Topic: Andy Smith

Andrew Latham "Andy" Smith was a successful college football head coach during the early part of the 20th century who coached at the University of Pennsylvania, Purdue University and the University of California. Smith is most famous for coaching the powerhouse Golden Bears teams of the 1920s, known as the "Wonder Teams". His record there was 74-16-7 (.799) and he is the winningest coach in school history. From 1909 to 1912, he coached the Penn Quakers, and from 1913 to 1915, the Purdue Boilermakers.

Andy Smith's philosophy of clean living and good sportsmanship carried him through some of the great early college football programs. During an incredible five-season span from 1920 to 1924, the Golden Bears went undefeated, running up a record of 44-0-2. Although during this period there were no college football polls, during the Roaring Twenties, Smith's Wonder Teams were considered to rival Knute Rockne and Notre Dame in terms of success, though these two top teams never met on the field.

The 1920 Cal team might have been one of the best college football teams ever. They went unbeaten and untied for the season with 9 victories, outscored their opponents by 510 points to 14, and capped off the season by defeating Ohio State in the Tournament of Roses East-West Game (now known as the Rose Bowl) 28-0. In a retroactive research poll, the Helms Athletic Foundation determined this team to be national champions that year, a conclusion recognized by the NCAA. Cal finished undefeated the following year and was again invited to play in the Rose Bowl, which ended in the only scoreless tie in the history of the game. The Bears turned down invitations from the Tournament of Roses in 1922 and 1923, unhappy that their 1921 opponents, the Washington and Jefferson Presidents, were much older than most college players and not subject to the same eligibility requirements.