The 1917 Pittsburgh Panthers football team represented the University of Pittsburgh in the 1917 college football season. Led by coach Pop Warner, the Panthers won all ten games and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 260–31.
The Panthers were nicknamed "The Fighting Dentists" because during some rotations all eleven players on the field would be dentistry students. One of those players was Pitt Panthers legend Jock Sutherland.
Schedule
Preseason
The 1916 football championship was given to the unbeaten Pitt Panthers by the Eastern critics. Edward Bushnell noted: "Under the present system of haphazard schedule making in the east, the awarding of the football championship is largely a matter of opinion. It is quite impossible to dodge the conclusion that Pittsburgh deserved the honor."
The Pitt Weekly reported: "The 1916 football season was not only a remarkable one in point of games won, but was also attended with great financial success, according to the Graduate Manager of Athletics. With all accounts paid, at the end of the football season, the assets over liabilities amounted to $17,124.00. This will more than take care of the development of non-profit producing sports, such as baseball, basketball, track, tennis, swimming and wrestling, and the Athletic Council will go into the 1917 football season with a nice balance. Owing to the adoption of the One-Year Residence Rule and the fact that Freshman teams will be equipped and provided with coaches in all branches of athletics in future, these expenses will be materially increased."
At the postseason banquet, H. Clifford Carlson was elected Captain and T. Lee Trimble, class of 1919, a student in the School of Mines, was chosen Student Manager of the football team for the 1917 season.
Only four starters (Bob Peck, Claude Thornhill, James Herron and Randall Soppitt) and three substitutes (Sam Friedlander, O.C. Ammons and Harry Stahlman) were lost to graduation. With 15 returning lettermen and Coach Warner at the helm, the alumni, fans and students expected another good season. Then on April 6, 1917 The Pittsburgh Post headline read: "Congress has declared that the United States is at war with the Imperial German government."
In mid-May The Pittsburgh Post noted: "In the list of men who have signed up for the hospital corps of the university appear the names of Hastings, DeHart, Sies, McLaren, Seidel, Morrow and several other of the well-known athletes on the Pitt teams. These men are expecting to be called out at any time, and if they go it will leave a big gap in the ranks of the candidates for the grid team next fall."
The May 30, 1917 The Pittsburgh Post reported that: "Football will be played by the leading colleges of the country next fall." Where hysteria and chaos reigned in athletic circles at the outbreak of the war between the United States and Germany, Pitt Graduate Athletic Manager Karl E. Davis said all was calm now and nearly every institution represented at the Graduate Athletic Managers' Association meeting expressed itself heartily in favor of playing football.
On September 9, 1917 The Gazette Times noted: "The University of Pittsburgh football squad headed by Coach Glenn S. Warner and Captain Cliff Carlson, will leave tomorrow for Camp Hamilton, Windber, and the following day the first practice of the 1917 season will be held in the mountain retreat. The season promises to be an unusual one in many ways. Andy Hastings, Jimmy DeHart and Jim Morrow are now encamped at Allentown, PA, with the Pitt Base Hospital Unit. Of the great backfield quartet, only George McLaren remains, he escaping the draft on account of being under 21 years of age. Of the 33 men who formed the 1916 varsity squad only 11 men will be available." The Pittsburgh Post added: "The party going to camp today will number about 40 men, including the coach, camp physician, Manager Trimble and his two assistants, Frank Finley and Tom Ware, the student camp helpers and players. About 30 players will be in the party, they being the eligibles from last year's varsity and freshman teams under the one-year residence rule." The 1919 Owl Yearbook noted: "There was an uncertainty as to just how the game would be affected by the war. Several of the candidates who went to camp had enlisted and were expecting a call any time; and others had low numbers in the draft and were subject to call." On September 26, three days prior to the opening game with West Virginia, Gus Aschman, the projected starting quarterback was summoned to the Navy.