1916 Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech football game

Cumberland College, a Presbyterian school in Lebanon, Tennessee, had discontinued its football program before the season but was not allowed to cancel its game against the Yellow Jackets. Another reason for Heisman's plan to run up the score was the practice among the sportswriters of the time to rank teams based upon how many points they scored. Since this statistic did not account for the strength or weakness of a team's opponent, Heisman disagreed with the amount of weight the writers tended to assign to it, and he may have unleashed his players on Cumberland to make his point. Heisman insisted on the schools' scheduling agreement, which required Cumberland to pay $3,000 () to Tech if its football team failed to show. In fact, Heisman actually paid Cumberland $500 () as an incentive to play the game; his letter to Cumberland's athletic department read in part: George E. Allen (who was elected to serve as Cumberland's football team student manager after first serving as the baseball team student manager) therefore put together a scrub team of 12–16 players, most of whom were his fraternity brothers or law students, to travel to Atlanta as Cumberland's football team. ==The game==

Cumberland received the opening kickoff and failed to make a first down. After a punt, the Yellow Jackets scored on their first play. Cumberland then fumbled on their next play from the line of scrimmage, and a Georgia Tech player returned the fumble for a touchdown. Cumberland's only effective defense was an extra point blocked with a sort of human pyramid known as the "climb-the-ladder" play, topped with Vichy Woods, who suffered a gruesome facial injury on the play. At halftime, Heisman reportedly told his players, "You're doing all right, team, we're ahead. But you just can't tell what those Cumberland players have up their sleeves. They may spring a surprise. Be alert, men! Hit 'em clean, but hit 'em hard!" However, even Heisman relented, and shortened the third and fourth quarters from 15 minutes to 12. Statistics :These statistics are based on the play-by-play transcript and may be incomplete. Summary == Records ==

The previous records for highest score in a football game had been set in 1913: 159–0, won by Newberry against BMI, and 144–0, won by the Florida Gators against Florida Southern. In the preceding 45 years of college football, only 36 games had exceeded 100 points, and only seven of those were against teams also from a college. Georgia Tech's defeat of Cumberland College was so lopsided that their halftime score of 126–0 still holds significance. Had the game ended at halftime as a game today, it would still have ranked as the highest-scoring collegiate football game since West Liberty State defeated Cedarville 137–0 on November 19, 1932. In modern times, the last instance of a team almost scoring Georgia Tech's halftime total in a full game occurred on October 22, 1949, when Connecticut defeated Newport NTS 125–0. ==Legacy==

The game ball had the score written on it as a memento. It was donated to the Helms Athletic Foundation sports museum by Bill Schroeder, an avid sports collector. When the museum moved in the 1980s, the ball was boxed and remained in storage. In 2014, Ryan Schneider, a Georgia Tech alumnus, purchased the ball in a charity auction for $40,388 ($33,657 without buyer's premium) with the intention of donating it back to Georgia Tech. In October 1956, a 40th reunion was held for players from both teams, of whom 28 attended. While reminiscing, one of the Cumberland players pointed out one play that saved Cumberland from an even worse defeat; had Cumberland punted as normal instead of running a sneak, the score would probably have been 229–0. While Cumberland's football team would eventually be restarted full-time (and change its nickname to the Phoenix in 2016), the two schools have not met in any sports since: Cumberland would eventually de-emphasize athletics, and currently competes in the NAIA, while Georgia Tech would go on to be a founding member of the Southeastern Conference before departing the SEC in 1964, and is currently a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. In any case, current NCAA rules only allow Division III schools to compete against NAIA schools. ==See also==