The 1914 Pittsburgh Panthers football team was an American football team that represented the University of Pittsburgh as an independent during the 1914 college football season. In its second season under head coach Joseph Duff, the team compiled an 8–1 record and outscored all opponents by a total of 207 to 38.
Schedule
Preseason
The Pitt Weekly noted proudly: "The football team of 1913 brought the University from a position of relative unimportance among the colleges to a place on a level with the ten or twelve leaders in the sport. This success is to be attributed to various causes, but the underlying reasons are found in the inauguration of the new coaching policy under Duff and Harlan, the acquisition of a number of new men who raised the standard of play, the hard course of training undergone in the football camp at Windber during the month of September and the erection of a permanent training house where the proper care and supervision might be given the members of the team."
Coach Joseph Duff, 1911 Princeton graduate, with only one season of assistant coaching experience led the 1913 University of Pittsburgh eleven to a 6–2–1 record. A. R. Hamilton summed it up best in The Pitt Weekly season recap: "The season's record stands as a gratifying monument to Joe Duff's initial efforts as a coach. He asked a free rein and agreed to shoulder all the blame in case the outcome of the season was unsatisfactory. On the same platform he is entitled to all the credit. His job was a hard one. He came on the heels of the most disastrous football season Pitt has ever known....Our squad was dangerously small in numbers and was short of experienced men. We had only two three-year men and the big proportion of the balance were freshmen. Duff was new to the men and they were new to him...Everybody had to feel his way the first few days except Duff...He knew exactly what he had to accomplish and he lost no time heading in that direction. So determinedly had he impressed himself on the entire situation, once he had taken hold, that before a week was up all hands were driving along toward a common goal."
Accordingly, the December 12 edition of The Pitt Weekly reported: "Because of his brilliant work in turning out a winning team this past season Joe Duff, former Princeton player, was re-elected coach of the University football eleven for next year at a meeting of the General Athletic Committee." Edwin H. W. "Nubs" Harlan was retained as assistant coach by Coach Duff.
Guard Wayne "Red" Smith was elected captain for the 1914 season by his teammates at the 1913 team banquet. The Pitt Weekly praised: "Red has been one of the standbys in the line ever since he matriculated three years ago."
Graduate Manager Davis had the 1914 schedule ready by March 18. The first game was considered a "hard" contest with Cornell, "where the (Pitt) men will be fresh from their training period in the mountains." Next a supposed easy game with Westminster was followed by another road game at Navy. The remaining games on the schedule were played at Forbes field. The Pitt Weekly stated: "Altogether this is the best arranged schedule that has ever appeared for our varsity. Not only from the players' standpoint but also in a financial way this arrangement should be very satisfactory." Mr. Davis appointed Alan K. Collingwood (Class of 1916, School of Economics) student football manager for the 1914 season. On September 2, forty-four prospects assembled at Union Station for the trip to Johnstown, followed by a car ride to Camp Hamilton at Windber, PA for three weeks of preseason drills. Coach Duff welcomed fourteen returning letter men and plenty of promising recruits. The Pittsburgh Daily Post noted one in particular: "Another track star who will enter the University this fall is J. B. Sutherland, of Oberlin Preparatory School...His specialties are the discus and the shot, he having a record of better than 125 feet in the former event and 40 feet in the shot. The University discus record is six feet short of Sutherland's record. He will try for the football team this fall also, as a lineman, although he has had little gridiron experience. It is believed that he will eventually develop into a great football player, as he has weight speed and courage." During this camp session, Coach Duff's most significant personnel adjustment was moving Robert Peck from fullback to center, where he would become a three time All-American. Camp disbanded on September 24 and the squad headed to Ithaca to take on the Big Red of Cornell.