The Vanderbilt Commodores football team represents Vanderbilt University in the sport of American football.
Overview Early history (1890–1974)
Vanderbilt and the University of Nashville played the first college football game in the state of Tennessee in 1890. In late 1894, Vanderbilt was among the seven founding members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA). Just after the turn of the century, the team enjoyed fairly substantial success, with a composite record of 20–3–2 from 1901 –1903.
Chemistry professor William Lofland Dudley was known as the "father of Vanderbilt football." Dudley was a member of the Vanderbilt Athletic Association, formed in 1886 with Dr. W. M. Baskerville as president. Most students at Vanderbilt were members. The early sports played on the Vanderbilt campus were baseball, bicycling, and track and field events. Dudley was primarily responsible for the formation of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The first advance in the direction of its formation was in March 1888 when the Vanderbilt Athletic Association endeavored to secure track and field meets at Vanderbilt from Southwestern Presbyterian University, Sewanee, and Tennessee. Sewanee's opposition stopped it from occurring. On December 21, 1894, the SIAA was formed.Greg Roza, Football in the SEC (Southeastern Conference), p. 1, 2007, .
Vanderbilt played its first football game in 1890 at Nashville Athletic Park, against Nashville (Peabody). Vanderbilt won 40–0. Horace E. Bemis was the leading scorer. Captain and fullback Elliott Jones, who had played football before in Boston, recalled the meeting which beget the game. Dudley called for a meeting of the Athletic Association, after Peabody had issued a challenge to play a contest on Thanksgiving Day. He felt the challenge a serious matter; that the pride of the university was at stake. In front of some 150 students in the gymnasium, Dudley explained that if the challenge were met, a new era of athletics would be created with the game of football. From his Kansas City law office many years later Jones remembered: "There followed a general discussion of the whole situation. The difficulties, particularly the shortness of time for preparation, and the fact that regular football had not been theretofore played at Vanderbilt at all, were dealt upon. Many thought that it would be unfair to ourselves to hazard a contest under the circumstances. We knew that Peabody Normal had been playing intramural football for several years. The predominating note, however, for discussion was that we had never taken anything off Peabody Normal and should not do now. Finally, P. M. (Pat) Estes, then of St. Louis, made a motion to the effect that the challenge be accepted and that E. H. Jones be authorized and directed to organize and captain a team for the occasion. The motion was unanimously carried."
Of Dudley, Elliott Jones said:"Too much cannot be said about Dr. William L. Dudley in connection with early football at Vanderbilt. Since college days his picture has adored my office wall, and when asked by any one who the gentleman is, I always reply, 'The best friend of myself and every other student at Vanderbilt, in my college days.' He went with the team on every trip, and watched over us like a father.
"He was our inspiration as well as our guardian. He was our true and loyal friend, under any and all circumstances, in adversity as well in prosperity. I have never known a more lovable, more genuine friend. I cherish the memory of his friendship above all else in my college experience."
Vanderbilt's second ever game was the first instance of the Sewanee-Vanderbilt rivalry–at one time the south's oldest rivalry, on November 7, 1891. Vanderbilt won 22–0 in Sewanee, Tennessee at McGee Field. McGee Field is the oldest stadium in the south, and fourth oldest in the nation, still in use. Vanderbilt went 3–1 in 1891, playing two games each against Sewanee and Washington University in St. Louis. Its first ever loss occurred in that first game against WashU by a score of 24–6. Vanderbilt's football stadia have been named after Dudley for practically all of the program's existence. The first Dudley Field was christened on October 21, 1892 with the first instance of the Tennessee–Vanderbilt football rivalry. Vanderbilt won, 22–4. The Vanderbilt Law School presently occupies the old Dudley Field site. A second game against the Vols was played, this time in Knoxville, and Vanderbilt won 12–0. The quarterback for Vanderbilt that year, William E. Beard, dubbed the team the Commodores in the Nashville Banner in 1897. "Commodore" was the sobriquet of the university's namesake, Cornelius Vanderbilt. The 1892 season also includes Vanderbilt's first meeting with Georgia Tech. The 1892 team was the oldest team in Grantland Rice's memory. He felt Phil Connell then would be a good player in any era.
W. J. Keller took over as coach of the 1893 team, which lost only to Auburn. The includes the first meetings with Centre and rival Georgia. In 1894, Vanderbilt began one of its oldest rivalries: the Vanderbilt-Ole Miss rivalry. Vanderbilt won 40–0. The team suffered its only loss when it traveled up Louisville. In 1895, the first year of the SIAA, John Heisman's Auburn Tigers scored a touchdown with Reynolds Tichenor on a "hidden ball trick" as the Tigers seemed to run a revolving wedge. Vandy still won 9–6 in the first game in the south decided by a field goal. The 1896 team managed just a 3–2–2 record, but defeated rival Sewanee and played Kentucky (then known as Kentucky State) for the first time, a 6–0 win.
The 1897 team coached by R. G. Acton won the school's first conference championship, going 3–0 in SIAA play, and may have been the school's best team up to that point. Not a point was a scored on the Commodores. They defeated Kentucky by its largest ever margin, 50–0. Virginia had also not lost to a southern team, and faced Vanderbilt in a battle for the south to close the season. The game ended in a scoreless tie. Connell and Lucius E. Burch were prominent members of the Commodores. Connell was called by Caspar Whitney the South's finest football player. The 1898 team had a disappointing 1–5 record, including a close loss to Georgia, the first ever to the Bulldogs. Georgia quarterback Kid Huff prevented Wallace Crutchfield, at that time "the biggest man that ever played on the Vanderbilt football team," from a Vandy score. Virginia's W. A. Lambeth selected halfback Jack Dye for his All-Southern team. The 1899 team was led at quarterback by Frank Godchaux, Sr. Frank Godchaux, Jr. was the first to follow in his father's footsteps as a Vanderbilt football player.Couch, Ernie (2001). SEC Football Trivia. Thomas Nelson Inc. Sportswriter Grantland Rice was a letterman on the 1899 team. Vanderbilt did not lose to a southern team and played its first ever match with Texas, but had its season overshadowed by Sewanee's "Iron Men" squad. Lambeth selected Crutchfield All-Southern, and Sewanee coach Billy Suter selected end Walter Simmons such. The 1900 season included a lackluster 4–4–1 record and a rematch at Fair Park in Dallas with Texas at the State Fair.
The 1901 team clinched the SIAA title when it defeated University of Nashville (Peabody) 10–0 on Thanksgiving Day. The 1901 Nashville team was arguably the best in its history; it defeated Sewanee 39–6 "and mopped up with about everything else." A riot broke out downtown the next day. According to the account of the event in the Nashville Banner (repudiated in the Hustler), the trouble started when a number of Vanderbilt students "tried to paint the stone fence of the University of Nashville yellow and black." The 1901 team also defeated Georgia by the largest margin of victory in the history of the contest, 47–0. The 1902 team defeated all opponents except for Sewanee. John Edgerton starred in the backfield. The 1903 season opened with an upset loss to Cumberland, but closed strong, including a victory over Sewanee. This season was also the first in which Vandy played Alabama. Nash Buckingham said Vanderbilt and Kentucky University (today Transylvania) should rank best in the south. Vanderbilt had two All-Southerns and Rhodes Scholars in Bob Blake and John J. Tigert. Tigert was the first Rhodes Scholar ever from Tennessee. Later a prominent coach and educator, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Dan McGugin's tenure spanned the years 1904 to 1917 and 1919 to 1934 with a record of 197–55–19. McGugin won 4 straight conference titles from 1904 to 1907, and three straight from 1910 to 1912 and from 1921 to 1923. From 1910 to 1912, McGugin's teams went 24–2–1 and outscored opponents by a combined 816–35 margin. He won the school's first major intersectional contests. Sportswriter Fuzzy Woodruff once wrote "The plain facts of the business are that McGugin stood out in the South like Gulliver among the native sons of Lilliput. There was no foeman worthy of the McGugin steel.” McGugin was named to the College Football Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class. Fred Russell wrote of McGugin:
For years he ruled supreme in Dixie, and his teams won many glorious intersectional victories. More than any one man, he was responsible for the progress of southern football.... He was the first coach to successfully work the onside kick. He was among the first to bring out guards in the interference.... His name will never die.
McGugin's arrival as coach from his brother-in-law Fielding H. Yost's Michigan program in 1904 showed an immediate impact. The inaugural 1904 squad outscored its opposition by 474–4 in winning all nine games. The average of 52.7 points per game led the nation. Vanderbilt defeated Centre 97–0.
From 1903 to 1905, the Commodores outscore opponents 372–22 and posted a 22–2–1 record. In both 1905 and 1906, Vanderbilt played seven home games, winning all of them. The only loss in both cases came on the road at Michigan. The 1905 team beat Sewanee by the largest margin in school history, 68–4. The 1906 Vanderbilt team had one of the best seasons in school history, once ranked as the South's greatest team by 1905's captain Innis Brown. For some writers the 1906 Vanderbilt team made the entire All-Southern eleven. Seven of Vanderbilt's eight wins came by shutout. Only two teams scored on them all season. Vanderbilt outscored its opponents 278–16. Vanderbilt gave Texas, Sewanee, and Alabama their only loss, and defeated the Carlisle Indians 4–0, by a single Bob Blake field goal. for its first major intersectional victory, "the crowning feat of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association season." The defeat of Alabama was 78–0. Vanderbilt had its first player ever selected All-American when Owsley Manier made Walter Camp's third team.
The 1907 team tied Navy and again lost to Michigan, this time at home for the first home loss under McGugin. This snapped a 26-game home winning streak, and set a southern football attendance record of approximately 9,000. Vanderbilt faced one of Sewanee's greatest teams in its annual rivalry game which would decide the SIAA championship. It featured a 35-yard catch by Vanderbilt center Stein Stone, on a double-pass play then thrown near the end zone by Bob Blake that set up the 3-yard Honus Craig touchdown run to win at the very end. The double pass was cited by Grantland Rice as the greatest thrill he ever witnessed in his years of watching sports. McGugin in Spalding's Football Guide'''s summation of the season in the SIAA wrote "The standing. First, Vanderbilt; second, Sewanee, a mighty good second;" and that Sewanee back Aubrey Lanier "came near winning the Vanderbilt game by his brilliant dashes after receiving punts."