Here is a look at what happened beyond baseball in the sports world in 1901.
HOCKEY
In what would be the forefather of the National Hockey League, The Upper and Lower Canada League (ULCHL) began play in 1901-02 with 6 teams and a 40 game schedule. The Montreal Wanderers, led by 31 year old center Joseph Matheson, would claim the first league title. Matheson led the league in goals with 24 and points with 57, standards that would continue to be the league's best even a decade later.
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ULCHL STANDINGS 1901-02
TEAM GP W L T PTS
Montreal Wanderers 40 27 8 5 59
Montreal Canadiens 40 18 13 9 45
Toronto Tecumsehs 40 18 17 5 41
Toronto Ontarios 40 15 19 6 36
Quebec Bulldogs 40 12 22 6 30
Ottawa Senators 40 12 23 5 29
SCORING LEADERS TM GP G A PTS
Joseph Matheson MonW 40 24 33 57
Theodore Poitras MonW 36 16 26 42
Sailor Hilborn MonC 40 18 19 37
Alex Gelinas MonW 35 8 29 37
Red Daley HAM 37 8 26 34
Bennett Hillman TorO 40 16 14 30
The playoff for the Stanley Cup would be a best two out of three affair between the top two finishers. In an all-Montreal final the Wanderers beat the Canadiens in 3 games despite regular season scoring champ Matheson being kept off the scoresheet in the series. Wanderers 38 year old winger Roy Harker was named the Series MVP after he scored 3 goals and 7 points in the 3 contests.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
It was tough trying to mod a 1900's era alignment with any game so I did the best I could with Bowl Bound by creating conference setups like they were in the 1940s. It is now a 10 year old program but for me still a lot of fun to play and surprisingly nothing newer has anywhere near the ease of customization that BBCF allows. I can't eliminate teams and bring new ones in after I start but can adjust conferences to whatever setup (with some restrictions) that I want. So here is what happened in 1901.
We actually had 4 teams go 13-0 in 1901 led by National Champion winning Notre Dame. The Irish faced MVC winner Missouri in the Orange Bowl and completed their perfect season with a 35-20 victory. San Francisco, another independent, was also 13-0 and finished second in the AP Poll after beating Penn State 16-14 in the Gator Bowl.
Rose Bowl and Pacific Coast Conference winner Washington was also unbeaten. The 13-0 Huskies finished 3rd in both the media and coaches poll after edging Western Conference champion Michigan (10-3) 17-16 in the Rose Bowl. The final unbeaten team was North Carolina, which ran the table in the Southern Conference before beating Minnesota(11-2) in the Sugar Bowl.
Other bowl winners included independent Army improving to 10-3 on the season with a 24-21 win over Oklahoma in the Citrus Bowl, while Texas Mines, which upset California of the Pacific Coast Conference 35-33 in the Cotton Bowl to finish with a 12-1 record.
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AP COLLEGE FOOTBALL TOP TWENTY RANKINGS
SCHOOL RECORD COACHES POLL
1 Notre Dame 13-0 1
2 San Francisco 13-0 7
3 Washington 13-0 3
4 North Carolina 13-0 2
5 Texas Mines 12-1 5
6 Chicago 9-3 14
7 Minnesota 11-2 8
8 Michigan 10-3 15
9 Drake 10-2 10
10 Northwestern 10-2 6
11 Georgia 11-2 4
12 New York Univ. 9-3 12
13 Washington(Mo) 10-2 9
14 Sewanee 9-3 18
15 Army 10-3 13
16 West Virginia 10-2 11
17 Alabama Polytech 9-3 25
18 Oklahoma 10-3 17
19 Duke 9-3 16
20 Furman 9-3 19
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
While a majority of the schools still played a haphazard schedule as independents, the college game began to organize itself in 1901 with 6 conferences being formed including the Western Conference (now the Big 10), the Ivy Group, Southern Conference, Southwest Conference and the Pacific Coast Conference. The Conferences ranged in size from as few as 3 teams in the Mountain State Athletic Conference (Colorado, Colorado A&M and Denver) to as large a group as 12 teams in the Southern Conference.
In addition the first organized national championship was held as the top 32 clubs in the nation, including each of the conference winners, participated in a single elimination tournament in March.
The Kentucky Wildcats would lead the polls and be favoured entering the tournament, but after a first round win over Columbia, Kentucky's season came to an abrupt end when they were upended 87-79 but 5th seed Utah in the South Regional semi-final. The national champion would be Bradley as the Braves capped a 32-2 season with a 79-64 win over Indiana in the title game. Senior center Dick Hague, who was the National Player of the Year, paced the Braves in the title game with 20 points and 15 rebounds. Holy Cross and Duquesne were the other two schools to reach the final four.
Here are the final four results, the 25 and the list of Award winners.
PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL
After several years of small semi-pro basketball leagues several of those organizations along the eastern seaboard banded together to form the first Professional Basketball League. The loop, dubbed the Eastern Basketball Association began play in 1901-02 with 8 clubs playing a 56 game schedule.
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1901 EASTERN BASKETBALL LEAGUE STANDINGS
EAST DIVISION W L GB
Millville Glass Blowers 37 19 -
New York Wanderers 27 29 10.0
Bristol Pile Drivers 25 31 22.0
Trenton Nationals 23 33 14.0
[b]
WEST DIVISION W L GB
Paterson Crescents 41 15 -
Pittsburgh Homesteaders 25 31 16.0
Camden Skeeters 25 31 16.0
Phil. Bicycle Club 21 35 20.0
The Paterson Crsecents and Millville Glass Blowers dominated their respective divisions, and were the only clubs to finish above .500. Patterson had the league's best offense led by guards Manual Thomas (15.0 ppg) and Austin Jewell (11.6) while the Glass Blowers relied on the league's tallest player, 7'0" center Giorgio D'Amato who averaged 15.8 ppg and and 8.2 rpg to earn the league MVP award.
The Crescents swept the best of five championship series to claim the first Eastern Basketball Association title. None of the games were close as Paterson won by scores of 75-60, 72-57 and 85-65. with Paterson center Bobby Parker being named playoff MVP almost solely because of his work neutralizing D'Amato.
GOLF
My main focus on golf will be updating the results of each of the 4 majors. In reality there should only be two majors at this time as the PGA Championship didn't start until around 1916 and The Masters was first held in the 1930s. However, I did not know what removing these two majors would do to the modified schedule file I made a few years ago for my old TPG2 golf game so they are in. Plus, I really enjoying playing the Augusta course in the game, although the golfer I control has yet to play for a major.
In 1901 we had 4 different golfers win a major with two of them claiming their first major title (I started this golf replay in 1896) . The Masters winner was Canadian Hayden Gallant, who needed a playoff to snap a 3-way tie with Clem Jordan and Gus Carlson. Jordan, who would win 2 events this year, ended up as the leading money winner on the tour.
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1901 MASTERS LEADERBOARD
NAME NAT SC MONEY
Hayden Gallant Can +3 $1,619
Clem Jordan US +3 $990
Gus Carlson US +3 $990
Thomas Milne Scot +5 $450
Ike Hill US +5 $450
Hod Warren US +6 $341
Redstone CC in Houston was the site of the second major of the season and once again Clem Jordan was in the running but finished third as veteran Calvin Baumgartner ran away with the tournament. Baumgarter, who has 2 other major titles under his belt (1898 & 1899 British Opens) ran away with the tournament and won by 10 strokes.
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1901 US OPEN LEADERBOARD
NAME NAT SC MONEY
Cal Baumgartner US -4 $1,799
Rip Olson US +6 $1,100
Clem Jordan US +8 $800
Nelson Finley US +8 $800
Marv Shaw US +9 $400
Kent, England was the host of the 5th British Open in my universe and like the 1901 version of The Masters it needed a playoff hole to determine a winner. American James Fox rallied from 6 shots down entering Sunday to tie Scotland's Matthew Allan at the end of 72 holes. It took 3 playoff holes before Fox was crowned the champion. It was Fox's second major victory as he also won the 1896 PGA championship. Matthew Allan's brother, Robert, finished in a tie for fourth in the event.
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1901 BRITISH OPEN LEADERBOARD
NAME NAT SC MONEY
James Fox US +8 $1,754
Matthew Allen Scot +8 $1,072
Walter Mathis US +9 $780
Robert Allan Scot +11 $487
Shane Browne IRE +11 $487
Allen Lane US +11 $487
Our final major was held in New York as the PGA Championship was on the line. Once again Fox and Matthew Allan, fresh off their battle in Kent, proved the class of the event. Allan went into the final day tied with Floyd Foale, with the pair of them 1 stroke up on British Open champ Fox. Foale struggled early and would end up third in the event but Matthew Allan and Fox were tied with six holes to play. Unlike in Britian, when the Scotsman was first to blink and lost in a playoff, this time it was Fox who endured back bogeys on 15 & 16, holes that Allan birdied and suddenly the tournament was over. Allan would win by 6 after carding a final round 67 while Fox limped home with a par 72.
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1901 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARD
NAME NAT SC MONEY
Matthew Allen Scot -14 $1,709
James Fox US -8 $1,045
Floyd Foale US -7 $760
Clint James US -5 $475
Michael Kiloran IRE -5 $475
Henry Rosenbaum ENG -5 $475
Fritz Hobbs US -5 $475
Ike Hill US -5 $475
Here is the list of all-time major winners thru 1901 (minimum 2 titles)
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MAJOR TOURNAMENT WINNERS
Calvin Baumgartner 3
James Fox 2
Milo Lawrence 2
Walter Mathis 2