USD Football 1994

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T HIS IS T H E T H IRD IN A SERIES OF ARTICLES COMMEM ORATING COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S 125TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON. TIME

BY LARRY ELDRIDGE JR

E very year the debate rages: Who's number one? Posturing among players, coaches, fans, and even journalists begins long before the first kickoff of the season, and the resolution isn't always clea r until the dust from the final bowl games has settled. Sometimes, it isn't even clear then. If it's that hard to settle on the best team in any given year, what about the best team ever?Can any- one possibly identify the greatest team of all time? No. It's just as impossible to select a definitive list of the top 20 teams of all time. Comparing the 1993 Florida State Seminoles or the I969 Texas

The 1905 Michigan Wolverines, with a record of 12-1 , outscored their opposi- tion by a count of 495- 2 . However, their one loss was the only one experienced by a Michi-

Longhorns to the I889 Yale Bulldogs or the 1934 Minnesota Gophers is like comparing watermel- ons to guavas. It shouldn't be done. But since college football is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, it's a good time to sit back and reflect on a cross section of the truly great teams in the history of the game- teams that were the best of their day. Sifting through the record books to earmark college football's juggernauts of the 1800s leads one consistently back to Yale, Harvard, and Princeton.That triumvirate set the tempo in foot- ball's early going, with the mightiest teams com- ing most often coming from New Haven. continued

gan team between 1901 and 1905.