The University of the South

Described by some football analysts as one of the best teams ever, the undefeated 1899 Sewanee football team is accorded that lofty ranking, not just for its 12-0 record, but for its mid-season train ride into history.
A remarkable five wins in six days — all on the road and all by shutouts against Southern powers — has placed this Sewanee team in an elite class.

Preceding football legends such as the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame of the 1920s, Fordham’s Seven Rocks of Granite of the 1930s and LSU’s Chinese Bandits of the late 1950s, the Iron Men have written their own place in gridiron history. The men of Sewanee proudly carried the school’s banner that fall and the “S’’ on their purple jerseys was as familiar to opponents from North Carolina to Texas as Superman would be in the mythical city of Metropolis a half century later.

But far from comic book super heroes, the “Iron Men” of Sewanee posted some legendary wins against those Southern opponents that fall.
 
The Legendary Feat Recognized
In Southern Fried Football: The History, Passion and Glory of the Great Southern Game, author and Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports writer Tony Barnhart wrote, “The Tigers from Tennessee’s Sewanee went 12-0 in 1899, but that’s not why this team is No. 1 on his all-time Southern list. Sewanee took the ultimate road trip, playing five games in six days, all on the road. And not only did the Tigers win them all, but all five games were by shutouts.”