1900 Stanford football team

1900 Stanford football
Conference Independent
1900 record 7–2–1
Head coach Fielding H. Yost

The 1900 Stanford football team represented Stanford University in the 1900 college football season. The team was coached by Fielding H. Yost in his first and only season.[1] The team played its home games at Stanford, California.[2][3]

Season summary

While coaching Stanford, Yost also coached at State Normal, now known as San Jose State University. The two teams met twice during the season, the beginning of a long-running rivalry series.[1]

The next season, Yost was hired as head coach at Michigan where he coached for 25 years, amassing six national championships along the way. In his first season with the Wolverines, he faced Stanford in the first-ever postseason college football game, defeating Stanford 49–0.[1]

Schedule

Date Opponent Site Result
September 29 Reliance Club Stanford, CA W 6–0  
October 10 at State Normal Cyclers' Park • San Jose, CA (Rivalry) W 35–0  
October 13 vs. Reliance Club San Francisco, CA W 6–0  
October 20 State Normal Stanford, CA (Rivalry) W 24–0  
October 26 Stanford Alumni Stanford, CA L 0–14  
November 3 Reliance Club Stanford, CA W 44–0  
November 10 Oregon Stanford, CA W 34–0  
November 17 Nevada Stanford, CA L 0–6  
November 29 vs. California 16th and Folsom Street Grounds • San Francisco, CA (10th Big Game) W 5–0  
December 25 at Multnomah AC Multnomah Field • Portland, OR T 0–0  

Game notes

California

See also: 1900 California Golden Bears football team and Big Game (American football)
Stanford center and backs preparing for the California game in 1900

The 1900 Big Game was the 10th edition of the annual rivalry game between Stanford and California. Stanford won 5–0, but the game is notable primarily due to a horrific accident that occurred among the spectators. The game, which had been played on Thanksgiving Day for several years running, had become a very popular event. In 1900, the game was played at the 16th and Folsom Street Grounds, in the midst of an industrial area of San Francisco. 19,000 spectators filled the stands, the largest crowd to witness a sporting event west of the Mississippi River.[4] Many spectators chose not to pay the $1 admission and instead observed the game from the roof of the San Francisco and Pacific Glass Works across the street from the stands. During the game, the weight of hundreds of spectators caused the roof to collapse, plunging a large group of primarily boys and young men to the concrete floor and active furnaces of the glass factory. In all, 22 died and many more were injured, some seriously.[4][5][6][7] The "Thanksgiving Day Disaster" remains the deadliest accident ever at a U.S. sporting event.[4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Migdol, Gary (1997). Stanford: Home of Champions. Sports Publishing LLC. p. 27. ISBN 1-57167-116-1. Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Stanford Game-by-Game Results; 1900–1904". College Football Data Warehouse. Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Stanford Football Media Guide" (PDF). Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Eskanazi, Joe (August 15, 2012). "Sudden Death: Boys Fell to Their Doom in S.F.'s Forgotten Disaster". San Francisco Weekly. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Spectators Fell Into Molten Glass: Thirteen Dead, One Hundred Injured by Collapse of a Roof Overlooking the Stanford-Berkeley Game at San Francisco". The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review. November 30, 1900. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Death Reaps a Dread Harvest of Lives and Plunges City into Gloom". The San Francisco Call. November 30, 1900. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Twenty Score Persons Make Awful Plunge: Seventeen People Meet Most Awful Death: Two San Jose Men Die Amid Sizzling Shrieking Human Mass in Collapsed Factory at Big Game". The (San Jose) Evening News. November 30, 1900. Retrieved June 23, 2014.