1915 Cornell Big Red football team

1915 Cornell Big Red football
National champion (Helms, Houlgate, NCF)
Co-national champion (Parke H. Davis)
ConferenceIndependent
Record9–0
Head coach
CaptainCharley Barrett
Home stadiumSchoellkopf Field
Seasons
← 1914
1916 →
1915 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Cornell     9 0 0
Pittsburgh     8 0 0
Columbia     5 0 0
Harvard     8 1 0
Carnegie Tech     7 1 0
Rutgers     7 1 0
Villanova     6 1 0
Washington & Jefferson     8 1 1
Colgate     5 1 0
Syracuse     9 1 2
Dartmouth     7 1 1
Tufts     5 1 2
Penn State     7 2 0
Lafayette     8 3 0
Princeton     6 2 0
Franklin & Marshall     6 2 0
Temple     3 1 1
Geneva     6 3 0
Wesleyan     6 3 0
Allegheny     5 3 0
Swarthmore     5 3 0
Army     5 3 1
Lehigh     6 4 0
Holy Cross     3 2 2
Brown     5 4 1
Fordham     4 4 0
NYU     4 4 1
Middlebury     3 4 2
Muhlenberg     4 5 0
Yale     4 5 0
Boston College     3 4 0
Penn     3 5 2
WPI     3 5 1
Buffalo     3 5 0
Carlisle     3 6 2
Rhode Island State     3 5 0
New Hampshire     3 6 1
Gettysburg     3 6 0
Rochester     3 6 0
Bucknell     2 6 3
Vermont     1 4 2
Williams     1 7 0

The 1915 Cornell Big Red football team was an American football team that represented Cornell University as an independent during the 1915 college football season. In its fourth season under head coach Albert Sharpe, the Big Red compiled a 9–0 record, shut out four of nine opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 287 to 50.[1] The 1915 team was known as The Big Red Machine, defeating every opponent by more than a touchdown.[2]

Cornell was retroactively named as the national champion by NCAA-designated "major selectors" the Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, and National Championship Foundation, and as a co-national champion (with Pittsburgh) by Parke H. Davis.[3]: 112–114 

Two Cornell players were consensus first-team selections on the 1915 All-American football team: quarterback Charley Barrett and end Murray Shelton.[4] Both of them were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.[5][6] Barrett has been called the best quarterback of the 1910s.[2]

  1. ^ "1915 Cornell Big Red Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved March 26, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "1915 College Football National Championship". TipTop 25. Archived from the original on August 8, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  3. ^ 2020 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (PDF). Indianapolis: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. July 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  4. ^ "Football Award Winners" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2016. p. 6. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  5. ^ "Charley Barrett". National Football Foundation. Retrieved March 26, 2022.
  6. ^ "Murray Shelton". National Football Foundation. Retrieved March 26, 2022.