Pennsylvania defends the belt, 16–0, at home over Dartmouth.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Pennsylvania came in 700 days into reign #13, which began with a win over Princeton, with 20 defenses already behind it; this was its 21st defense. Pennsylvania went on to defend it 3 more times before Lafayette took it on October 24, 1896, 714 days after the reign began.
For Dartmouth this was its 3rd shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 14 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Dartmouth and Pennsylvania have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Pennsylvania defeated visiting Dartmouth 16-0 on October 10, 1896, in week 5 of the regular season. As the defending belt holder, Pennsylvania retained the lineal championship with the victory.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 1740) · This game in the downloadable dataset