Penn Quakers (1916)

A while back, I wrote about the 1915 Cornell team that claims a national title, and also posted some images from the Thanksgiving game against Penn, which wore some, ahem, very unusual numbers on the back. Well, let's hit the FF button a year to 1916, when the Quakers still wore those uniforms en route to their first and only Rose Bowl appearance.

The 1916 Penn Quakers.

As noted in that previous post, Penn's numbers look very primitive, as block-style numbers were still a few years away. Thus, the graphic above has numbers that look like they were drawn with MacPaint in 1991. The rest of the uniform, however, looks like good ol' Penn, with striped sleeves and socks. It appears the helmets and pants were of a brownish-tan hue, but since we lack color pictures from that season, we may never know for sure. 😎

A smattering of Penn players, from a 1916 program. 

The Quakers had several notable players. The quarterback was Bert Bell, who later became commissioner of the NFL and guided the league to steady growth in the 1950s, setting the stage for its world dominance in the '60s. Bert's dad, a Penn grad, was the Pennsylvania attorney general; legend has it that when asked where his son would go to school, he replied, "Bert will go to Penn, or he will go to hell." 

The one and only Bert Bell, as a Penn assistant
in the early 1920s.

The right tackle was Lou Little, a transfer from Vermont (!) who went on to coach Columbia for many years, highlighted by a Rose Bowl win over Stanford. Halfback Joe Berry was a two-time All-American who played a bit for the New York (baseball) Giants in the early 1920s. Another All-American, end Heinie Miller, later played in the early NFL and was a longtime college coach.

The head coach was Bob Folwell, a former Penn halfback who compiled a 109-31-9 record as a college coach. He later became the answer to a trivia question: Who was the first head coach in the history of the New York (football) Giants? After leaving Penn in 1920, he was replaced by some guy named Heisman. 

Despite the array of talent, it was the Quakers' fate to be on the wrong side of history. Penn went 7-2-1 in the regular season, with the only blemishes being a tie with Dartmouth and losses to Swarthmore (undefeated since 2001, if you catch my drift) and Pittsburgh. According to TipTop 25, the New York Times ranked Penn fifth among all Eastern teams in a December poll. But the Quakers still earned a Rose Bowl invite, only to lose to the underdog Oregon Webfoots (yes, that's what they were called -- someone needs to bring that back), 14-0, in a game that established the West as a major football region. You can read more about this landmark game here.

Penn improved to 9-2 in 1917, its highest win total until the 1986 team went 10-0. But until the Ivy League decides to get into modern times and enter the NCAA FCS tournament, this remains the only Quaker team to play in the postseason.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Bert Bell's son Upton Bell,
who had a colorful career in the front offices of the Baltimore Colts and
New England Patriots before a long career in talk radio. He even owned a team in
the old World Football League!