Suvarna Garge (Editor)

1920 college football season

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Total # of teams
  
96

Number of bowls
  
2

1920 college football season

Champions
  
California Golden Bears Princeton Tigers

The 1920 NCAA football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing California, Georgia, Harvard, Notre Dame, and Princeton as national champions. Only California and Princeton claim national championships for the 1920 season. Andy Smith's Pacific Coast Conference champion California "Wonder Team" was the first national champion from the Pacific Coast. Princeton and Harvard were undefeated and with one tie to each other. Notre Dame was led by its first Walter Camp All-American, George Gipp, who died before the year was over.

Contents

In the south, fans of either side in Georgia were happy. Georgia and Georgia Tech were both undefeated in Southern play. Georgia Tech lost to Pitt, which was undefeated with two ties. No team scored through Georgia's line, and its backfield was known as the "ten second backfield". Jimmy Leech of VMI's "Flying Squadron" led the nation in scoring. One writer claimed "he is one of the greatest broken field runners the country has ever seen."

In the Rose Bowl, Cal defeated Ohio State 28-0. Brick Muller completed a 53-yard touchdown pass to Brodie Stephens after receiving a toss from Pesky Sprott, at the time thought impossible.

Conference establishments

  • Two new conferences began play in 1920:
  • Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – an active NCAA Division III conference
  • Tri-Normal League – active until 1984; later known as the Washington Intercollegiate Conference and Evergreen Conference
  • Other Bowls

    The first and only Fort Worth Classic was held on January 1, 1921, with Centre defeating TCU.

    Conference standings

    The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

    All-Americans

    The consensus All-America team included:

    Statistical leaders

  • Player scoring most points: Jimmy Leech, VMI, 210
  • Player scoring most touchdowns, Jimmy Leech, 26
  • Total offense leader: Jimmy Leech, 1771
  • Rushing yards leader: Jimmy Leech, 1723
  • Rushing avg leader: Buck Flowers, Georgia Tech, 10.2
  • Receptions leader: Eddie Anderson, Notre Dame, 17
  • Receiving yards leader: Eddie Anderson, 293
  • References

    1920 college football season Wikipedia