1.
Pittsburgh Panthers football
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The Pittsburgh Panthers football is the intercollegiate football team of the University of Pittsburgh, often referred to as Pitt, located in Pittsburgh. As of the 2013 season, Pitt competes as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Pitt has claimed nine national championships and is among the top 20 college football programs in terms of all-time wins. The Panthers are currently coached by Pat Narduzzi, a 130-pound WUP student, Bert Smyers, along with senior student John Scott, assembled a football team that year composed of only three players who had previously witnessed the sport. The team played in one game, a loss against Shady Side Academy, in which Smyers made himself quarterback. In Smyers case, his uniform was pieced together by his mother and sister, the first official game for the university was played on October 11,1890, when the Allegheny Athletic Associations opponent, Shadyside Academy, failed to appear for its game at Exposition Park. Allegheny A. A. called Smyers who brought the WUP team as a replacement, in an inglorious start to Pitt football history, WUP was defeated 38–0. Smyers team next faced Washington and Jefferson College, losing 32–0, the following season saw the university collect more losses en route to a 2–5 record. Smyers suffered a nose in a 40–6 loss to Washington and Jefferson. Perhaps the most important development for the season of football was Smyers recruitment of Joseph Trees from Normal University of Pennsylvania. The 210 pound Trees became WUPs first subsidized athlete and, later in life, made millions in the oil industry and became an important benefactor for the university and athletic department. Today, Trees Hall, a facility on the University of Pittsburghs main campus in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The first winning record for the university came in the season of competition in 1892. The following season in 1893, the team had its first official coach, Anson F. Harrold, who led the team to an unremarkable 1–4 record. However, during that season the first contest was played in what would become a 96-game series versus Penn State, in 1895, the school suffered a 1–6 season under coach J. P. Linn. The 1895 season was notable for the first Backyard Brawl on October 26,1895, with WUP losing to West Virginia 8–0 in Wheeling, the university did not see another winning season until Fred Robinson led WUP to a 5–2–1 record in 1898. In 1899, Robinson continued his success with a 3–1–1 record and this was followed by two more consecutive winning seasons, including a record seven-win season in 1901 under coach Wilbur Hockensmith. That season, Hockensmith led the school to its first victory over West Virginia, in the early years of the 20th century, interest in college football grew both in Pittsburgh and throughout the nation. In 1903, Arthur St. Leger Texas Mosse was hired away from the University of Kansas, other players were recruited from surrounding Western Pennsylvania colleges, including star half back Joseph H. Thompson
2.
Parke H. Davis
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Parke Hill Davis was an American football player, coach, and historian who retroactively named national championship teams in American college football from the 1869 through the 1932 seasons. He also named co-national champions at the conclusion of the 1933 season, Davis selections are included in the NCAAs official football record books, as the only championship teams chosen on the basis of research. Davis was a lineman for Princeton and a member of the Tigers tug-of-war team in 1889 before going on to coach at Wisconsin, Amherst and Lafayette and he displayed an admirable range of talents. The biggest win of the 1896 season came in Philadelphia against Pennsylvania on October 24, a standout for Lafayette was a newcomer named Fielding Hurry Up Yost. Yost began playing football at West Virginia University in 1894 at the age of 23, a 6-foot, 200-pounder, Yost was a star tackle at WVU into the 1896 season. He transferred in mid-season to join what would be Coach Davis national championship team, true to his nickname, just a week after playing against Davis in West Virginia, Hurry Up was playing for Davis in Lafayettes historic 6–4 win over the Quakers. The fortuitous timing of Yosts appearance on the Lafayette roster did not go unnoticed by Penn officials and they called it the Yost affair. The Philadelphia Ledger quoted Yost as saying that he came to Lafayette only to play football, the fact that Yost appeared in a Lafayette uniform only once. In the Penn game… and that he returned to West Virginia within two weeks of the contest, Yost assured all concerned that he would return to Lafayette for at least three years of study. But 1897 found Hurry Up no longer a student or a player, in 1901, he was hired as head coach at the University of Michigan, beginning a storied 25-year, Hall of Fame career. After concluding his own career as a football coach, Davis became a prominent attorney in Easton, Pennsylvania. He lived there the rest of his life, in the October 1900 meeting of the Lafayette Democratic Club, Davis was the orator of the evening, after the group unanimously endorsed the national ticket of William Jennings Bryan. The ex-coach and loyal supporter of athletics of Lafayette served as an umpire in football games and as starter at the colleges track meets. Davis wrote an history of American football in 1911, tracing the sports origins to ancient times. abundant evidence may be marshalled to prove that this is the oldest outdoor game in existence. In the 22nd chapter of Isaiah is found the verse, He will turn and he helped select the 1913 College Football All-America Team while serving as Princetons representative on the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee. He served on the Rules Committee from 1909 to 1915, playing a key role in shaping the evolution of the game. Among the innovations with which he is credited are the division of the game into quarters, numbering of players, abolition of inter-locked interference, if the fumble is recovered behind an opponents goal line the ball shall be put in play at the point where it was fumbled. Davis was a friend and admirer of Walter Camp, Father of American Football, in a 1926 authorized biography of Camp, author Harford Powel, Jr
3.
Pop Warner
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Glenn Scobey Warner, most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game. Included among his innovations are the single and double wing formations, fellow pioneer coach Amos Alonzo Stagg called Warner one of the excellent creators. He was inducted as a coach into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of its class in 1951. He also contributed to a football program which became known as Pop Warner Little Scholars. In the early 1900s, he created a football program at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School—a federally-funded. He also coached teams to four championships, Pittsburgh in 1915,1916. Predating Bear Bryant and Bobby Bowden, he once had the most wins of any coach in football history. Warner was born April 5,1871 on a farm in Springville and he was the son of William Warner, a cavalry officer in the American Civil War, and schoolteacher Adaline Scobey. In 1878 a railroad came to Springville, and four years later the moved to a house on East Main Street. Plump as a child, Warner was sometimes known as Butter and he began playing baseball at an early age, and was a skilled pitcher. Nobody in town owned a football, his exposure to the new sport at a young age was with an inflated cows bladder, and as few knew the rules. Warners East Main Street house attracted a number of friends, when a neighbor told his mother that the play would damage her lawn, she replied, Im raising boys. Aside from ranching, Warner got a job assisting a tinsmith and he was already interested in art as a kid — learning how to paint watercolor landscapes, and as a tinsmith he learned how to use tools to make cups, teapots, baking pans as well as lanterns. In 1892, Warner returned to Springville and began to use his experience to gamble on horse races. Although he had no interest in college, soon after coming back he was forced to attend Cornell Universitys law school. Later Warner wrote I dare not write to my father and tell him I was broke — he felt that the way to get funds was to inform his father that he decided to study law. His father, who had wanted him to be a lawyer. Eventually, Warner became known as Pop because he was one of the oldest students at Cornell, at the end of 1894, Warner left Cornell and began working as an attorney in Buffalo, New York
4.
Single-wing formation
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In American and Canadian football, a single-wing formation, created by Glenn Pop Warner, was a precursor to the modern spread or shotgun formation. The term usually connotes formations in which the snap is tossed rather than handed—formations with one wingback, the single wing was superior to the T formation in its ability to get an extra eligible receiver down field. Traditionally, the single-wing was a formation that featured a core of four backs including a tailback, a fullback, a quarterback. Linemen were set unbalanced, or simply put, there were two linemen on one side and four on the side of the center. This was done by moving the off-side guard or tackle to the strong side, the single-wing was one of the first formations attempting to trick the defense instead of over-powering it. Pop Warner referred to his new scheme as the Carlisle formation because he formulated most of the offense while coaching the Carlisle Indians. The term single-wing came into use after spectators noticed that the formation gave the appearance of a wing-shape. In 1907, Warner coached at Carlisle, a school for Native Americans, the first was the discovery of Jim Thorpes raw athletic ability. The second was the use of a passing game that relied on the spiraled ball. Finally, faking backs who started one way, but abruptly headed the opposite way, because Jim Thorpe had so much raw talent, Coach Warner more than likely designed much of his single-wing offense around this gifted athlete. Thorpe, the triple threat, was a good runner, passer. For much of the history of the formation, players were expected to play on both sides of the ball. Consequently, offensive players often turned around to play a corresponding location on defense, the offensive backs played defensive backs, just as the offensive linemen played defensive linemen. Unlike teams of today, single-wing teams had few specialists who only played on certain downs, college football playbooks prior to the 1950s were dominated with permutations of the traditional single-wing envisioned by Warner. Two-time All-American Jack Crains handwritten playbook clearly denotes how the University of Texas ran their version of the single-wing circa 1939-1940, University of Texas Coach Dana X. Bible ran a line, which means that there were the same numbers of linemen on each side of the center. Also, the ends were slightly split, slightly splitting offensive ends, called flexing, was in widespread use by Notre Dames Box variation of the single-wing. Knute Rocknes Notre Dame Box offense employed a balanced line, which had 3 linemen on each side of the center, another Rockne innovation was a shifting backfield that attempted to confuse the defense by moving backs to alternate positions right before the snap
5.
Forbes Field
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Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28,1970. It was the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The stadium also served as the football field for the University of Pittsburgh Pitt Panthers from 1909 to 1924. The stadium was named after British general John Forbes, who fought in the French and Indian War, the US$1 million project was initiated by Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss, with the goal of replacing his franchises then-current home, Exposition Park. The stadium was made of concrete and steel in order to increase its lifespan, the Pirates opened Forbes Field on June 30,1909, against the Chicago Cubs, and would play the final game that was also against the Cubs on June 28,1970. The field itself featured a playing surface, with the batting cage placed in the deepest part of center field during games. Seating was altered multiple times throughout the life, at times fans were permitted to sit on the grass in the outfield during overflow crowds. The Pirates won three World Series while at Forbes Field and the original tenant, the Pittsburgh Panthers football team had five undefeated seasons before moving in 1924. Some remnants of the ballpark still stand, surrounded by the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, in 1903, Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss began to look for ground to build a larger capacity replacement for the teams then-current home, Exposition Park. Dreyfuss purchased seven acres of land near the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, adjacent to Schenley Park, with assistance from his friend, the low-priced land was selected so Dreyfuss could spend more on the stadium itself. Dreyfuss signed a contract that he would make the ballpark, of a design that would harmonize with the other structures in the Schenley Park district. The site was initially labeled Dreyfusss Folly due to its long distance—a 10-minute trolley ride—from downtown Pittsburgh, official Pirates records show that Forbes Field cost US$1 million for site acquisition and construction, however some estimates place the cost at twice that amount. Charles Wellford Leavitt, Jr. was contracted to design the stadiums grandstand, a civil engineer, Leavitt had founded an engineering and landscape architecture firm in 1897. He had gained experience in steel and concrete constructs while designing the Belmont, based on Dreyfuss architectural requirements, Leavitt presented a plan for Forbes Field—the only ballpark he would design. Initial work on the land began on January 1,1909, nicola Building Company built the stadium in 122 days and play began less than four months after ground was broken, on June 30. The facade of the stadium featured buff-colored terra cotta spelling out PAC for the Pittsburgh Athletic Company, the light green steelwork contrasted with the red slate of the roof. Some members of the press urged Dreyfuss to name the stadium after himself, however, the owner decided on Forbes Field, in honor of General John Forbes, who captured Fort Duquesne from the French in 1758 and rebuilt a new Fort Pitt at the site. In 1935, after Dreyfuss death, there was renewed media interest in renaming the stadium Dreyfuss Field, however, a monument to Dreyfuss was placed in center field just in front of the wall
6.
1916 Pittsburgh Panthers football team
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The 1916 Pittsburgh Panthers football team represented the University of Pittsburgh in the 1916 college football season. Led by coach Pop Warner, the Panthers were undefeated on the season with an 8–0 record and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 255 to 25. The 1916 team was led by center Robert Peck, Pitts first First Team All-American, also on that team were Jock Sutherland and H. C. Doc Carlson who would go on to become perhaps Pitts most legendary coaches in football and basketball and this Pitt Panthers football team was given the nickname The greatest eleven in the world. The 1916 team was selected or recognized as champions by multiple selectors which are recognized as major in the official NCAA football records book. The are the selectors that determined Pitt to be champions in 1916. * A major selector that was national scope according to the official NCAA football records book, James P. Herron, end Bob Peck, center Clifford Carlson, end Claude Tiny Thornhill, guard James DeHart, quarterback Andy Hastings, halfback Bold - Consensus All-American
