The 50 greatest college football teams throughout history

46. Best college football teams of all-time: 1905 Yale

Yale went 10 games without a loss to become one of the original undefeated teams in the young days of college football. Not just that, though, is what lands them on this list, as they also managed to beat a massive five Top-25 teams int hat season, in addition to three other teams that likely would’ve landed on the periphery of being ranked (Wesleyan, Holy Cross, Columbia).

Nine out of their ten opponents, therefore, were top 35 teams in the country. In the early days of football, the Ivy League Yale Bulldogs played a bruiser of a schedule, landing them a place on this list.

After having won championships in both 1900 and 1902, this Yale team claims another national championship to start off a reign of dominance that would see them win the national title three years in a row. Jack Owsley was serving as the head coach for the team, but the legendary Walter Camp was still on staff and played a large part in the coaching.

Future Hall of Famer Tom Shevlin featured at the end position on the team, earning his third consensus All-American selection and the team also featured three other consensus All-Americans in Roswell Tripp, Howard Roome and Guy Hutchinson. The team was tied for the most consensus All-Americans that season and returned stellar players like halfback Paul Veeder to boot.

Amidst a massive amount of controversy around the game of football, this Yale team let up zero points before they headed into a tough two-game stretch against Princeton and Harvard, in a season that ended up as one of the greatest in early football history.