The 1925 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1925.
Walter Camp died in March 1925, marking the end of his "official" All-American selections for Collier's Weekly. The wire services and others moved in to fill the void in 1925, with both the United Press and Associated Press offering their own All-American teams for the first time. The eight selectors recognized by the NCAA as "official" for the 1925 season are (1) the All-America Board (AAB), (2) the Associated Press (AP), (3) Collier's Weekly, with Grantland Rice replacing Camp as the selector, (4) Football World magazine, (5) the International News Service (INS), (6) Liberty magazine, (7) the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), and (8) the United Press (UP).
The only two unanimous All-Americans in 1925 were tackle Ed Weir of Nebraska and halfback Andy Oberlander of Dartmouth. Red Grange of Illinois and Bennie Oosterbaan of Michigan each received first-team designations from seven of the eight official selectors.
For the year 1925, the NCAA recognizes eight All-American teams as "official" designations for purposes of its consensus determinations. The following chart identifies the NCAA-recognized consensus All-Americans and displays which first-team designations they received.
Death of Walter Camp and calls to end the All-Americans
For more than 25 years before 1925, the selections made by Walter Camp for Collier's Weekly were considered the "official" All-American selections. With the death of Camp in March 1925, the field was open as to which selector's choices would be recognized as the "official" All-Americans.
Some advocated putting an end to the tradition of selecting All-American teams. Edward K. Hall, chairman of the inter-collegiate rules committee, advocated that position at the New York banquet honoring the New York Sun's 1925 All-Americans. Hall said, "I say with all the earnestness that is in me that I hope this is the last dinner to an all-American team that will ever be held in America." Hall argued that such selections place an over-emphasis on the importance of individual players in a team sport. Hall also denounced as a menace the manner in which professional football promoters were luring college players to play professional football for "easy money and quick money."
Despite the calls of some for the end to All-American teams, the death of Walter Camp did not bring an end to the tradition. Instead, Camp's death led to a proliferation of yet more experts naming their own All-American teams.
Even Ring Lardner jumped into the All-American mix in 1925 offering a satirical All-American team consisting of Red Grange at quarterback with Lardner, his friends and family members (men and women, elderly and children) filling out the remaining spots. Lardner wrote: "As soon as you have Grange and a center to pass him the ball you don't need or want no more football players and can take advantage of the opportunity to fill out other positions with relatives and congenial friends." Frank Getty of the United News Service wrote: “Now that All-American teams, All-Eastern teams, All-Conference teams and All-Colored teams for 1925 have been picked by everyone including the janitor, the janitor’s boy and Natalia Crane it’s about time to admit that it’s a futile practice. At best. No one is qualified to select an All-American team on his own, because no one can watch more than one game each Saturday during the season, nor see more than eight or nine games at the most.”
One of the major developments in 1925 was the rise of All-American teams selected by wire services based on polls of sports writers and coaches across the country.
In late November 1925, University of Michigan coach Fielding H. Yost publicly advocated a new system. Yost opined that the selection was not a job to be undertaken by any individual or any group of football experts. Yost said: "As Walter Camp has stated to me more than once, during the last five years of his life, this job of selecting an All-American was growing more and more difficult because of the great number of good football men in America."
Both the United Press and Associated Press named All-American teams in 1925. United Press sports editor Henry L. Farrell described the service's purpose in entering the All-American business: "The average season consists of from eight to ten Saturdays and it is a physical impossibility for any one to see more than one game and it is likewise impossible for any human with ordinary vision equipment to see in action all the good teams in the country." For that reason, Farrell announced that he had submitted questionnaires to 75 leading coaches and officials and picked a team based on those results.
Bennie Oosterbaan, Michigan (AAB-1; AP-1; COL-1; FW; INS; NEA; UP; A&S-1; BE-1; NB-1; RKN; Sun-1; WC; WE–1, BEHR)
George Tully, Dartmouth (AP-1; COL-3; INS; LIB; NEA; UP; A&S-1; BE-1; NB-1; Sun–1; SW; WE-2, BEHR)
George Thayer, Pennsylvania (AP-2; COL-1; WE-3; RKN; Sun-2, BEHR)
Charles F. Born, Army (AAB-1; AP-2; BE-2; Sun–2; WC)
Dick Romey, Iowa (COL-2; LIB)
Ted Sloane, Drake (AAB-2; FW; WE-3, BEHR)
LaVern Dilweg, Marquette (WE–1)
Cookie Cunningham, Ohio State (HR)
Henry Baxter, Army (HR)
Chuck Kassel, Illinois (AAB-3; COL-2; BE-2; WE-2, BEHR)
Ted Shipkey, Stanford (AAB-2; NB-2; SW, BEHR)
Vic Hanson, Syracuse (AP-3)
J. G. Lowe, Tennessee (AP-3, BEHR)
Carl Bacchus, Missouri (COL-3)
Edwards, Washington & Jefferson (NB-2)
Ray Wagner, Columbia (AAB-3)
Gus Merkle, Georgia Tech (BEHR)
Adams, USC (BEHR)
Ed Weir, Nebraska (AAB-1; AP-1; COL-1; FW; INS; LIB; NEA; UP; A&S-1; BE-1; HR; NB-1; RKN; Sun–1; WC; WE–1, BEHR)
Ralph E. Chase, Pittsburgh (AAB-1; AP-1; COL-1; FW; BE-2; Sun-2; WE-2, BEHR)
Nathan Parker, Dartmouth (AAB-3; AP-2; COL-2; UP; Sun-2; WE-2, BEHR)
Harry Hawkins, Michigan (FW [guard]; AAB-3; WE-3, BEHR)
Johnny Joss, Yale (LIB; BE-2; NB-2; Sun–1, BEHR)
Ed Lindenmeyer, Missouri (AAB-2; AP-2; COL-3; INS; NEA; A&S-1; BE-2; RKN; SW; WE-3, BEHR)
Tom Edwards, Michigan (AP-3; COL-2; NB-2; WE–1)
Henderson, Chicago (NB-1)
Rip Bachor, Detroit (HR)
Hector Cyre, Gonzaga (AP-3)
Walden Erickson, Washington (COL-3, BEHR)
Bud Sprague, Army (AAB-2; SW)
Goldy Goldstein, Florida (BEHR)
Bob Rives, Vanderbilt (BEHR)
Sargent, California (BEHR)
McMannon, Notre Dame (BEHR)
Carl Diehl, Dartmouth (AAB-1; AP-1; COL-1; FW; INS; UP; BE-2; NB-1; Sun–1; SW; WC; WE-1, BEHR)
Ed Hess, Ohio State (AAB-2; AP-2; COL-1; LIB; NEA; UP; A&S-1; BE-1; NB-1; HR; WE-2, BEHR)
Herbert Sturhahn, Yale (AAB-1; AP-1; COL-1; RKN [center]; Sun–1; WC; WE-1, BEHR)
Brice Taylor, USC (FW; SW)
Dana Carey, California (AAB-2; AP-3; COL-2; LIB; NB-2)
Emerson Carey, Cornell (A&S-1)
Ed McMillan, Princeton (BE-1)
Walter Mahan, West Virginia (AP-3; AAB-3; WE-3; BE-2, BEHR)
Bill Buckler, Alabama (AP-2; WE-3, BEHR)
Kilgore, Harvard (Sun–2; NB-2)
Len Walsh, Minnesota (WE–2)
August William Lentz, Jr., Navy (Sun–2)
Walt Godwin, Georgia Tech. (COL-2; RKN, BEHR)
Ray J. Stipek, Wisconsin (COL-3)
Zeke Wissinger, Pittsburgh (AAB-3)
Merwin Mitterwallner, Illinois (HR)
Ernest Schmidt, Army (RKN)
Bernie Shively, Illinois (BEHR)
Swan, Stanford (BEHR)
Brix, Washington (BEHR)
Taylor, USC (BEHR)
Smith, Notre Dame (BEHR)
Ed McMillan, Princeton (AAB-1; AP-1; COL-1; NEA; UP; HR; NB-2; Sun–1; WC; WE-1; WC, BEHR)
Robert Brown, Michigan (AP-2; COL-2; INS; LIB; NEA; A&S-1; BE-1; NB-1; Sun-2; SW, BEHR)
Tim Lowry, Northwestern (AAB-2; COL-3; FW; BE-2; WE-3, BEHR)
Harold Hutchinson (Hutchison), Nebraska (AP-3; WE–2)
Jeff Cravath, USC(AAB-3, BEHR)
Amos Kent, Sewanee (BEHR)
Benny Friedman, Michigan (AAB-1; AP-2; COL-2; LIB; UP; BE-2; RKN; Sun–1; SW; WE–2, BEHR)
George Pease, Columbia (Sun–2)
Kenny Hyde, Colorado Aggies (AP-3)
Lester Lautenschlaeger (College Football Hall of Fame), Tulane (COL-3)
Morley Drury, U.S.C. (AAB-3, BEHR [as hb])
George Guttormsen, Washington (BEHR)
Bill Kelly, Montana (BEHR)
Edgar C. Jones, Florida (BEHR)
Graham, Fordham (BEHR)
Andy Oberlander, Dartmouth (AAB-1; AP-1; COL-1; FW; INS; LIB; NEA; UP; A&S-1; BE-1; HR; NB-1; RKN; Sun–1; SW; WC; WE-1, BEHR)
Red Grange, Illinois (AAB-2 [hb]; AP-1 [qb]; COL-1 [qb]; FW; INS; LIB; NEA; UP [hb]; A&S-1; BE-1 [qb]; HR [qb]; NB-1 [qb]; RKN [qb]; Sun-1 [fb]; SW [qb]; WC [qb]; WE–1 [hb], BEHR)
Wildcat Wilson, Washington (AAB-1; AP-1; COL-1; FW [hb], INS; BE-2; HR [qb]; RKN [qb]; WC; WE-1 [hb], BEHR)
Eddie Tryon, Colgate (AAB-3; AP-2; COL-2; FW; A&S-1; BE-2; NB-2; Sun-1; SW; WE-2, BEHR)
Peggy Flournoy, Tulane (AAB-2; AP-2; COL-3; NEA; BE-1; HR [qb]; NB-1; WE–3 [qb], BEHR)
Jackson Keefer, Brown (AP-3; COL-3; WE-3)
Ralph Baker, Northwestern (NB-2)
Al Kreuz, Penn (Sun–2, BEHR)
Johnny Mack Brown, Alabama (AP-3, BEHR)
Doyle Harmon, Wisconsin (WE–3)
Christie Flanagan, Notre Dame (BEHR)
Austin "Five Yards" McCarty, Chicago (BEHR)
Ernie Nevers, Stanford (AAB-1; AP-1; COL–1; INS; LIB; NEA; A&S-1; BE-1; NB-1; WC; WE-1, BEHR)
Jacob Slagle, Princeton (AAB-2 [qb]; AP-2; COL-2 [hb]; UP; BE-2; Sun–2 [hb]; WE-2 [hb], BEHR)
Allison "Pooley" Hubert (College Football Hall of Fame), Alabama (COL-2, AAB-2 [hb]; WE-2, NB-2 [qb], BEHR [qb])
Tony Plansky, Georgetown (AAB-3 [as hb]; COL-3; Sun–2, BEHR)
Elmer Tesreau, Washington (AP-3; AAB-3, BEHR)
Bo Molenda, Michigan (NB-2)
Rex Enright, Notre Dame (WE–3)
Herb Joesting, Minnesota (BEHR)
Loren L. Lewis, Northwestern (BEHR)
Doug Wycoff, Georgia Tech (BEHR)
Windy White, VMI (BEHR)
Andy Gustafson, Pitt (BEHR)
Bold = Consensus All-Americans
-1 – First-team selection
-2 – Second-team selection
-3 – Third-team selection
UP = United Press based on interviews and questionnaires submitted to 75 coaches and officials
AP = Associated Press teams "from country-wide opinions"
COL = Collier's Weekly as selected by Grantland Rice
AAB = The All-America Board; the Christy Walsh Syndicate asked an Inter-Sectional Board of Football Coaches made up of Tad Jones of Yale, Knute Rockne of Notre Dame and Glenn "Pop" Warner of Stanford to deliberate and select an All-American team
FW = Football Writers Association of America
INS = International News Service
LIB = Liberty magazine
NEA = Newspaper Enterprise Association
A&S = Athlete and Sportsman magazine, selections made based on the votes of 228 leading football coaches, as canvassed by Jim Thorpe, Charles Paddock, and James Fetzer.
Sun = New York Sun
WC = Walter Camp Football Foundation
WE = selected by Walter Eckersall, football critic of the Chicago Tribune
BE = Billy Evans
NB = Norman E. Brown
HR = Herbert Reed
RKN = Knute Rockne
SW = Sam Willaman
BEHR = Billy Evans's "National Honor Roll"
