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Georgia Tech - Cumberland football in 1916.....
Georgia Tech - Cumberland football in 1916.....
Item # 542248
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October 07, 1916
THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, Georgia, October 7, 1916.
* Famous football game
* Georgia Tech vs. Cumberland
* In a Atlanta paper
This 14 page newspaper has a two line, one column headline on page 10:
* YELLOW JACKETS PLAY CUMBERLAND
with subhead: "Local Eleven Should Have Easy Sailing in Today's Game--Game Starts at 3 O'Clock"
Definetly a understatement as the Yellowjackets won a record setting 222-0 that same day.
Nice to have from the city where it happened (one of a kind?).
Other news of the day throughout. sual browning with with little margin wear, otherwise good.
source: wikipedia: Cumberland University, a school in Lebanon, Tennessee, had actually discontinued its football program before the season but was not allowed to cancel its game against the Engineers. Tech coach John Heisman was in no mood to accommodate the Bulldogs, perhaps because Tech's baseball team had lost 22–0 to Cumberland the previous year amidst allegations of Cumberland using professionals as ringers. The fact that Cumberland had crushed Georgia Tech earlier that year probably accounted for Heisman's running up the score on the Bulldogs. He insisted on the schools' scheduling agreement, which required Cumberland to pay $3,000 (a lot of money in 1916) to Tech if its football team failed to show. So, George Allen (who was elected to serve as Cumberland's football team student manager after first serving as the baseball team student manager) put together a scrub team of 14 men (including some of his Kappa Sigma brothers) to travel to Atlanta as Cumberland's football team.
Cumberland received the opening kickoff and failed to make a first down. After a punt, the Engineers scored on their first play. Cumberland then fumbled on their next play from scrimmage, and a Tech player returned the fumble for a touchdown. The Bulldogs fumbled again on their next play, and it took Tech two runs to score its third touchdown. Cumberland lost nine yards on its next possession, then gave up a fourth touchdown on another two-play Tech drive.
The Engineers led 63–0 after the first quarter and 126–0 at halftime. Tech added 54 more points in the third quarter and 42 in the final period.
Several myths have developed around the game. Some people have written that Cumberland did not have a single play that gained yards; in fact, its longest play was a 10-yard pass (on 4th-and-22). One page on Cumberland's website says Georgia Tech scored on every offensive play, but the play-by-play account of the game posted online says otherwise. Another part of Cumberland's webpage states a more likely scenario: that Georgia Tech scored on every one of its drives.
Category: The 20th Century
No Longer Available
