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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton Football Earns No. 10 Spot in Street & Smith's 50 Greatest College Football Programs
September 27, 2005 | Football
Sept. 27, 2005
The Princeton University football program has been recognized as the 10th greatest college football program of all time by Street & Smith's Specialty Publications.
Street & Smith's "50 Greatest College Football Programs of All Time," a 128-page keepsake, will be available on newsstands nationwide on Tuesday, October 4. The Princeton spread encapsulates the football team's proud history and includes such football greats as: Fritz Crisler, Dick Kazmaier and Keith Elias.
Notre Dame University tops the list, with USC, Oklahoma, Alabama and Nebraska rounding out the top five. Michigan, Yale, Ohio State, Texas and Princeton complete the top 10.
Street & Smith's graded each program's football history - reaching back to the game's origins in the 1860s - on a combination of national championships, undefeated seasons, major bowl wins and appearances, conference championships, all-time winning percentage, graduation rate, All-Americans, Heisman Trophy winners, No. 1 draft picks, NCAA infractions, and even mascot ferocity.
Despite the 1982 shift to 1-AA, the Ivy League claimed 4 schools on the list. Yale, the seventh-ranked team, led the conference but was followed closely by Princeton (10). Harvard (22) and Penn (41) finish out the top 50.
Princeton, which played the first college football game ever in 1869 against Rutgers, entered the 2005 season with 757 all-time wins and 28 national championships, including the 1922 title won by the historic "Team of Destiny." Princeton's greatest individual star, Kazmaier, won the 1951 Heisman Trophy. There have been 92 First-Team All-America selections and 26 members of the Princeton football program enshrined in the National Football Hall of Fame (21 players, five coaches).