1916 Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech football game


Cumberland Bulldogs Georgia Tech Engineers

Date: October 7, 1916
Season: 1916
Stadium: Grant Field
Location: Atlanta

The 1916 Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech football game was played on October 7, 1916, between the Cumberland College Bulldogs and the Georgia Tech Engineers on the Engineers' home field of Grant Field in Atlanta. Georgia Tech defeated the Bulldogs 222–0 for the most lopsided score in the history of college American football.

Cumberland had disbanded its football program the previous year but was still obligated to play this game against Georgia Tech. The Engineers' head coach, John Heisman, had been the coach of Georgia Tech's baseball team when it was defeated 22–0 by the Bulldogs earlier in 1916, and was looking to avenge that game. Heisman insisted that the Bulldogs fulfill their obligations to play the game and threatened legal action if Cumberland backed out. Cumberland tasked George E. Allen, its baseball captain, to assemble a football team for the game; he recruited his fraternity brothers and students from Cumberland's law school to play in Atlanta.

Despite receiving the opening kickoff, Cumberland never achieved a first down in the entire match and opted to punt on multiple possessions; the game's infamous score can be partially attributed to 97 percent of the game's plays occurring in Cumberland territory, with 64 of those plays occurring in its red zone. Georgia Tech, instigated by Heisman, scored on every first down it gained. The imbalance of the teams was so severe that the final two quarters were shortened from their customary 15 minutes to 12 minutes.

This would be the last matchup of any sport between the two schools; Cumberland deemphasized athletics in favor of academic pursuits, while Georgia Tech has continued to compete at the highest level of college sports. Current National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) rules preclude a rematch of this game. After World War II, it became regarded as unsportsmanlike to deliberately run up the score to such high numbers, meaning that college football games of more than 100 points have been infrequent since the 1940s.

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