The 1921 Centre vs. Harvard football game was a regular-season collegiate American football game played on October 29, 1921, at Harvard Stadium in Boston, Massachusetts. The contest featured the undefeated Centre Praying Colonels, representing Centre College, and the undefeated Harvard Crimson, representing Harvard University. Centre won the game 6–0, despite entering as heavy underdogs, and the game is widely viewed as one of the largest upsets in college football history. The game is often referred to by the shorthand C6H0, after a Centre professor's remark that Harvard had been poisoned by this "impossible" chemical formula.
The teams had met for the first time in the previous year. Centre, led by Charley Moran, shocked many by taking a tie into halftime but ultimately Bob Fisher's Harvard squad took control in the second half and won the game. Centre played well enough to warrant a rematch the following year, and the Colonels, led by quarterback Bo McMillin and halfback Norris Armstrong, again found themselves tied with the Crimson at halftime. Less than two minutes into the game's third quarter, McMillin rushed for a touchdown, the only score of the game, giving the visitors a 6–0 lead. The conversion failed but the Centre defense held for the remainder of the game. Harvard threatened and even reached the Centre 3-yard line at one point but were unable to score. Regaining possession with several minutes remaining in the game, the Praying Colonels ran out the clock to secure a six-point victory and maintain their perfect record.
Once word of the victory arrived in Danville, Kentucky, Centre students began writing the "impossible formula" around campus. When team members returned two days after the game, they were received as heroes and were paraded down Main Street by a party that included Governor Edwin P. Morrow. Harvard lost its game with Princeton the following week and finished the season with a record, while Centre finished the regular season with four more wins before defeating Arizona in the 1921 San Diego East-West Christmas Classic. Centre's lone defeat came to Texas A&M in the 1922 Dixie Classic on January 2, leaving them with a 10–1 record.
Background
Recent years Football was played only informally at Harvard in 1917 and 1918 because of World War I. The team returned in 1919 under the leadership of new head coach Bob Fisher. Harvard finished their 1919 season with an undefeated record; they did not allow a point to be scored against them for the first six games of the season, until a 10–10 tie with Princeton. They went on to win the Tournament East-West Football Game against Oregon, 7–6, and were retroactively named outright national champions by two selectors, the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Houlgate System. The team continued its success in 1920, finishing the season with another undefeated record which was similarly blemished only by a tie with Princeton. The Crimson were again retroactively selected to a share of the national championship, though this time only by one selector, the Boand System, as the majority chose undefeated and untied California instead.
After an undefeated start to the decade in 1910, the Centre College football team fell on hard times and went through a stretch of four years with a losing record from 1912 to 1915.
The team rebounded with a campaign in 1917, earning shutouts in every win, in coach Charley Moran's first season. Moran had been recruited to the college by Robert L. Myers at the request of Centre president William Arthur Ganfield and brought with him several players who went on to be very impactful for Centre, including Bo McMillin, Red Weaver, and Red Roberts. All three players were named All-Americans by Walter Camp, a sportswriter of the time (and former coach) who introduced the concept of the All-America team and has since been referred to as the "father of American football". Centre finished the 1919 season undefeated and untied and were retroactively recognized by one selector, Jeff Sagarin, as the season's national champions.
They attracted attention with their win over West Virginia in November 1919; the Mountaineers had defeated Princeton, one of the Big Three and among the best teams of the time, in a shutout the week before and went on to finish the season 8–2. Centre won a further eight games in 1920 and ended the season with a 56-point win over TCU in the Fort Worth Classic.
Howard Reynolds, the sports editor at The Boston Post, was the first to come up with the idea that Harvard's football team should add Centre College to its schedule; after hearing about their 1919 win against West Virginia, he went with former Harvard halfback Eddie Mahan to scout the Colonels. After watching them defeat Georgetown College by a seventy-point margin, both men were sufficiently impressed and Centre was added to the 1920 schedule.
1920 meeting
The teams first met on October 23, 1920, at Harvard Stadium in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. Entering the game, both teams were undefeated and untied and neither Centre, in three games, nor Harvard, in four, had been scored on. Centre's team was called "the scoring machine of the football universe" by The Dayton Herald after totaling 241 points in their first three games combined. Attendance was estimated by The Dayton Herald to be at least 37,000 people (and was reported to have been as high as 45,000). Ticket sales were stopped the night before when the contest sold out and as many as 10,000 potential attendees were turned away at the gates as a result. In contrast, Centre had never played before a crowd exceeding 8,000 fans. Harvard was favored to win the game with 8-to-5 odds and had, on average, a 22-pound weight advantage over Centre's squad. Centre president William Arthur Ganfield traveled to attend the game and led the team in prayer before they took the field.
The Praying Colonels surprised many by taking a 14–14 tie into halftime. Harvard scored one touchdown in each quarter, adding a field goal in the third quarter, and held Centre scoreless in the second half to win 31–14. McMillin, Centre's quarterback, finished the game having tallied 151 rushing yards and 131 passing yards. During the game, Harvard used nine of its substitutes while Centre used three. Following the game, Harvard captain Arnold Horween offered the game ball to McMillin, who declined the ball and promised "We'll be back next year to take it home with us." The Boston Globe described the game as the most interesting to watch in Harvard Stadium's history. Centre was praised by The Boston Globe for its resiliency and unwillingness to give up. After the game, the Harvard team hosted Centre's team, coaches, and president for dinner. The visitors earned $6,000 () from the game. Despite this loss, Centre was still seen as a strong team by the sportswriter Fuzzy Woodruff, who said that they entered their next game against Georgia Tech as an "unbeatable team". Despite this, Centre ultimately lost that game 24–0.
McMillin and captain Norris Armstrong played basketball for Centre in the offseason, during which the Colonels defeated Harvard by five points. McMillin was made a Kentucky Colonel by governor Edwin P. Morrow around the same time.
Starting the 1921 season Both Centre and Harvard entered their 1921 meeting undefeated. The Colonels began their season with an October 1 home contest against Clemson, which they won 14–0; it was initially uncertain as to whether Moran, also an umpire for baseball's National League, would make it to Danville in time for the start of his season, though he arrived several days prior on September 28. Centre defeated VPI at home by the same score the following week before traveling to Cincinnati to take on St. Xavier College, a 28–6 Centre win. Centre's final game before the Harvard contest was in Lexington against the Transylvania Crimsons; the visitors led 60–0 at halftime and ultimately won by a 98–0 score. The Harvard game was Centre's third consecutive road game and the team entered with a 4–0 record.
Harvard began their season with shutout defeats of Boston University and Middlebury College as part of a doubleheader on September 24. Their next game was a 3–0 defeat of Holy Cross which saw Charles Buell score the lone points of the game on a drop kick field goal in the third quarter. The last of Harvard's four consecutive shutout victories came against Indiana by a nineteen-point margin, and they continued their winning ways against Georgia the following week by a score of 10–7. Their final game before hosting Centre was a matchup with Penn State, in which they played to a 21–21 tie.
The Centre–Harvard matchup captivated media attention in the weeks leading up to the game. On October 21, Boston Post reporter Howard Reynolds arrived in Danville. He sent reports back to Boston by telegram regularly detailing Centre's preparation and rode with the team from Danville to Boston. During the buildup, numerous publications assigned reporters to Boston, including the Louisville Herald, Louisville Evening Post, Courier Journal, Louisville Times, Kentucky Advocate, Daily Messenger, Lexington Herald, and Lexington Leader.
Players and personnel
Harvard, in the third season of Bob Fisher's tenure as head coach, was captained by R. Keith Kane. The starting offensive line for the contest with Centre consisted of left tackle Alexander Ladd, left guard Charles Hubbard, center Francis Kernan, right guard Fiske Brown, and right tackle Philip Kunhardt. Henry Janin started for the Crimson at left end and Charles Macomber started at right end. Harvard started two halfbacks: Francis Rouillard on the left and Vinton Chapin on the right. Erwin Gehrke was the starting fullback and the team's starting quarterback was Frank Johnson. Kernan, Kunhardt, Rouillard, and Gehrke were the four changes to Harvard's lineup against Penn State the previous week; they took the field against Centre in the place of Henry Clark, Alexander Ladd, George Owen, and Winthrop Churchill, respectively.
Fisher's varsity coaching staff included only former Harvard players, a practice he had implemented from the time he took the head coaching position. In total, the team had 17 coaches, including 11 assistants for the varsity squad and five coaches assigned to the freshman team. Tommy Campbell, the former North Carolina head coach and a Harvard alumnus, was the new freshman team head coach for the 1921 season. These numbers were in contrast to Centre's coaching staff, which totaled two (or three, including director of athletics Robert Myers).
Centre was led by fifth-year head coach Charley Moran; the team captain was starting right halfback Norris Armstrong. Centre's offensive line was anchored by Ed Kubale at center, with Ben Cregor and Buck Jones at tackle and guard to his left, and Minos Gordy alongside William Shadoan filling the same positions to his right. Red Roberts started at left end and Bill James was the right end. Terry Snoddy was the left halfback, alongside Armstrong at right halfback, and Hump Tanner was the fullback. The Praying Colonels offense was led by quarterback Bo McMillin. In all, 28 players made the trip and suited up for Centre. The train carrying the Centre team left Danville early on the morning of Wednesday, October 26, and saw crowds at their stops in Lexington, Cincinnati, and Columbus. They arrived in Boston on Thursday afternoon.