[1] Dartmouth played only seven games during the 1897 season, the fewest of any year under head coach William Wurtenburg.

The season began with a shutout of Phillips Exeter Academy, but quickly turned for the worse.

The loss was followed by blowout defeats by Penn and Princeton, with Dartmouth losing by combined score of 64–0.

The squad took a week-long break, which allowed them to recover and defeat conference opponents Amherst and Williams by more than fifty points in each game to win a fifth consecutive championship.

[2] Several members of the team would later become college football coaches, including John B. Eckstorm, Joseph Wentworth, Frank Cavanaugh, David Carr MacAndrew, Joseph H. Edwards, Fred Crolius, and Charles J. Boyle.