1945 Harvard Crimson football team

1945 Harvard Crimson football
ConferenceIndependent
Record5–3
Head coach
CaptainRobert Cowen II
Home stadiumHarvard Stadium
Seasons
← 1944
1946 →
1945 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 1 Army     9 0 0
Franklin & Marshall     4 0 1
No. 20 Columbia     8 1 0
Temple     7 1 0
No. 16 Holy Cross     8 2 0
Tufts     4 1 0
No. 8 Penn     6 2 0
Yale     6 3 0
Massachusetts State     2 1 1
Harvard     5 3 0
Penn State     5 3 0
Cornell     5 4 0
Villanova     4 4 0
Boston College     3 4 0
Brown     3 4 1
Colgate     3 4 1
Princeton     2 3 2
NYU     3 4 0
Pittsburgh     3 7 0
Bucknell     2 5 0
Drexel     2 5 0
Dartmouth     1 6 1
Syracuse     1 6 0
Boston University     0 5 0
CCNY     0 8 0
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1945 Harvard Crimson football team was an American football team that represented Harvard University during the 1945 college football season. Head coach Dick Harlow returned for his ninth year, after a two-year gap while serving in the Navy.[1] The team compiled a 5–3 record and outscored its opponents 161 to 80. Robert Cowen II was the team captain.[2]

During Harlow's absence, Harvard played a shortened "informal" schedule in 1943 and 1944, lacking its traditional Ivy League opponents. Harlow's return from military service, as well as the renewal of ties with Ivy opponents Brown and Yale, made 1945 a transition year. The university's record book omits the "informal" designation for 1945, but contemporary press accounts describe that year's program as "informal" and preparing for a return to the top tier of college football in 1946.[3]

Harvard played its home games at Harvard Stadium in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

  1. ^ "Harvard Defeats Rochester, 21-13". The New York Times. New York, N.Y. October 14, 1945. p. S1.
  2. ^ "Football Record Book: Year-by-Year Results" (PDF). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  3. ^ Danzig, Allison (September 26, 1945). "Harvard Material Lacks Experience". The New York Times. New York, N.Y. p. 18.