1872 Yale Bulldogs football team

1872 Yale Bulldogs football
Co-national champion (Davis)
ConferenceIndependent
Record1–0
Head coach
  • None
CaptainDavid Schley Schaff
Home stadiumHamilton Park
Seasons
1873 →
1872 college football records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Princeton   –   1 – 0 – 0
Yale   –   1 – 0 – 0
Rutgers   –   1 – 1 – 1
Columbia   –   1 – 2 – 1
Stevens   –   0 – 1 – 0

The 1872 Yale Bulldogs football team was a football team that represented Yale University in the 1872 college football season. The team (which played a game based on the association football laws)[1] finished with a 1–0 record and was retroactively named co-national champion by Parke H. Davis.[2]

They played Columbia at Hamilton Park and won 3–0.[3] Each team had 20 players and the field was 400 feet long and 250 wide (134 by 83 yards). Tommy Sherman scored the first goal and Lew Irwin the other two.[4] The team's captain was David Schley Schaff, who attended the Rugby School in England where he learned to play football.[5]

  1. ^ Best of the 1870s: The defining players and teams of college football’s first decade by Matt Brown on The Athletic, January 28, 2019
  2. ^ "National Poll Champions" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2017. p. 110. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  3. ^ "1872 Yale Bulldogs Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  4. ^ "Timeline of Yale Football". Yale University. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
  5. ^ "Football by Year" (PDF). Yale University. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 9, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2018.