Georgia Tech's 222-0 Victory: The Most Lopsided Game in College Football History

On October seventh, nineteen sixteen, Georgia Tech does something that will probably never be seen again, winning the most lopsided victory in college football history, beating the Cumberland Bulldogs two hundred and twenty two to zero in what was a revenged game from for Georgia Tech's legendary coach John Heisman, who we're going to dive into how this crazy game happened and why on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history and increase your sports knowledge. And today's trivia question to listen out for is how many passes did Georgia Tech throw in this legendary game. Now, this game featured one of the most famous, most honored college football coaches ever in John Heisman. That name probably sounds familiar, as the Heisman Trophy is given out to the best player every year in college football and is named after John Heisman. He was an innovator in the sport, helping it become what it looks like today, including creating quarters for the game and the forward pass, and his coaching career featured some predominant universities in today's college football worlds as he coached at Auburn, Clemson, and Georgia Tech where this story takes place. Now, interestingly enough, he didn't just coach football. At this time, many schools couldn't afford to have a coach for every single sport, so they would hire one coach to coach all their sports, and so he also coached baseball, which was very popular at the time as well. Now, he wasn't as successful as a baseball coach as he was in football, but during his time with Georgia Tech, he actually had a sixty two percent winning percentage, so not great, but not bad either, and they only won their conference one year during his thirteen years coaching the team. And the Georgia Tech baseball team actually is one of the reasons why this historic football game took place. See Cumberland College was a Presbyterian school located in Tennessee. In the baseball season prior to this, Cumberland was going to play a game versus Georgia Tech, and they actually went out and hired minor league baseball players, some of which who had played in the majors, to face off against Georgia Tech to show how strong their baseball team was and they destroyed Georgia Tech on the field, scoring twenty two to zero. And this stuck with John Heisman, who had scheduled Cumberland College already for the next football season. But Cumberland College had disbanded their football program due to challenges of finding an adequated coach and the team quitting. But they had already had an agreement scheduled, and Heisman told Cumberland College they would have to pay three thousand dollars if they failed to show up. So Cumberland College took whoever they could down to play against Georgia Tech, which mainly included the school's baseball team and anyone they could find that was willing to play a game against Georgia Tech, who at the time was one of the best football teams in the nation, as Georgia Tech was in the middle of three straight seasons where they didn't lose a game, and the following year they would actually win the national title. So imagine you and a group of friends get together and go to take on Alabama or Texas. Chances are it's not going to end well. And that's exactly what happened in this game, and it wasn't just that Georgia Tech dominated. It was a comedy of errors and issues and things that could only be described if you watch the movie Little Giants, as multiple players from Cumberland literally ran off the field due to being scared from the other team. One player was even chased off the field by a wild dog. Other players would just throw the ball up or give the ball to Georgia Tech as they feared to get tackled. Georgia Tech dominated in the first quarter. They led sixty three to zero. They would score on defense on special teams in offense despite not throwing a single pass in this game. By halftime, it was one hundred and twenty six to zero, and at this time Cumberland College came over and asked John Heisman if they could shorten the game as it was way out of reach, but they didn't. John said, yes, we can shorten it. We'll take five minutes off each quarter. And that still didn't stop, as they added fifty four points in the third quarter and forty two in the final period. There was one play in the second half where Cumberland College had a chance to actually score, as on a kickoff, Georgia Tech team actually outran the kick and when Cumberland College player was able to catch it, there was no Georgia Tech player in front of him, it was daylight, and he would go on to trip over his own player who was looking for his glasses that had fallen during the play. That was the most positive play of the day, as Cumberland College would commit fifteen turnovers, which included nine fumbles in six interceptions. They would complete a total two passes for fourteen yards and have a rushing output of negative forty two yards, where Georgia Tech completed zero passes despite the fact that John Heisman invented the forward pass, and they would go on to rush twenty six times for nine hundred and twenty two yards and thirty two touchdowns. But Georgia Tech was not perfect, as they did miss a couple of extra points, including the last one of the game. Georgia Tech had just scored and taken the lead to two hundred and twenty two when they were going about to kick an extra point and Cumberland College came out of nowhere and ran the latter play, which involves jumping on top of other players to block the kick, which they did. They blocked the kick to give the game it's iconic two hundred and twenty two to zero. Now, prior to this game, the highest college football game prior to this was when the Florida Gators beat Florida Southern one hundred and forty four to zero. The most recent team to score over one hundred happened in two thousand and three when Rockford beat Trinity Bible one oh five to zero. Now, Cumberland would disband its football team after this, but they would go on eventually to Readinstate it but they would go to the NAIA level, whereas Georgia Tech continued their rise and was part of SEC until nineteen sixty four when they joined the ACC where they currently stand today. And after this and in nineteen twenty, John Heisman would leave Georgia Tech to move back to his home in Pennsylvania, coach Penn for three years and would finish out his career coaching Washington and Jefferson and Rice and be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in nineteen fifty four in this second class that was ever inducted. And in nineteen sixty three, two months after Heisman died, the Downtown Athletic Association named their trophy for the best player in college football after John Heisman, which is still done to this day. And if you want to learn more about Georgia Tech and all the ACC has to provide, check out ACC Nation, where hosts Will and Jim takes you through all you need to know about the ACC and what makes the conference great. And if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe wherever you're listening. That way you never miss an episode. And come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. And did you catch today's trivia question? How many passes did Georgia Tech throw during this outlandish game where they won two hundred and twenty two to zero in The answer is zero passes, despite the fact that John Heisman, their coach, created the forward pass