Ivy League Football: A Tradition Unlike Any Other

I see many people on Bleacher Report and in the world in general talking about how the SEC or the Pac-10 or the Big 12 has some of the best history in all of college football.

While these leagues may have had recent success and may possess "a rich history," one league stands out above all others when we consider the history of college football.

That league is the Ivy League.

Many people know that Rutgers played in the first collegiate football contest, but do you know who they played in that game?  The Princeton Tigers.

From 1869 to 1926, the Ivy League won 51 national championships by Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton, and Pennsylvania.  From 1900 to 1925, Ivy League football teams won 20 national championships.  No other conference has achieved such dominance since then.  Princeton still has the most national championships out of any college in the country at 24.

In fact, Yale had the most collegiate football victories out of any school until Michigan surpassed them in 2001.

The Ivy League is the home of three Heisman Trophy winners in Yale's end Larry Kelley (1936), Yale's QB Clint Frank (1937), and Princeton's RB Dick Kazmaier (1951).  That's not to mention the 1971 snub of Cornell's RB Ed Marinaro, who finished second in the voting by a mere 152 points to Auburn's QB Pat Sullivan.

The "Father of American Football," Walter Camp was the head coach of Yale in the late 19th century.

In 2006, ESPN ranked the Harvard-Yale rivalry as the seventh best rivalry in the nation. 

Pennsylvania's Franklin Field was the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Democratic nomination acceptance speech, home of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1958 to 1970, and home of the first rugby World Cup game on American soil.

There is so much history in the Ivy League that is not debatable.  While some conferences claim that they have "the most history" out of any conference, you might want to compare yourself with the Ivy League before you open your mouth. 

Just like claiming Ole Miss is a terrible team despite their success in the 1990's, just like claiming Stanford is a perrenial Pac-10 pushover despite their 2000 Rose Bowl, it's easy to forget about the past.  But it's just important to remember where the game started as where it is right now.