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When Bulldogism Reigned Supreme

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The first full-time coach at Yale, Walter Camp, was one of the founding fathers of college football, and it was under his guidance that the Bulldogs (as they became known in 1889) became the gold standard of the gridiron, compiling a nearly perfect 68 and 2 mark and setting the background for all those Frank Merriwell stories which were soon to inspire legions of boys throughout the land. But Camp actually coached for only five years (1888-1892), and after that, over the next 29 years the Eli went through a prodigious total of 22 coaches! Not that this interfered much with their success, as unbeaten or once-beaten seasons were far more the rule than the exception during this stretch. Nevertheless, in 1920 Thomas A.D. ("Tad") Jones was hired, and lasted for eight years. And with past being prologue, the Bulldogs continued their dominance of the gridiron. All of which is to say that this victory over the always-powerful Army team was no upset. The magnificent Theodore Diedrickson cover drawn for this program calls attention to the close links that Yale and Army had during those years. It must be remembered that during the World Wars the fields of battle were filled with Yale men, their accomplishments filling entire books of tribute.