1921 Centre vs. Harvard football game

Recent years Football was played only informally at Harvard in 1917 and 1918 because of World War I. The team returned in 1919 under the leadership of new head coach Bob Fisher. Harvard finished their 1919 season with an undefeated record; they did not allow a point to be scored against them for the first six games of the season, until a 10–10 tie with Princeton. They went on to win the Tournament East-West Football Game against Oregon, 7–6, and were retroactively named outright national champions by two selectors, the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Houlgate System. The team continued its success in 1920, finishing the season with another undefeated record which was similarly blemished only by a tie with Princeton. The Crimson were again retroactively selected to a share of the national championship, though this time only by one selector, the Boand System, as the majority chose undefeated and untied California instead. The team rebounded with a campaign in 1917, earning shutouts in every win, a sportswriter of the time (and former coach) who introduced the concept of the All-America team and has since been referred to as the "father of American football". Centre finished the 1919 season undefeated and untied and were retroactively recognized by one selector, Jeff Sagarin, as the season's national champions. in a shutout the week before and went on to finish the season 8–2. Centre won a further eight games in 1920 and ended the season with a 56-point win over TCU in the Fort Worth Classic. Howard Reynolds, the sports editor at The Boston Post, was the first to come up with the idea that Harvard's football team should add Centre College to its schedule; after hearing about their 1919 win against West Virginia, he went with former Harvard halfback Eddie Mahan to scout the Colonels. After watching them defeat Georgetown College by a seventy-point margin, both men were sufficiently impressed and Centre was added to the 1920 schedule. 1920 meeting The teams first met on October 23, 1920, Entering the game, both teams were undefeated and untied and neither Centre, in three games, nor Harvard, in four, had been scored on. Centre's team was called "the scoring machine of the football universe" by The Dayton Herald after totaling 241 points in their first three games combined. Attendance was estimated by The Dayton Herald to be at least 37,000 people (and was reported to have been as high as 45,000). Ticket sales were stopped the night before when the contest sold out and as many as 10,000 potential attendees were turned away at the gates as a result. In contrast, Centre had never played before a crowd exceeding 8,000 fans. Harvard was favored to win the game with 8-to-5 odds and had, on average, a 22-pound weight advantage over Centre's squad. During the game, Harvard used nine of its substitutes while Centre used three. Following the game, Harvard captain Arnold Horween offered the game ball to McMillin, who declined the ball and promised "We'll be back next year to take it home with us." The Boston Globe described the game as the most interesting to watch in Harvard Stadium's history. Centre was praised by The Boston Globe for its resiliency and unwillingness to give up. After the game, the Harvard team hosted Centre's team, coaches, and president for dinner. McMillin was made a Kentucky Colonel by governor Edwin P. Morrow around the same time. it was initially uncertain as to whether Moran, also an umpire for baseball's National League, would make it to Danville in time for the start of his season, though he arrived several days prior on September 28. Centre defeated VPI at home by the same score the following week before traveling to Cincinnati to take on St. Xavier College, a 28–6 Centre win. Centre's final game before the Harvard contest was in Lexington against the Transylvania Crimsons; the visitors led 60–0 at halftime and ultimately won by a 98–0 score. The Harvard game was Centre's third consecutive road game and the team entered with a 4–0 record. Their next game was a 3–0 defeat of Holy Cross which saw Charles Buell score the lone points of the game on a drop kick field goal in the third quarter. The last of Harvard's four consecutive shutout victories came against Indiana by a nineteen-point margin, and they continued their winning ways against Georgia the following week by a score of 10–7. Their final game before hosting Centre was a matchup with Penn State, in which they played to a 21–21 tie. The Centre–Harvard matchup captivated media attention in the weeks leading up to the game. On October 21, Boston Post reporter Howard Reynolds arrived in Danville. He sent reports back to Boston by telegram regularly detailing Centre's preparation and rode with the team from Danville to Boston. During the buildup, numerous publications assigned reporters to Boston, including the Louisville Herald, Louisville Evening Post, Courier Journal, Louisville Times, Kentucky Advocate, Daily Messenger, Lexington Herald, and Lexington Leader. ==Players and personnel==

Harvard, in the third season of Bob Fisher's tenure as head coach, was captained by R. Keith Kane. The starting offensive line for the contest with Centre consisted of left tackle Alexander Ladd, left guard Charles Hubbard, center Francis Kernan, right guard Fiske Brown, and right tackle Philip Kunhardt. Henry Janin started for the Crimson at left end and Charles Macomber started at right end. Harvard started two halfbacks: Francis Rouillard on the left and Vinton Chapin on the right. Erwin Gehrke was the starting fullback and the team's starting quarterback was Frank Johnson. Kernan, Kunhardt, Rouillard, and Gehrke were the four changes to Harvard's lineup against Penn State the previous week; they took the field against Centre in the place of Henry Clark, Alexander Ladd, George Owen, and Winthrop Churchill, respectively. Fisher's varsity coaching staff included only former Harvard players, a practice he had implemented from the time he took the head coaching position. In total, the team had 17 coaches, including 11 assistants for the varsity squad and five coaches assigned to the freshman team. Tommy Campbell, the former North Carolina head coach and a Harvard alumnus, was the new freshman team head coach for the 1921 season. These numbers were in contrast to Centre's coaching staff, which totaled two (or three, including director of athletics Robert Myers). Centre was led by fifth-year head coach Charley Moran; the team captain was starting right halfback Norris Armstrong. Centre's offensive line was anchored by Ed Kubale at center, with Ben Cregor and Buck Jones at tackle and guard to his left, and Minos Gordy alongside William Shadoan filling the same positions to his right. Red Roberts started at left end and Bill James was the right end. Terry Snoddy was the left halfback, alongside Armstrong at right halfback, and Hump Tanner was the fullback. The Praying Colonels offense was led by quarterback Bo McMillin. In all, 28 players made the trip and suited up for Centre. The train carrying the Centre team left Danville early on the morning of Wednesday, October 26, and saw crowds at their stops in Lexington, Cincinnati, and Columbus. They arrived in Boston on Thursday afternoon. The Colonels experienced some changes in their squad compared to the year prior, including the departure of center Red Weaver, a 1919 consensus All-American, for a coaching job at New River State College (now West Virginia Tech). Additionally, Centre was unable to field punter and end Ed "Lefty" Whitnell for the contest due to his poor grades; rather than travel with the team anyway, he stayed in Danville and announced game updates at a local theater as they were received from Boston. Several weeks before the game, Ganfield announced that he was resigning as president so that he could take the presidency of Carroll College. However, his Carroll contract stipulated that he would not leave Centre before the Harvard game and so his resignation took effect on December 1, 1921. ==Game summary==

The contest was refereed by R. W. Maxwell. Maxwell and Crowell, both from Swarthmore College, had also been part of the officiating crew for the Centre–Harvard game the year prior. Entering the contest, sportswriters and pundits gave Harvard 3-to-1 odds to win, though some felt that Centre had a better chance to win than they had the year prior, especially given the improved play of their offensive line. The Crimson entered on a 25-game undefeated streak, Tickets sold for $2 apiece (). The game began at 2:30 p.m. ET. In the early stages of the game, neither team was able to sustain an offensive attack. Harvard's opening kickoff resulted in a touchback, giving Centre the ball for the first offensive series of the game at their own 20-yard line. In the Crimson's first possession of the second quarter, they reached the Centre 11-yard line by way of a forward pass followed by a series of repeated dives. Unable to reach the end zone, they settled for a 22-yard field goal attempt from Charles Buell which was too low. Centre fumbled soon after but regained possession following another failed field goal attempt by Buell, though this time from a distance of 37 yards. The Praying Colonels did not have sufficient time to complete an entire series before the end of the second quarter, and the halftime score was 0–0. It was then handed to future Kentucky governor Happy Chandler, a former Transylvania University football player attending the game while a student at Harvard Law School, who carried it safely away from the crowd. Around ten thousand fans descended from the stands and gathered on the field after the game. The goal posts were torn down in celebration by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who were in attendance to support Centre. ==Aftermath==

Game analysis McMillin was praised by The Danville Daily Messenger in their recap of the game. Harvard ran only four different plays on offense, all described as having been "not at all intricate", and did not change their strategy even after falling behind. They started more of their bench players than usual, though all except three of their usual starters ended up recording game time; Centre's win brought profit to its team in addition to pride; McMillin and several other players had placed large bets on themselves in the days before the game and had sent another Centre student, Gus King, to Boston the week prior to do the same. A reporter with the Courier Journal said that McMillin had more money with him on the train home than would have been present in a small bank and lineman George Chinn remarked that he had never seen so much money in one place. the Superintendent of Education, Morrow later remarked that he would "rather be Bo McMillin at this moment than the governor of Kentucky" and The Advocate-Messenger declared McMillin the "hero of [the] football world" the following week. The phrase by which the game is most commonly known, "C6H0", originated from a comment made by a Centre professor shortly following the game: that Harvard had been "poisoned" by the organic compound with that formula. It stuck, and students painted the so-called "impossible formula" all around Danville, Their second postseason contest was the Dixie Classic to be played against Texas A&M at Fair Park Stadium in Dallas. McMillin was married on the morning of that game; the wedding was attended by members of the Centre team who afterwards went to the stadium to play. A&M held a 2–0 lead through halftime and scored three touchdowns in the second half to secure a 22–14 victory which itself was called "one of the biggest upsets of the football season" by the New-York Tribune. This game is also remembered as the birth of Texas A&M's "12th man" tradition after a former member of the A&M football team who was in the press box was called down to suit up by head coach Dana X. Bible, though he ultimately did not play. Centre, as a result of the loss, concluded their season with a 10–1 record and cumulatively outscored their opponents by a margin of 334 to 28. Harvard's loss to Centre turned out to be the first of back-to-back defeats for the Crimson, as they fell by a seven-point margin to Princeton the following week in their first and only game of the season played away from Harvard Stadium. Their schedule concluded with wins over Brown, by two points, and Yale, by seven, leaving them with a record of 7–2–1. They finished having outscored their opponents 101 to 54. A third Centre–Harvard game had been proposed in the locker room right after the end of the second game by Fred Moore, a graduate manager for the Harvard, who handed Moran $10,000 () as an offer. He accepted, and Centre and Harvard met for a third and final time on October 21, 1922, again at Harvard Stadium. The Crimson won this game, 24–10, finishing a two-games-to-one series win for the home team. Harvard jumped out to an early advantage and had a 21–0 lead after the first quarter. they held the lead after each team scored a field goal in the second quarter and the visitors concluded the scoring with a fourth-quarter touchdown. ==Legacy==

in 2011. The game also ranked No. 126 on an ESPN list of the 150 greatest college football games of all time, released in 2019. In recaps of the game from the early 21st century, Centre's win over Harvard has been compared to upsets of programs such as USC and Alabama. When asked about the prospect of a rematch, Harvard head coach Tim Murphy did not show interest, saying that his team would have "nothing to gain and everything to lose". ==Notes==