1916 Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech football game

NCAAFootballSingleGameHeader
Name=Most Lopsided Game in College Football History
Date=October 7, 1916
Year=1916
Visitor School=Cumberland University
Visitor Name Short=Cumberland
Visitor Nickname=Bulldogs
Visitor Record=0–1
Visitor

Visitor Coaches=
Visitor BCS=
Visitor Coach=George Allen
Visitor1=0
Visitor2=0
Visitor3=0
Visitor4=0
Visitor5=
Visitor6=
Visitor7=
Visitor Total=0
Home School=Georgia Institute of Technology
Home Name Short=Georgia Tech
Home Nickname=Engineers
Home Record=1–0
Home

Home Coaches=
Home BCS=
Home Coach=John Heisman
Home1=63
Home2=63
Home3=54
Home4=42
Home5=
Home6=
Home7=
Home Total=222
Type=Regular Season Game
Stadium=Grant Field
City=Atlanta, Georgia

The October 7, 1916, American football game between the Georgia Tech Engineers and the Cumberland College Bulldogs (now Cumberland University) was the most-lopsided game in the history of college football. Georgia Tech won, 222–0.

Background

Cumberland College, 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. The fact that Cumberland's baseball team had crushed Georgia Tech earlier that year 22-0 (amidst allegations of Cumberland using professionals as ringers) 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.

The game

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 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.

tatistics

:"These statistics are based on the sources listed below and may be incomplete."

Georgia Tech also ran up 220 yards on punt returns and 220 yards on kick returns. Georgia Tech scored 12 special teams and defensive touchdowns. Another thing to add is that Georgia Tech didn't even attempt a pass in the entire game and still managed to score such a margin.

Since World War II, only a few schools have topped 100 points in a college football game. The modern-era record for most points scored against a college opponent is 106 by Fort Valley State of Georgia against Knoxville College in 1969; in the previous year Houston defeated Tulsa 100–6 to et the NCAA record in major college football. In Division III football back in 1968 North Park University defeated North Central College by a margin of 104-32. North Park managed ten passing touchdowns.

References

* [http://www2.cumberland.edu/about/gotc/index.html The Game of the Century] at Cumberland University.
* [http://www2.cumberland.edu/about/gotc/pbp.html Play-by-play] .
* [http://www.ncaa.org/library/records/football/football_records_book_d2_d3/2007_d2_d3_football_records.pdf 2007 NCAA Division II/III Football Records Book] (PDF).
* cite news | work=The New York Times | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/07/sports/ncaafootball/07tech.html | accessdate=2008-02-09 | date=2006-10-07 | year=2006 | title=In 1916, a Blowout for the Ages | last=Litsky | first=Frank
* cite book | title=You Dropped It, You Pick It Up | publisher=Ed's Publishing Company | location=Baton Rouge, LA | last=Paul | first=Jim | id=ISBN 9993404446 | year=1983
*Nash, Bruce, and Allan Zullo (1986). "The Football Hall of Shame". New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-61114-3.
*Parke H. Davis, "Yellow Jackets-Cumberland Score Was Record One; Tops the List Acchii ihompiled Showing All Scores Past the Century Mark", "The Atlanta Constitution", Atlanta, Ga.: October 15, 1916, pg. A3.