1916 Pittsburgh Panthers football team

1916 Pittsburgh Panthers football
National champion
(Billingsley MOV, Helms, Houlgate, NCF)
Co-national championship (Davis)
ConferenceIndependent
Record8–0
Head coach
Offensive schemeDouble wing
CaptainBob Peck
Home stadiumForbes Field
Seasons
← 1915
1917 →
1916 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Army     9 0 0
Pittsburgh     8 0 0
Brown     8 1 0
Colgate     8 1 0
Yale     8 1 0
Fordham     6 1 1
Swarthmore     6 1 1
Penn State     8 2 0
Washington & Jefferson     8 2 0
Boston College     6 2 0
Cornell     6 2 0
Princeton     6 2 0
Lehigh     6 2 1
Dartmouth     5 2 2
Harvard     7 3 0
Penn     7 3 1
Temple     3 1 2
Tufts     5 3 0
Carnegie Tech     4 3 0
Rutgers     3 2 2
NYU     4 3 1
Syracuse     5 4 0
Holy Cross     4 5 0
Vermont     4 5 0
Rhode Island State     3 4 1
Geneva     2 5 2
Carlisle     1 3 1
Lafayette     2 6 1
Bucknell     3 9 0
Columbia     1 5 2
Franklin & Marshall     1 7 0
Villanova     1 8 0

The 1916 Pittsburgh Panthers football team was an American football team represented the University of Pittsburgh as an independent during the 1916 college football season. Led by coach Pop Warner, the Panthers won all eight games and outscored their opponents by a total of 255 to 25. The team was retroactively selected as the national champion by multiple NCAA-designated major selectors, including the Billingsley Report (using its alternate "margin of victory" methodology), Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, and National Championship Foundation, and by others as a co-national champion with Army by Parke H. Davis.[1]

The lone scare of the 1916 season occurred at Navy when, following a delay of the team's train heading to Annapolis that caused a late arrival, the team overcame several fumbles and eked out a 20–19 victory.[2] The 1916 team was led by center Bob Peck, Pitt's first first-team All-American, and All-American end James Pat Herron, as well as All-Americans fullback Andy Hastings and guard "Tiny" Thornhill. Also on that team were Jock Sutherland and H.C. "Doc" Carlson who would go on to become perhaps Pitt's most legendary coaches in football and basketball, respectively. This Pitt Panthers football team was given the nickname "the greatest eleven in the world."[3]

  1. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2015). "National Poll Rankings" (PDF). NCAA Division I Football Records. NCAA. p. 108. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  2. ^ Sciullo Jr., Sam (2008). University of Pittsburgh Football Vault: The History of the Panthers. Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, LLC. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-0-7948-2653-6.
  3. ^ "Here They Are-The University of Pittsburgh 1916 Football Team". Pittsburgh Post (1916), republished in 1990 University of Pittsburgh Football Media Guide (1990). University of Pittsburgh. p. 122. Retrieved November 7, 2020.

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