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Out of sheer boredom, I started reading up on football participation in other countries outside of North America - which lead me to reading about football in the Olympics. Football was played at the Olympics twice - once in 1904 and once in 1932, both as demonstration sports.
The information on the 1904 football showcase at the Olympics is sparse and contradictory at best - but it's very interesting nonetheless. From what I can gather, the St. Louis World's Fair hosted the first Olympics outside of Europe in 1904. The games were held at Francis Field on the campus of Washington University. Both Washington University and St. Louis University lobbied for an Olympic football championship, but were denied.
Both schools elected to play their seasons from teams across the country as part of the Olympics/World's Fair. SLU would go undefeated and be declared the "Olympic World's Champions." (The NCAA recognizes Minnesota, Michigan, and Penn as the national champions for that season). SLU would become the first college team in 1906 to incorporate a successful forward pass, before discontinuing the program all together in 1949.
There are records of 13 games being played at Francis Field between September 28 and November 26 - which includes Washington University's 11-game home season, a game between Purdue and Missouri, and most famously - the first game held between Carlisle and Haskell. These 13 games are considered to be Olympic demonstrations, even though their official status is somewhat questionable. Washington went 4-7.
There is also not much information about Drury University football out there - it's not even mentioned on DU's Wikipedia article. I found this article from the student newspaper. Drury fielded a football team from 1890-1932. The rumor for the cancellation is that a player sustained a fatal injury from playing, and as a result a wealthy alum offered to donate $1,000,000 to the school if the team was cut. The reality is the team was cut due to financial constraints thanks to the Great Depression. Revival efforts in the '40s fell short, and it was never heard from again.
In the fourth game of Washington University's 1904 season at Francis Field, they faced Drury University during the Olympic showcase - winning easily 38-0.
The other colleges to participate were:
-Shurtleff College (absorbed by Southern Illinois University in 1958)
-Rose Polytechnic Institute (renamed Rose-Hullman Polytechnic Institute, still has football at the DIII level)
-Illinois
-Sewanee (currently DIII)
-Indiana
-Missouri
-Texas
-Kansas
-West Virginia
-Haskell (was a boarding school at the time, achieved university status in 1993, fielded football from 1895-1938 and from 1990-2015)
-Carlisle (another boarding school that existed from 1879-1918, never was a college but routinely dominated the top college programs at the time)
Washington University still fields a football program at the DIII level, and still plays at Francis Field 117 years later.
Anyway, I thought that was interesting. Here are the scores for the games for those interested:
American football at the Summer Olympics - Wikipedia
The information on the 1904 football showcase at the Olympics is sparse and contradictory at best - but it's very interesting nonetheless. From what I can gather, the St. Louis World's Fair hosted the first Olympics outside of Europe in 1904. The games were held at Francis Field on the campus of Washington University. Both Washington University and St. Louis University lobbied for an Olympic football championship, but were denied.
Both schools elected to play their seasons from teams across the country as part of the Olympics/World's Fair. SLU would go undefeated and be declared the "Olympic World's Champions." (The NCAA recognizes Minnesota, Michigan, and Penn as the national champions for that season). SLU would become the first college team in 1906 to incorporate a successful forward pass, before discontinuing the program all together in 1949.
There are records of 13 games being played at Francis Field between September 28 and November 26 - which includes Washington University's 11-game home season, a game between Purdue and Missouri, and most famously - the first game held between Carlisle and Haskell. These 13 games are considered to be Olympic demonstrations, even though their official status is somewhat questionable. Washington went 4-7.
There is also not much information about Drury University football out there - it's not even mentioned on DU's Wikipedia article. I found this article from the student newspaper. Drury fielded a football team from 1890-1932. The rumor for the cancellation is that a player sustained a fatal injury from playing, and as a result a wealthy alum offered to donate $1,000,000 to the school if the team was cut. The reality is the team was cut due to financial constraints thanks to the Great Depression. Revival efforts in the '40s fell short, and it was never heard from again.
In the fourth game of Washington University's 1904 season at Francis Field, they faced Drury University during the Olympic showcase - winning easily 38-0.
The other colleges to participate were:
-Shurtleff College (absorbed by Southern Illinois University in 1958)
-Rose Polytechnic Institute (renamed Rose-Hullman Polytechnic Institute, still has football at the DIII level)
-Illinois
-Sewanee (currently DIII)
-Indiana
-Missouri
-Texas
-Kansas
-West Virginia
-Haskell (was a boarding school at the time, achieved university status in 1993, fielded football from 1895-1938 and from 1990-2015)
-Carlisle (another boarding school that existed from 1879-1918, never was a college but routinely dominated the top college programs at the time)
Washington University still fields a football program at the DIII level, and still plays at Francis Field 117 years later.
Anyway, I thought that was interesting. Here are the scores for the games for those interested:
American football at the Summer Olympics - Wikipedia
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