Princeton takes the belt, 24–20, on the road at Navy.
AP poll, week 4: Princeton No. 9 at Navy unranked · No. 1 that week: Illinois. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Princeton took the belt here, ending Navy’s run of 308 days and 1 defense (reign #100) and starting reign #101. It lasted 371 days and 9 defenses, until Pennsylvania took it on October 11, 1952.
For Princeton this was its 20th shot at the belt; it had held the belt 8 times before — and it took it back here.
It was the 2nd of 2 belt games between the two; going in, Navy led the belt series 1–0; all-time it is 1–1.
About this game
Princeton visited Navy on October 6, 1951, in week 4 of the regular season. Navy led 24-20, but Princeton won the game, taking the belt from Navy with the final score of 24-20.
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 30356) · This game in the downloadable dataset