Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland 0: a gamebook

What follows is an NFL-style gamebook for the 222-0 Georgia Tech-Cumberland game that happened 100 years ago this October.

Notes:

1. The play-by-play is almost entirely taken from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution game story as seen on this archived page from Cumberland’s website.
2. Unknowns and obvious errors from the original play-by-play:
   • • The play-by-play doesn’t list the Cumberland player who received the opening kickoff; this 1961 Sports Illustrated story lists Carney as that player.
     • The play-by-play simply states that “[t]hree more Cumberland plays were unsuccessful” on 2nd through 4th downs on Cumberland’s first drive of the 3rd quarter. Multiple sources claim that Cumberland had 2 completions on 18 pass attempts for the game; making those plays incompletions would match the claimed statistics for the game.
     • Cumberland’s first punt of the game (from their own 28) is given as “Donald punted 20 yards to Preas who returned 18 yards to the Cumberland 20”, meaning that 10 yards are missing somewhere.  I have decided to treat that as a 20-yard punt with a 28-yard return.
   • One Cumberland run and fumble is credited to [Unknown].
   • Two Georgia Tech fumble recoveries are credited to [Unknown].
   • The spot and return length of Jim Senter’s mid-2nd-quarter interception are unknown.
3. Composite statistics are entirely taken from the re-created play-by-play.  They are unlikely to exactly match those published elsewhere.
4. Georgia Tech ran for just 471 yards in the game, five fewer than they had in their opener against Alcorn State last year.  (The school record is 604, set against Kansas in 2011.)
5. If the AJC play-by-play is accurate, Cumberland punted on 3rd and 1 from their own 44 early in the 2nd quarter.  (Making this more inexplicable is that they passed on 3rd and 20 from their own 15 the previous drive.)  This was as close as they got both to a first down and to advancing into Georgia Tech territory.
6. Cumberland chose to kick off after Georgia Tech touchdowns at 28-0, 35-0, 42-0, 56-0, and 154-0.

Click to access 1916-Georgia-Tech-Cumberland-Gamebook.pdf