Dartmouth played only seven games during the 1897 season, the fewest of any year under head coach William Wurtenburg. The squad completed the year with a mediocre 4–3 record. Despite going 2–0 in conference games, the team lost three consecutive games in major shutouts. The season began with a shutout of Phillips Exeter Academy, but quickly turned for the worse. Harvard returned to Dartmouth's schedule and defeated them 13–0. 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. As with the previous year, the season concluded with a defeat of the Newton Athletic Club.[2]
