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football season.[1] The Praying Colonels scored 485 points, leading the nation, while allowing 23 points and finishing their season with a perfect record of 9–0.[2][3] The team was retroactively selected by Jeff Sagarin as national champion for the 1919 season.[4]

Quarterback Bo McMillin and center James "Red" Weaver were named to Walter Camp's first-team 1919 College Football All-America Team. Just the year before, Georgia's Bum Day had been the first player from the South ever selected to Camp's first team– and Centre thus became the first Southern school with two. Fullback and end James "Red" Roberts was named to Camp's third team.

The highlight of the season was the win over West Virginia. McMillin had the team pray before it, forever giving the Centre College Colonels its alternate moniker of "Praying Colonels."[5]

  1. ^ "Boston Daily Globe Newspaper Archives, Dec 20, 1919, p. 21". December 20, 1919.
  2. ^ 1919 Centre football scores Archived 2000-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ John Y. Brown, The Legend of the Praying Colonels, J. Marvin Gray & Associates, Inc., Louisville, Kentucky
  4. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2015). "National Poll Rankings" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. NCAA. p. 108. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  5. ^ Fuller, Henry Starkey (1919). "Centre College of Kentucky". School. 31: 428.