1950 Princeton Tigers football team explained

Year:1950
Team:Princeton Tigers
Sport:football
Conference:Independent
Coachrank:8
Aprank:6
Record:9–0
Head Coach:Charlie Caldwell
Hc Year:6th
Off Scheme:Unbalanced single-wing
Captain:George A. Chandler
Stadium:Palmer Stadium
Champion:National champion (Poling System, Boand System)
Eastern champion

The 1950 Princeton Tigers football team represented Princeton University in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) intercollegiate competition during the 1950 season. The Tigers were led by sixth-year head coach Charlie Caldwell, a future College Football Hall of Fame inductee, who utilized an "unbalanced" version of the single-wing formation.[1]

The Princeton offense, which made use of the buck-lateral series, was one of the last successful employers of the single-wing formation, which had been made obsolete by the modernized T formation.[2] The team ranked second nationally in total offense (433.7 yards per game), rushing offense (325.4 yards per game), and rushing defense (67.9 yards per game).[3]

Princeton finished with a perfect undefeated record of 9–0, and the Tigers outscored their opponents 349–94. Against other future Ivy League teams, Princeton compiled a 5–0 record.[4]

Some selectors named Princeton the national champions, most notably the NCAA-recognized Poling System and Boand System.[5] Princeton was ranked sixth in the Associated Press and eighth in the United Press final polls. After the season, Tigers halfback Dick Kazmaier, tackle Holland Donan, and center Redmond Finney received first-team All-America honors.[6] Kazmaier and Donan were eventually inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Notes and References

  1. http://www.coachwyatt.com/singlewing.html A Very Brief Look at "the" Single-Wing
  2. Masin, Herman L., [It Fit the Millennium To A T! http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-27450841_ITM], Coach and Athletic Director, 2000, retrieved August 14, 2010.
  3. Book: Official Collegiate Football Record Book. 1951. National Collegiate Athletic Association. 35, 38.
  4. Web site: 1950 Princeton Tigers Schedule and Results. Sports Reference LLC. SR/College Football. February 27, 2017.
  5. "National Poll Champions", 2007 NCAA Division I Football Records Book (PDF), p. 77, National Collegiate Athletic Association, 2007. Accessed 2009-06-19. Archived 2009-06-22.
  6. ESPN College Football Encyclopedia, p. 1218, New York: ESPN Books, 2005, .