On April 9, 1880, a Centre College team traveled to
Lexington to play against
Transylvania University in the first football game south of the
Ohio River. The first officially recognized game of Centre and the
University of Kentucky took place in 1891. In that series, the Colonels compiled a 20–13–2 record before the Kentucky athletic council decided to permanently drop Centre from their schedule after the 1929 season. At the beginning of the
Roaring '20s,
Harvard University, the nation's dominant football power, was riding a two-year undefeated streak whose last loss had been to Brown in 1918. Then the Crimson invited Centre (enrollment at that time: 264) to
Cambridge for what they thought would be a "warm-up" game, a light workout before facing
Princeton the following week. From 1917 to 1924, Centre compiled a 57–8 record while playing against some of the best teams in the nation. After the 1920 season, Centre faced
Texas Christian (TCU) in the
Fort Worth Classic. The Colonels convincingly routed them, 63–7. and Senator
Richard P. Ernst in 1921 The
1921 Centre–Harvard game resulted in one of the most shocking upsets in college football, with the Colonels winning, 6–0. The Colonels (under coach
Charley Moran) shocked Harvard and became the first school from outside the East to ever beat one of the Ivy League's "Big Three" of Harvard,
Yale, and Princeton. Star player
Bo McMillin rushed for the lone touchdown of the game early in the third quarter, and the Praying Colonels' defense held off the Crimson's powerful offense from there for a 6–0 victory, a feat that
The New York Times later dubbed "Football's Upset of the Century". The Centre College official website claims the 1921 national championship, apparently on this basis. 29 years later, in 1950, the
Associated Press chose the Centre win as the greatest sports upset of the first half of the 20th century.
ESPN described Centre's victory as one of the biggest upsets in all sports during the twentieth century. The star of that game, back
Alvin "Bo" McMillin, was twice named a consensus
All-American, in 1919 and 1921.
Center Red Weaver was named a consensus All-American alongside him in 1919. The Colonels finished the 1921 season undefeated, outscoring their opponents, 314–6. In the
Dixie Classic, precursor to the modern
Cotton Bowl Classic, Centre faced
Texas A&M. Miscues contributed to the Colonels' defeat, 22–14. This is also the game in which Texas A&M's
12th man tradition originated. On four consecutive Saturdays in
1924, the Colonels defeated Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. That same season, Centre defeated Georgia and Alabama and claims a southern title. As early as 1927, a writer noted that its glory days were short-lived as losses mounted and it fell out of the limelight. Centre again found success during the 1950s. In 1951, the Colonels finished the season with a 5–1 record and were invited to play
Northern Illinois State in the
Corn Bowl. The invitation, however, was rejected by the school administration who wished to de-emphasize football. From 1954 to 1956, Centre compiled a sixteen-game winning streak. In 1955, the undefeated Colonels were again invited to a postseason game, the
Tangerine Bowl, but once more declined. In 2011, the Colonels' final SCAC season, they finished second in the conference, but received an at-large invitation to the NCAA tournament. The Colonels defeated
Hampden–Sydney in the first round to earn their first Division III tournament win, and lost in the next round to traditional D-III powerhouse
Mount Union. The Colonels' 2014 season was arguably their most successful in decades. They won their first SAA championship and finished the regular season 10–0, marking the team's first unbeaten regular season since 1955 and only the third in school history. The season ended in the first round of the Division III playoffs against
John Carroll. ==Conference affiliations==