LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

By FRANK LITSKY
Published: October 7, 2006

In the spring of 1915, Cumberland College of Lebanon, Tenn., was indiscreet. Its baseball team, fortified with professionals, routed Georgia Tech, 22-0.

The Georgia Tech coach, John Heisman (yes, that Heisman), vowed revenge. He got it a year later on Oct. 7, 1916 — 90 years ago today — when the Georgia Tech football team, which he also coached, overran Cumberland, 222-0, in the most lopsided game in college football history.

In that era, the Cumberland football team played teams like Mississippi, Tulane, South Carolina, Louisiana State and Tennessee. Cumberland discontinued football before the 1916 season, but forgot to tell Georgia Tech.

Heisman insisted that the game go on. If it did not, he said, he would hold Cumberland to a forfeit fee of $3,000, a large sum then.