1896 Western Conference football season

1896 Western Conference football season
SportFootball
Number of teams7
ChampionWisconsin
Football seasons
1897 →
1896 Western Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Wisconsin $ 2 0 1 7 1 1
Michigan 2 1 0 9 1 0
Northwestern 2 1 1 6 1 2
Chicago 3 2 0 15 2 1
Minnesota 1 2 0 8 2 0
Illinois 0 2 1 4 2 1
Purdue 0 2 1 4 2 1
  • $ – Conference champion

The 1896 Western Conference football season was the first 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 1896 college football season.

In September 1896, the members of the Western Conference, seven of the most prominent teams in the Midwest, arranged their schedules so as to "compete for the championship of the West."[1]

The 1896 Wisconsin Badgers football team, under head coach Philip King, won the first Western Conference championship with a 7–1–1 record (2–0–1 against conference opponents).[2] Wisconsin's sole loss was to the Carlisle Indians in a night game played indoors and under the lights at the Chicago Coliseum before a crowd of 16,000 persons.[3]

Michigan, led by head coach William Ward, compiled a 9–1 record and led the conference in both scoring offense (26.2 points per game) and scoring defense (1.1 points per game).[4] Michigan started the season with nine consecutive wins in which the Wolverines outscored their opponents by a combined score of 256 to 4. In the final game of the season, Michigan lost to Chicago by a score of 7–6. The 1896 Chicago–Michigan football rivalry game was the first college football game played indoors, and the last portion of the game was also played under electric lights.[5][6]

Northwestern finished in third place with a 6–1–2 record, its only loss coming against Chicago by an 18–6 score.[7]

In their fifth season under head coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, the Chicago Maroons compiled a 15–2–1 record, finished in fourth place in the conference with a 3–2 record against conference opponents, and outscored all opponents by a combined total of 368 to 82.[8]

  1. ^ "Seven in the Contest". The Chicago Tribune. September 30, 1896. p. 8.
  2. ^ "1896 Wisconsin Badgers Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  3. ^ "Won By The Red Men: Wisconsin 'Varsity Loses to the Carlisle School". Chicago Inter Ocean. December 20, 1896. pp. 1, 4.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference SR was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Chicago Wins by a Point: University Team Defeats Michigan for the First Time; Indoor Play Proves a Success; Coliseum Utilized and Twenty Thousand In Attendance—Herschberger of the Home Eleven Kicks His Way Into Fame". Nebraska State Journal. November 27, 1896.
  6. ^ "Football Played Indoors". The New York Times. November 27, 1896.
  7. ^ "1896 Northwestern Wildcats Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  8. ^ "1896 Chicago Maroons Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 8, 2015.