The Freshman (1925) review

Bespectacled and energetic Harold Lamb (Harold Lloyd) dreams of becoming the most popular person on the campus of Tate University - he even practices doing "college cheers" in his bedroom - but cannot stop bumbling things up: he does a silly jig when introducing himself that warrants ridicule, he tries rescuing a kitten only to be humiliated by the student body, he wears a suit that keeps falling apart during a dance (and wasn't even designed by Rei Kawakubo) ... and then his tryout for the football team turns him into a tackling dummy.  The Zero-to-Hero plot is very familiar: he ruins everything most of the time but somehow seems only mildly unfazed - shopgirl Peggy (Jobyna Ralston) provides comfort - and when the school faces off against Union State on the gridiron (with bodies being knocked out left and right), guess who stumbles into the end zone and becomes celebrated as a champion?  While dorky, it's also loveable Americana all the way through.