The 1897 Harvard Crimson football team represented Harvard University in the 1897 college football season. The Crimson finished with a 10–1–1 record under first-year head coach William Cameron Forbes, who later served as Governor-General of the Philippines (1908-13) and Ambassador of the United States to Japan (1930-32). The 1897 team won its first ten games by a combined 227-5 score. It then closed the season with a scoreless tie with Yale and a 15-6 loss against Penn.