By: Ian Curtis February 8, 2019

When people think of the great teams and dynasties of college football, many come to mind. Bear Bryant’s great teams at Alabama, the glory days of the U in Miami, and others. But here is another team, rarely mentioned, that some consider to be the greatest of all time.

The University of the South, also known as Sewanee, is now a small, private, Divison-III school deep in Tennessee. One might find it hard to imagine that a school like this was ever an athletic powerhouse, but at the turn of the century that is exactly what they were.

Fielding its first team in 1891, Sewanee would go on to win several conference championships and become a charter member of the SEC (although they de-emphasized athletics and never won an SEC conference game). But the 1899 team is by far their biggest claim to fame.

The 1899 Sewanee Iron Men (officially the Sewanee Tigers) would outscore all twelve of their opponents 322-10 over the season. Winning all eleven of their SIAA conference games, they faced the only team who would ever score on them in the SIAA championship game. That team would be the Auburn Tigers, coached by the one and only John Heisman.

During the middle of the season, the Ironmen took a 2,500-mile train trip in order to play five opponents in six days. Their adversaries were no pushovers either — they beat Texas, Texas A&M, and LSU among other teams. This is certainly a feat which will never be replicated in today’s world of high-profile scheduling and travel planned years in advance.

Adding to the teams accomplishment, the SIAA was not an easy conference to win at the time. Founded in 1894 (with Sewanee as a charter member), the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association featured strong programs that would eventually form or join the SEC, ACC, and Southwest Conference among many others.

Revered at Sewanee though still not heard of often, the tale of the 1899 Sewanee team should be considered one of the greatest sports stories ever told.