1889 college football season

{{Short description|American college football season}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}

{{Infobox college football season

| year = 1889

| image = File:Princeton Tigers football team (1889).png

| image_caption = 1889 Princeton Tigers

| number_of_teams =

| preseason_ap =

| regular_season =

| bowl_start =

| bowl_end =

| champion = Princeton

| heisman = Not awarded until 1935

}}

The 1889 college football season was the season of American football played among colleges and universities in the United States during the 1889–90 academic year.

The 1889 Princeton Tigers football team, led by team captain Edgar Allan Poe, compiled a perfect 10–0 record and was recognized as the national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, National Championship Foundation, and Parke H. Davis.{{cite web |url=http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/2017/FBS.pdf |title=National Poll Champions |publisher=National Collegiate Athletic Association |year=2017 |work=NCAA Division I Football Records |page=110 |access-date=January 2, 2018}}

In the South, {{cfb link|year=1889|team=Wofford Terriers|title=Wofford}} defeated Furman in the first intercollegiate game played in the state of South Carolina. The game featured no uniforms, no positions, and the rules were formulated before the game.[http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/336821/106 Furman 2014 FB Record Book]

As the popularity of the program increased, new football programs were established in 1889 at Iowa, Syracuse,{{cite news |last1=Alandt |first1=Anthony |title=The storied history of Syracuse football began well before its 1889 loss to Rochester |url=https://dailyorange.com/2022/11/the-storied-history-of-syracuse-football-began-well-before-its-1889-loss-to-rochester/ |access-date=18 December 2022 |work=The Daily Orange |date=2 November 2022}} and Washington.

All eleven players selected by Caspar Whitney for the first All-America college football team came from the Big Three (Princeton, Yale, and Harvard). Four of the honorees have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: fullback Knowlton Ames (Princeton), end Amos Alonzo Stagg (Yale), tackle Hector Cowan (Princeton), and guard Pudge Heffelfinger (Yale).