Harvard defends the belt, 22–0, at home over Maine.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Harvard came in 322 days into reign #18, which began with a win over Yale, with 4 defenses already behind it; this was its 5th defense. Harvard went on to defend it 6 more times before Yale took it on November 22, 1902, 364 days after the reign began.
For Maine this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 3 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
It was the first of 3 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Harvard leads 3–0. Every meeting →
About this game
Harvard defeated Maine 22-0 on October 11, 1902 in week 5 of the regular season. As the belt's defending holder, Harvard 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 3340) · This game in the downloadable dataset