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 NFL Greats
John Heisman
by Sam Monson
13/2/2008
Bill Belichick Eat Your Heart Out
The 2007 NFL season is in the books, and the New England Patriots missed out on their chance at perfection by falling at the final hurdle, but they will be remembered, much like the 1998 Vikings, as one of the most potent points scorers in NFL history. The team racked up points quickly and mercilessly against their opponents, and their coach, Bill Belichick, came under a lot of criticism for the way in which he ran up the score throughout the season. The Patriots outscored their opponents by more than 21 points ten times this season, scored more than 50 points on two occasions, and twice embarrassed their opposition by winning with margins over 45 points. Bill Belichick was deemed a classless egomaniac for the way in which he humiliated the opposition.
But Bill Belichick never managed what John Heisman did in 1916. In 1916, Heisman led his Georgia Tech side to football’s most lopsided scoreline. In 1916, Heisman ran up the score to the tune of 222-0.
On October 7th, 1916, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University by a score of 222-0. That isn’t a defeat, it’s a holocaust!
John Heisman was one of the first truly great football coaches, and is credited with many of the game’s great developments. He was the first man to employ two pulling guards to lead an end run a forerunner of the sweeps that would be used by Paul Brown and made famous by Lombardi and the Packers. He was also a firm proponent of the forward pass, and may have invented the modern centre-quarterback exchange prior to Heisman the ball had been either rolled or kicked back to the passer.
Heisman coached for 32 years in the College game, and his career was highlighted by his stint at Georgia Tech, whom he made a national power house. During his 16 seasons at Georgia Tech Heisman never had a losing record, and posted a 33-game undefeated record at one point, over which span his teams outscored opponents by a score of 1,599 to 99. That’s an average of 48 points to 3. Heisman wasn’t just into winning; he set out to destroy his victims.
At the time of the Cumberland game, southern football was something of a backwater, and it had yet to receive any real national recognition. No southern team had ever won a national title, and all of football’s powerhouses were located on the coasts, with teams like Harvard, Army, Cal and Penn leading the way. Heisman was determined to show that his southern football belonged on any stage, and was in the midst of his crusade to wipe out any opposition in front of him. Heisman was running up the score as much as possible to gain national attention, and at the end of another undefeated season in 1917, Georgia Tech won their first national title.
 He would retire a coaching legend, and his name adorns the award given to the best college player in the nation every year the Heisman Trophy.
John Heisman was a man who liked to run up the score – It was laying a 73-0 beat-down of Georgia Tech when he was the head coach of Clemson that caused the Tech brass to hire him as their head coach in the first place – But he was especially irked prior to the Cumberland game.
Heisman also coached the baseball team at Georgia Tech, and in the spring of 1915 a Cumberland baseball side had beaten GT by a score of 22-0. It had been rumoured that the Cumberland side had used semi-pro ringers, though no proof of this exists. Heisman bore a grudge. He had scheduled the game, locking Cumberland into a contract that gave them a $500 fee for appearing, but also stipulated a $3,000 forfeiture fee if they didn’t. When Cumberland pulled their football program, they found themselves unable to get out of the Georgia Tech game, Heisman would have his day.
To increase the motivation of his side, Heisman fielded two complete teams that would alternate every quarter, and promised the team that scored the most points would be rewarded with a steak dinner. By half-time of the game the score was 126-0, each team had scored 63 points.
You’re doing all right, team,” Heisman had the gall to tell his players in his half-time pep talk. “We’re ahead. But you just can’t tell what those Cumberland players have up their sleeves. They may spring a surprise. Be alert, men! Hit ’em clean, but hit ’em. hard!”
 The game was such an annihilation that the second half was cut short by 15 minutes. The score of 222-0 was put up in a 45 minute game! There wasn’t a single first down achieved by either side during the game. The Cumberland side couldn’t manage one, and Georgia Tech scored on the first play every time they had the ball.
Sportswriter Grantland Rice, who witnessed the contest, reported tongue-in-cheek, “Cumberland’s greatest individual play of the game occurred when fullback Allen circled right for a six-yard loss.” That may be an exaggeration, but only just. Cumberland gained -28 yards on offense, and their only play of positive yardage was a 10 yard completion on 4th and 22.
 In 1956 a reunion was held between the survivors of the game. 6 graduates of Cumberland University squared off in a nostalgic mismatch against 22 graduates of Georgia Tech to mark the 40th anniversary of the game. The room was filled with stories about the contest, including from the quarterback of Cumberland, who credited himself with one of the smartest bits of football strategy on record.”
“I called for a quarterback sneak on fourth down late in the final period,” he claimed. “We needed 25 yards and were deep in our territory. I made it back to the line of scrimmage and saved us from really ignominious defeat. If we had punted, as we should have, Tech would have blocked the kick, made another touchdown and the score would have been 229-0!”
Bill Belichick might like to rub his opponents’ noses in defeat, and he runs up the score like nobody in the modern game, but he has a long way to go if he’s going to be remembered in the same light as John Heisman, the man who once put up 222 points, because he could.
Learn More about past NFL greats in our History Archive
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