1917 Davidson Wildcats football team

1917 Davidson Wildcats football
ConferenceSouth Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Record6–4 (1–2 SAIAA)
Head coach
CaptainGeorge M. King
Home stadiumSprunt Field
1917 South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association football standings
Conf.Overall
TeamW L TW L T
Georgetown $ 2 0 08 1 0
Richmond 2 1 04 2 1
Washington and Lee 2 1 04 3 0
North Carolina A&M 2 1 16 2 1
VPI 2 1 16 2 1
Maryland State 2 1 14 3 1
Davidson 1 2 06 4 0
VMI 1 3 14 4 1
St. John's (MD) 0 1 00 1 0
Johns Hopkins 0 1 00 3 0
William & Mary 0 3 03 5 0
  • $ Conference champion

The 1917 Davidson Wildcats football team represented Davidson University in the 1917 college football season. Led by third year coach Bill Fetzer, the Wildcats competed as a member of the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SAIAA). Despite a record of 64 (12 SAIAA), some would call Davidson the second best southern team that year. Davidson defeated Auburn 21 to 7, in one of the great upsets in Southern football history, and scored the most on the 1917 Georgia Tech Golden Tornado, for many years considered the greatest football team the South ever produced, in a 32 to 10 loss. Following the Auburn game the Davidson team was first referred to as "the Wildcats.

The team included a 17-year-old Buck Flowers, and two other All-Southerns in Wooly Grey and captain Georgie King. The backfield consisted of Flowers, quarterback Henry Spann, halfback Jack Black, and fullback Buck Burns.