1896 Dartmouth football team

The 1896 Dartmouth football team represented Dartmouth College in the 1896 college football season.[1]

1896 Dartmouth football
champion
Conference	Triangular Football League
1896 record	5–2–1 (2–0 TFL)
Head coach	William Wurtenburg (2nd season)
Captain	Walter McCornack
Home stadium	Unknown

1896 Triangular Football League standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Dartmouth $	2	–	0	–	0			5	–	2	–	1
Amherst	1	–	1	–	0			3	–	6	–	1
Williams	0	–	2	–	0			6	–	4	–	1
$ – Conference champion

The number of games played in 1896 was reduced from the previous season, down to a more normal level of eight. One notable absence from the 1896 schedule was a game against rival Harvard, the only time during Wurtenburg's tenure that the Crimson were not played.[2] The 1896 season was also the most successful, winning percentage-wise during Wurtenburg's time as coach; the team finished the year with a 5–2–1 record and a .688 win percentage, the tenth best record in the country out of the thirty major teams.[3] Following an initial win against the Worcester Athletic Association, the squad suffered back-to-back shutout losses to Yale and Penn. The remainder of the season, however, was highly successful for the team, and they went 4–0–1 in their final five games. This included defeating both Triangular Football League opponents by a combined score of 42–0 for a fourth consecutive championship, and a tie with the Brown team they had lost to the previous year.[4][5]

Several members of the team would later become college football coaches, including Walter McCornack, Frank Cavanaugh, John B. Eckstorm, David Carr MacAndrew, Joseph H. Edwards, Fred Crolius, and Charles J. Boyle.

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Source
October 3	at Worcester Athletic Association*	Unknown Worcester, MA	W 30–0
October 10	at Penn*	Franklin Field Philadelphia, PA	L 0–16
October 17	at Yale*	Yale Field New Haven, CT	L 0–42	[6]
October 28	Bowdoin*	Hanover, NH	W 28–10
November 3	at Brown*	Providence, RI	T 10–10
November 14	at Amherst	Amherst, MA	W 32–0
November 21	Williams	Hanover, NH	W 10–0
November 26	Newton Athletic Club*	Hanover, NH	W 12–6
*Non-conference game

References

1. 1896 Dartmouth College football scores and results Archived December 8, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. College Football Data Warehouse. Retrieved on October 4, 2013.
2. Staff writer (November 13, 1908). "At The Adams House: Harvard-Dartmouth Series". The Dartmouth. XXX (15): 184–185. OCLC 6311027.
3. Staff (2014). "Schedule & Results–8 Games". 1896 Dartmouth Big Green Schedule and Results. College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
4. Staff (2013). "Triangular Football League–Conference Championships". Conference Championships Index. College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
5. Staff (2013). "William Wurtenburg coaching record–1896". William C. "Bill" Wurtenburg Records by Year. College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
6. "Yale Beats Dartmouth Easily". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 18, 1896. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.