Commerce High School - Commerce Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

Page 67 text:

At the beginning of the year 1910, the problem that faced the faculty and athletic board was, shall we have a football team? It was a mighty big proposition too. Think of it! No money and green material, since but few of the fellows knew how to play the game. The decision was cast. Coach D. M. Evans issued a call for candidates, and over thirty aspirants responded. Among these Leopold, Steigerwald, Crebbin, Romanis, Porter and Corry were the only ones that had ever played the game. The rest were of the greenest kind. Coach Evans had to drill the fellows into the necessary plays and formations, and as a result little scrimmage was indulged in before the game with Lincoln came around. By displaying nerve and skill, which was certainly characteristic of our fellows, we made a good showing for our first game. We were beaten by a respectable score of 26 to 0. A severe blow was dealt the team, in this game, as Leopold was so badly injured that he was compelled to drop out. Our coach in this game noted the many defects of our boys and they] were given a hard week in scrimmage and signals. New plays and formations were introduced, and as a result our resources were now far in excess of our liabilities. The next game we played was against Central, who defeated us by the score of 46 to 0- The Central bunch was much heavier and had played together for years, but for all that we showed better form against them than against Lincoln, and we defeated their hopes by keeping them from scoring sixty points against our team. As a result of the hard game, the fellows were considerably battered up for the game with East. As to defensive work, we found East impenetrable, and they ran up 60 points. Allowing the game to go on for nearly double the usual time resulted in our fellows being terribly battered up. We entered the Glcnville game with Leopold back in harness. The fel- 65