The Most Lopsided Game In Georgia History
November 21, 2024 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
More than a century ago, Georgia took the field against tiny Alabama Presbyterian College and played one of the most lopsided games in college football history. On Oct. 4, 1913, on Sanford Field, the Bulldogs won 108-0.
"The Red and Black had but little opposition during the whole game," reported The Red and Black student newspaper after what was then the biggest blowout in the program's short history — and remains so 111 years later.
Sure, Georgia's win that day was nothing compared to Georgia Tech's 220-0 thrashing of Cumberland three years later, the biggest blowout ever, but 108 points are still 108 points. And it is one of two wins in program history by more than 100. The other, a 101-0 win over Locust Grove Institute, came a few years earlier, in 1910, on Herty Field.
Georgia's 1913 team, coached by W.A. Cunningham, featured a star in senior captain Bob McWhorter, who became the program's first All-American that season. McWhorter, the talented back, had three touchdowns in the first quarter against Alabama Presbyterian, per The Red and Black article, and Georgia led 27-0 after the opening period. McWhorter was also on the 1910 team that put up 101 against Locust Grove.
"Projecting players across eras is extremely difficult to do in football, but Bob McWhorter is one of the very few players from before World War I who could feasibly play — and be successful — in today's game," said Jason Hasty, the UGA athletics historian at the Hargrett Library.
[Note: The timing of this story isn't meant to convey that the No. 10-ranked Bulldogs, who host a 2-8 UMass team Saturday, could or would wallop the Minutemen by anything approaching triple digits. This just seemed like a good week to take a look back at an interesting bit of history.]
By halftime of the rout, Georgia, which wouldn't start calling itself the Bulldogs until the 1920 season, led 47-0. Things only got more lopsided in the second half as overmatched Alabama Presbyterian, which took the train over the morning of the contest, according to The Athens Banner newspaper's preview, struggled to do much of anything against Georgia. And for good reason.
Alabama Presbyterian College, whose nickname was the memorable Predestinarians, or Preds, was located in Anniston and operated from 1905-18. It was later turned into a prep school and renamed Anniston University School before closing in 1923.
The college, which averaged about 75 students a year, had football and baseball teams throughout its existence, according to the website lostcolleges.com, and the football program played games against both colleges and high schools. Georgia played the Preds twice, in 1911 and 1913. The Bulldogs won by a comparatively modest score of 51-0 in 1911.
In The Athens Banner preview, the write-up claims that "the reports that come from A.P.C. are indicatory of a lively scrap and Georgia is not to have a walk-a-way as it might seem." Well, not so much. This was about as "walk-a-way" as a game gets.
"During the last quarter practically every man was given an opportunity," The Red and Black wrote. "The new men piled up more scores than had been made during any quarter."
Cunningham, who was also the men's basketball coach, led the football team from 1910-19 and had a record of 43-18-9. After 13 coaches in 18 seasons since the program was founded in 1892, Cunningham's arrival brought stability to the program.
His arrival also brought McWhorter, who was playing baseball and football for him at Gordon Military Institute. Together, they elevated the football program to new heights — and not just because they smoked some very overmatched teams like Alabama Presbyterian, Locust Grove and Gordon College, which the Bulldogs blasted 79-0 in 1910.
Like comparing the Wright Brothers' first plane to modern jet fighters, college football and collegiate sports are unrecognizable compared to 111 years ago.
"College athletics in the early 1900s were administered in a radically different way than they are today, especially outside of the Ivy League schools," Hasty said. "Instead of large corporate structures to administer college sports, athletics at the collegiate level were mostly student led. Faculty, in Georgia's case Steadman Sanford, had growing influence over the management of teams, but students still did much of the day-to-day work of determining schedules, keeping the books, and arranging transportation to other campuses."
And a lot of transportation was necessary. Of the eight games Georgia played in 1913, going 6-2, only three were in Athens: Alabama Presbyterian, North Georgia (or Dahlonega Military School, depending on where you look) and North Carolina. Georgia played Alabama in Birmingham, Clemson in Augusta, Georgia Tech at Grant Field in Atlanta, and Virginia and Auburn at Ponce de Leon Park in Atlanta.
In that sense, the 2024 season has a little in common with 1913. This year's Bulldogs began their season against Clemson in Atlanta and had played just three games at Sanford Stadium before last week's big win over Tennessee, going 35 days between home games. After Saturday's game against the Minutemen, the Bulldogs wrap up their regular season on Dooley Field against Georgia Tech on Nov. 29.
Back in 2017, Hasty produced an exhibit — Covered With Glory: Football at UGA, 1892-1917 — that was on display at the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries Building. The link to the digital version is here: https://gado.gs/cdl.
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Staff Writer
More than a century ago, Georgia took the field against tiny Alabama Presbyterian College and played one of the most lopsided games in college football history. On Oct. 4, 1913, on Sanford Field, the Bulldogs won 108-0.
"The Red and Black had but little opposition during the whole game," reported The Red and Black student newspaper after what was then the biggest blowout in the program's short history — and remains so 111 years later.
Sure, Georgia's win that day was nothing compared to Georgia Tech's 220-0 thrashing of Cumberland three years later, the biggest blowout ever, but 108 points are still 108 points. And it is one of two wins in program history by more than 100. The other, a 101-0 win over Locust Grove Institute, came a few years earlier, in 1910, on Herty Field.
Georgia's 1913 team, coached by W.A. Cunningham, featured a star in senior captain Bob McWhorter, who became the program's first All-American that season. McWhorter, the talented back, had three touchdowns in the first quarter against Alabama Presbyterian, per The Red and Black article, and Georgia led 27-0 after the opening period. McWhorter was also on the 1910 team that put up 101 against Locust Grove.
"Projecting players across eras is extremely difficult to do in football, but Bob McWhorter is one of the very few players from before World War I who could feasibly play — and be successful — in today's game," said Jason Hasty, the UGA athletics historian at the Hargrett Library.
[Note: The timing of this story isn't meant to convey that the No. 10-ranked Bulldogs, who host a 2-8 UMass team Saturday, could or would wallop the Minutemen by anything approaching triple digits. This just seemed like a good week to take a look back at an interesting bit of history.]
By halftime of the rout, Georgia, which wouldn't start calling itself the Bulldogs until the 1920 season, led 47-0. Things only got more lopsided in the second half as overmatched Alabama Presbyterian, which took the train over the morning of the contest, according to The Athens Banner newspaper's preview, struggled to do much of anything against Georgia. And for good reason.
Alabama Presbyterian College, whose nickname was the memorable Predestinarians, or Preds, was located in Anniston and operated from 1905-18. It was later turned into a prep school and renamed Anniston University School before closing in 1923.
The college, which averaged about 75 students a year, had football and baseball teams throughout its existence, according to the website lostcolleges.com, and the football program played games against both colleges and high schools. Georgia played the Preds twice, in 1911 and 1913. The Bulldogs won by a comparatively modest score of 51-0 in 1911.
In The Athens Banner preview, the write-up claims that "the reports that come from A.P.C. are indicatory of a lively scrap and Georgia is not to have a walk-a-way as it might seem." Well, not so much. This was about as "walk-a-way" as a game gets.
"During the last quarter practically every man was given an opportunity," The Red and Black wrote. "The new men piled up more scores than had been made during any quarter."
Cunningham, who was also the men's basketball coach, led the football team from 1910-19 and had a record of 43-18-9. After 13 coaches in 18 seasons since the program was founded in 1892, Cunningham's arrival brought stability to the program.
His arrival also brought McWhorter, who was playing baseball and football for him at Gordon Military Institute. Together, they elevated the football program to new heights — and not just because they smoked some very overmatched teams like Alabama Presbyterian, Locust Grove and Gordon College, which the Bulldogs blasted 79-0 in 1910.
Like comparing the Wright Brothers' first plane to modern jet fighters, college football and collegiate sports are unrecognizable compared to 111 years ago.
"College athletics in the early 1900s were administered in a radically different way than they are today, especially outside of the Ivy League schools," Hasty said. "Instead of large corporate structures to administer college sports, athletics at the collegiate level were mostly student led. Faculty, in Georgia's case Steadman Sanford, had growing influence over the management of teams, but students still did much of the day-to-day work of determining schedules, keeping the books, and arranging transportation to other campuses."
And a lot of transportation was necessary. Of the eight games Georgia played in 1913, going 6-2, only three were in Athens: Alabama Presbyterian, North Georgia (or Dahlonega Military School, depending on where you look) and North Carolina. Georgia played Alabama in Birmingham, Clemson in Augusta, Georgia Tech at Grant Field in Atlanta, and Virginia and Auburn at Ponce de Leon Park in Atlanta.
In that sense, the 2024 season has a little in common with 1913. This year's Bulldogs began their season against Clemson in Atlanta and had played just three games at Sanford Stadium before last week's big win over Tennessee, going 35 days between home games. After Saturday's game against the Minutemen, the Bulldogs wrap up their regular season on Dooley Field against Georgia Tech on Nov. 29.
Back in 2017, Hasty produced an exhibit — Covered With Glory: Football at UGA, 1892-1917 — that was on display at the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries Building. The link to the digital version is here: https://gado.gs/cdl.
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Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find all of his recent stories at: Frierson Files.
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