CFB Most Influential Programs
#10 Harvard Crimson
School: Harvard Crimson
First Game: 1873
Winning Percentage: .680
Appearances in AP/Rank: 5 (134th)
Average AP Ranking: 17
National Titles: 7 (some say 9)
Claim to Fame: Harvard was the first team to more so implement rugby style play into the American football game as opposed to the “football” the Europeans were playing. Also, the first American collegiate team to play abroad against McGill University in Canada.
Why I have them in my Collection: Harvard is one part of one of the most storied rivalry football games with Yale. Harvard, along with Yale and Princeton, were the pioneers of collegiate football. In 1905 when some in the public were calling for eradication of the sport, President Teddy Roosevelt got together representatives from Harvard, Yale and Princeton to help find ways to save the game. Teddy loved football and had relatives playing it, so he basically was begging the school's representatives to be more innovative with how the game can be played safer.
From this meeting came the predecessor to the NCAA, and the official implementation of the forward pass. Each would help open the game up a lot more, especially since the forward pass became less penalized for things such as a simple incompletion. Seriously look up old penalties for incomplete passes. It’s insane.
Prior to the AP era, Harvard was always one of the top teams, both pre 1906 and post. In fact, football's power on the whole was emanating from the northeast, something that seems almost impossible nowadays.
As you will see with all of the early giants though, as larger state schools started to take the sport more seriously, the eventual Ivy League schools would take more of a backseat. They could have fielded strong teams of course, but they did not want to give up the academic pursuits of their schools in order to do so. There’s a reason why the Ivy League offers no athletic scholarships. (Don’t worry they can find other ways to supplement players I can assure you).
It’s impossible to chronicle college football history without the Crimson. Of the “Big 3” founders, they’re certainly the least prolific in terms of national championships and sustained success, as you’ll soon see. But Harvard was the school that brought rugby style play to the United States. As a result, it is Harvard that really helped to usher in the kind of football we know and love today. Otherwise, it may have just looked like bizarro soccer, and maybe not caught on as well as it did.
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