Carnegie Mellon University - Thistle Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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VV. J. THIEL In the second game of the season, Wally Steffen’s so-called “green” team practised straight football at the expense of the Thiel eleven, coached by Carnegie's old friend Tommy l lolleran of Pitt. Wally’s proteges showed decided improvement in this game, playing with more finesse and teamwork than in the opener. T hey carried the hall over for a touchdown in the first eight plays, and at no time were in danger of being scored on. Bastian, and the fleet Rill Donohoe, who substituted for him, skirted the ends time after time in a fashion recalling the days of our beloved Jimmy Robertson. Bastian added a chapter to Tech’s history when he hooted a perfect goal from T hiel’s 35-yard line, with Captain Newman holding the hall. This was the first field goal ever scored hv a Carnegie eleven, and made the score 22-0 in Carnegie’s favor. TOLEDO T oledo, highly touted In Dame Rumor, had the hard luck of striking Carnegie when she was in her prime. No matter how the Ohioans varied their attack; despite numerous substitutions to strengthen their defense, rhev coidd nor deny the Tartans. who were armed with a seemingly inexhaustible assortment of short end runs. TOLEDO Pagt 165

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Carnegie's 1925 Football Season On September 2, 1924, sixty enthusiastic young huskies gathered at Mellon Annex, the football training quarters; and out of this group, which had given little promise of developing into more than a mediocre squad, our wizard Coach, “Wally” Steffen, very ably assisted by his first lieutenant, Coach Waddell, produced a smooth working, fast gridiron machine, capable of furnishing stiff competition to the best teams the country could produce. The coaches were handicapped by the light weight of the men, and the dirth of competent substitute material. However, when the day of the opening game arrived, they were able to put a typical Tartan team in the field. By insisting on speed, and drilling the men almost to perfection on a scries of clever and deceptive trick plays, they had produced a team fit to be ranked with the Class A teams of the east, as results soon showed—a team that retained the city championship against great odds, and scored more points against the wonder team from Notre Dame than had any other school in the past four years. DAYTON On September 27, the Dayton University team, a fast, heavy aggregation coached by Notre Dame men utilizing the famous Rechne shift, journeyed to Pittsburgh to open the Carnegie 1924 football season. Playing at top speed under a broiling sun, Dayton furnished stiff competition and displayed some excellent football, but finally succumbed to a bunch of fighting Clansmen anxious to show the world that no coach leading his team against Carnegie during the season would leave the field without a few gray hairs. Dayton took the lead in the first quarter with a field goal from the thirty yard line. This was just the right handicap for the Scotch, and after several substantial gains on end-around plays by Mefort, Beede took the ball across on Steffen’s famous spinner play that was to play such an important role during the balance of the season. Another of Carnegie’s greatest assets was uncovered when Bill Manby intercepted a pass, and dashed across the line for l ech’s other touchdown, in the second half. When the final whistle blew, Carnegie was on the optimists’ end of a 14-3 score. No substitutes were used by Steffen, despite the speed of the play; this demonstration of the super-excellent physical condition of the first stringers promised much for the future. W EST ER X M A R V LA X D Pag, 164

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 V KST E R N M A R Y LAND line bucks, double and triple passes, and aerial plays. In fact, loledo was so demoralized by the second half, that the Highlander second team continued to roll up the score. Substituting for Mefort, who was out with minor injuries, Mike Goodwin gave an excellent demonstration of football “As It Should Be Played, scoring the first three touchdowns of the game (one on a blocked punt) and proving a veritable Belgium on the defense. This 55-0 victory proved the worth of Coach Bob Waddell, who tutored the team in the absence of Judge Steffen. WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON On October eighteenth the Carnegie Clan, pledged to a man to back its doughty warriors, made the annual pilgrimage to Little Washington, there to hear the first rumble of the big guns that were to test her courage and strength in the weeks to follow. Facing a team of behemoth proportions, who used tactics that may be likened only to the tactics of the Big Bertha guns in the World War, the Tartans fought with super-human efforts, and came out of the game beaten only 10-0. In the first quarter the Presidents, aided bv fortune, got the ball within our five-yard line. The Tartan line, playing superbly (as it did all season) stopped this onrush. Captain Newman’s hurried punt from behind his own goal line fell short, however, rolled out of bounds on the twenty-yard line, and in a second fierce drive, W. J. put the ball across the line. It was quite evident that the Wash.- MARINE Page 166