Conference Big Ten Conference Head coach Guy Lowman (1st year) | 1918 record 3–3 (1–2 Big Ten) Home stadium Camp Randall Stadium | |
The 1918 Wisconsin Badgers football team was an American football team that represented the University of Wisconsin in the 1918 Big Ten Conference football season. In its first and only season under head coach Guy Lowman, the team compiled a 3–3 (1–2 against conference opponents) record and finished in seventh place in the Big Ten Conference.
Contents
Quarterback Eber Simpson was recognized as a first-team player on the 1918 All-Big Ten Conference football team.
Pre-season
John R. Richards was taken away from his duties as Wisconsin's head football coach in mid-October 1918, after being appointed to a commission in charge of the welfare of war workers. Guy Lowman took over as head coach for the 1918 season; Lowman had come to Wisconsin in September 1917 to take charge of Wisconsin's physical education department and to serve as head coach of the basketball team and coach of the freshman football and baseball teams. Richards returned as head football coach in 1919.
Game summaries
On October 26, 1918, Wisconsin lost to Camp Grant, 7–0, in Madison, Wisconsin. Camp Grant's touchdown was scored by former Wisconsin star, Stark, who intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. The game followed the lifting of a quarantine at Camp Grant where the influenza epidemic took a death toll of 1,040 men.
On November 2, 1918, in a game played behind closed gates in Madison, Wisconsin defeated Beloit College, 21–0. Guy Sundt scored two touchdowns for Wisconsin.
On November 9, 1918, Illinois defeated Wisconsin, 22–0, before a crowd of 7,000 at Camp Randall Field in Madison, Wisconsin. According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, the Badgers were "outclassed and outweighed" while the Illini "fought like wildcats" and had the Badgers on the defensive through most of the game.
On November 16, 1918, Minnesota defeated Wisconsin, 6–0, before a crowd of 8,000 at Northrop Field in Minneapolis. At the end of the first quarter, 30 soldiers from the Fort Snelling hospital, all of whom had been injured in the war in France, some with missing limbs, came "limping and stumping" into the stands as the crowd stood, cheered, and applauded. Gus Ekberg scored the game's only touchdown.
On November 23, 1918, Wisconsin defeated Ohio State, 14-3, in Columbus, Ohio.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, Wisconsin defeated Michigan Agricultural, 7–6, at Camp Randall Field. Michigan Agricultural took a 6–0 lead in the second quarter when Archer blocked a punt and returned it to the one-yard line; Ferris ran the final yard for touchdown. Wisconsin scored a touchdown with a minute remaining in the game, and Barr converted the extra point to give the game to the Badgers.