Factoid 31 - College Football: 1890 to 1899

Fifty-nine schools would add Division One college football to their sports programs in the 1880s.

In the 1890s some of the schools that added football to their sports program and would go on to become football powerhouses were: the Texas Longhorns; the Alabama Crimson Tide; the LSU Tigers; and The Ohio State University Buckeyes.

As far as who won the championship over the decade, there were often shared number one rankings and no clear cut winners. Each of the following schools claimed at least one title in this decade: Princeton (5); Yale (6); Harvard (3); Penn (3); and the Lafayette Maroon (1).

The Lafayette Maroon may not be so familiar to FBS fans nowadays; the team represents Lafayette College in Easton, PA. It is a private, co-educational liberal arts and engineering college with Presbyterian religious affiliation. Their football program started in 1882. They played as an independent until 1928 and then in the unofficial Middle Three conference, along with Rutgers and Lehigh being the other members.

The Lafayette Maroon was a powerhouse football team in its time, claiming three national titles in the years 1896, 1921, and 1926. They also won their leagues various times and had stellar seasons. In 1975, they moved down to the Division II where they played as an independent, suffering the same fate as the Ivy League schools: unable to compete with the large public and private universities that have football as a priority. Presently they play in the Patriot League.