1903 College Football All-America Team

1903 College Football All-America Team
College Football All-America Team
1903 college football season
1901 1902 ← → 1904 1905

The 1903 College Football All-America team is composed of various organizations that chose College Football All-America Teams that season. The organizations and individuals that chose the teams included Collier's Weekly selected by Walter Camp, Caspar Whitney for Outing magazine, Charles Chadwick and Fielding H. Yost.

Of the 15 players who have been recognized by the NCAA as "consensus" All-Americans for the 1903 season, 12 played for teams in the Ivy League, and nine played for the "Big Four" teams of the era—Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Penn. The only three consensus All-Americans from schools outside the Ivy League were tackle Fred Schacht of Minnesota, quarterback James Johnson of Carlisle, and halfback Willie Heston of Michigan.

Five players were selected as first-team All-Americans by at least four of the known selectors: guard John DeWitt of Princeton (5), center Henry Hooper of Dartmouth (5), end Charles D. Rafferty of Yale (5), halfback Willie Heston of Michigan (4), and tackle James Hogan of Yale (4). Hooper, who was a freshman in 1903, died three months after the football season ended, following an attack of appendicitis.[1][2]

In 2008, Sports Illustrated sought to answer the question, "Who would have won the Heisman from 1900-1934?"[3] Its selection for 1903 was Willie Heston of Michigan described as "the nation's finest back."[3]

  1. ^ "Dartmouth Athlete Dead: Henry Hooper Was Considered Great Football Centre" (PDF). The New York Times. February 29, 1904.
  2. ^ "H. J. Hooper's Funeral: Many Students from Dartmouth at Services at Exeter--Beautiful Display of Floral Pieces". Boston Daily Globe. March 3, 1904. p. 2. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013.
  3. ^ a b Mike Beacom (December 12, 2008). "Who would have won the Heisman from 1900-1934". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on January 19, 2013.