1919 Centre Praying Colonels football team

1919 Centre Praying Colonels football
Centre players after the defeat of West Virginia
National champion (Sagarin) Southern champion
Conference	Independent
1919 record	9–0
Head coach	Charley Moran
Offensive scheme	Single wing
Captain	Bo McMillin
Home stadium	Cheek Field
Uniform

Seasons ← 1918 1920 →

Hanover at Centre

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hanover	0	0	0	0	0
• Centre	26	20	21	28	95

Date: September 27
Location: Cheek Field
Danville, KY
Referee: Dexheimer (Chattanooga)

Sources:

Centre at Indiana

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Centre	0	0	0	12	12
Indiana	3	0	0	0	3

Date: October 4
Location: Bloomington, IN
Referee: Gardner (Cornell)

Sources:

Centre at Virginia

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Centre	14	14	14	7	49
Virginia	0	7	0	0	7

Date: November 1
Location: Lambeth Field
Charlottesville, VA
Referee: Smith (Washington & Lee)

Sources:

Centre at West Virginia

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Centre	0	0	7	7	14
West Virginia	6	0	0	0	6

Date: November 8
Location: Charleston, WV
Referee: Mike Thompson

Sources:

DePauw vs. Centre

	1	2	3	4	Total
DePauw	0	0	0	0	0
• Centre	7	14	21	14	56

Date: November 22
Location: Louisville, KY
Referee: Marty (Kenyon)

Sources:

Centre at Georgetown

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Centre	14	21	28	14	77
Georgetown	0	0	7	0	7

Date: November 27
Location: Georgetown, KY
Referee: Marty (Kenyon)

Sources:

The 1919 Centre Praying Colonels football team represented Centre College in the 1919 college football season. The Praying Colonels scored 485 points, leading the nation, while allowing 23 points and finishing their season with a perfect record of 9–0. The team was retroactively selected by Jeff Sagarin as the national champion for the 1919 season.

Quarterback Bo McMillin and center James "Red" Weaver were named to Walter Camp's first-team 1919 College Football All-America Team. Just the year before Bum Day was the first Southern player ever selected to Camp's first team – and Centre became the first school with two. Fullback and end James "Red" Roberts was named to Camp's third team.

The highlight of the season was the win over West Virginia. McMillin had the team pray before it, forever giving the Centre College Colonels its alternate moniker of "Praying Colonels."

Five Centre regulars were natives of Fort Worth, Texas, namely quarterback Bo McMillin, Bill James, Sully Montgomery, Matty Bell, and Red Weaver. They were accused of being professionals, but the charges were rebuked by season's end. "Without Bo it would not be a Centre team."

Former Centre player and North Side High School head coach Robert L. Myers was to bring McMillin, Weaver, and the above teammates to Centre. However, McMillin and Weaver did not have sufficient credits to enter college, and thus entered Somerset High School for the 1916-17 year, playing with Red Roberts.

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