1912 Army Cadets football team

1912 Army Cadets football
Dwight D. Eisenhower (3rd from left)
and Omar Bradley (far right) were members
of the 1912 West Point football team.
ConferenceIndependent
Record5–3
Head coach
CaptainLeland Devore
Home stadiumThe Plain
Seasons
← 1911
1913 →
1912 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Harvard   –   9 – 0 – 0
Penn State   –   8 – 0 – 0
Carlisle   –   12 – 1 – 1
Maine   –   7 – 1 – 0
Princeton   –   7 – 1 – 1
Swarthmore   –   7 – 1 – 1
Yale   –   7 – 1 – 1
Lehigh   –   9 – 2 – 0
Dartmouth   –   7 – 2 – 0
Wesleyan   –   7 – 2 – 0
Colgate   –   5 – 2 – 0
Washington & Jefferson   –   8 – 3 – 1
Rhode Island State   –   6 – 3 – 0
Bucknell   –   6 – 3 – 1
Temple   –   3 – 2 – 0
Penn   –   7 – 4 – 0
Army   –   5 – 3 – 0
Brown   –   6 – 4 – 0
Franklin & Marshall   –   6 – 4 – 0
Holy Cross   –   4 – 3 – 1
Rutgers   –   5 – 4 – 0
Tufts   –   5 – 4 – 0
Fordham   –   4 – 4 – 0
Villanova   –   3 – 3 – 0
Morris Harvey   –   2 – 2 – 0
Lafayette   –   4 – 5 – 1
Syracuse   –   4 – 5 – 0
Carnegie Tech   –   3 – 4 – 1
Geneva   –   3 – 4 – 0
Vermont   –   3 – 5 – 0
Pittsburgh   –   3 – 6 – 0
Boston College   –   2 – 4 – 1
Cornell   –   3 – 7 – 0
NYU   –   2 – 6 – 0

The 1912 Army Cadets football team was an American football team that represented the United States Military Academy as an independent during the 1912 college football season. Under head coach Ernest Graves Sr., the Cadets compiled a 5–3 record and outscored opponents by a total of 108 to 59. The Cadets lost to a one-loss Yale team, a strong Carlisle Indians team led by 1912 decathlon gold medalist Jim Thorpe, and to Navy in the annual Army–Navy Game.[1]

Dwight D. Eisenhower, later the 34th president of the United States, played at the halfback position before suffering a career-ending injury in a game against Tufts. Three players started all eight games for Army: Leland Hobbs at halfback;[2] Vernon Prichard at quarterback;[3] and Vern Scott Purnell at center. Other notable players on the team included Omar Bradley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Korean War;[4] Robert Neyland, later the long-time head football coach at the University of Tennessee; Geoffrey Keyes,[5] Leland Devore,[6] William M. Hoge,[7] and Louis A. Merrilat.[8]

  1. ^ "1912 Army Black Knights Stats". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  2. ^ Hobbs later commanded the 30th Infantry Division during World War II.
  3. ^ Prichard later commanded two armored divisions during World War II.
  4. ^ "It's the people: Legacy of 1912 Army vs. Carlisle football game endures" (PDF). U.S. Army War College. November 8, 2012.
  5. ^ Keyes was later chief of staff of George S. Patton's 2nd Armored Division during World War II.
  6. ^ Devore later served as an officer during the Pancho Villa Expedition and World War I
  7. ^ Hoge later served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.
  8. ^ Merrilat later played in the National Football League and became a soldier of fortune.