Dearborn High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Dearborn, MI)

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Review of the Football Season of 1924 The football season of 1924 saw the beginning of a Dearborn Comeback. After the successful failure of the team of last year. Dearborn Coaches started rebuilding for a team that with a year of experience would become a leading contender for league honors. This inaugural call for candidates brought out six letter men from the squad of last year together with a host of inexperienced material. It was found after a brief survey of the candidates that while the forward wall seemed to be well fortified, there was a noticeable lack of experienced backs. Some of the veterans were switched to the backfield and others placed in such a position as to strengthen the weakened places in the forward wall made by this change. Practically every man was green at his position yet the team functioned smoothly. There was but one major fault with their playing throughout the season and that was a slowness in starting. The team rarely “got going until the second half of the game. They played good ball the first half, to be sure, but the “drive” always seemed to be lacking. A second fault, a really minor yet noticeable flaw in the working of the team was, the independence of the exceptionally light backfield on smash plays. This green inexperienced team went through a successful season whipping such teams as Wayne, Northville, and Farmington. Present conditions indicate that next year, the football team of Dearborn High will be practically invincible and a season of wins is being looked forward to. 27

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General Athletic Review Athletics are to a school what the framework is to a building. They are the very foundations upon which the modern system of education is built. Success in this field is measured not by a winning percentage of games after a year of endeavor, but by the results achieved with the material on hand. At times a school will become loaded with natural born athletes who need little or no training to make a success- ful team. Then there are the lean years when there is a noticeable lack of material for the making of a successful team. Success must be measured by the results attained with the material on hand. Each sport has a special feature of its own without which no school could be com- plete. Football tests the ability to think quickly. Basketball teaches sportmanship and teamplay. Baseball brings out individuality and Track fosters the competitive spirit. Athletics are coming into their own, slowly but surely the vital part which they play in school training is being recognized. Dearborn people early recognized the value of athletic training and the result is that the coaching staff ranks with the best in the state. Athletics tend to act as a spur to better scholarship, if a strict code of eligibility is enforced. Most athletes are athletes, not scholars; but when they find it necessary, they become worthy students. At the beginning of this year, a state High School Director of Athletics, with com- plete control was appointed by the state. So while the strict eligibility code last year made it a losing year. Dearborn High is now, far better off than those schools that are being compelled to forfeit games and remake teams in mid-season because of the use of ineligible players. Last year was a critical period for the varsity teams of this school but reconstruction upon a “rock bottom” was the basis of the rebuilding process. Because of the carefully planned building up process of last year, under the skillful guidance of Coach Foy, Dearborn is once again enjoying the athletic prestige handed down to us from former winners for preservation. The teams that are to come, their type of play, their ideals and their sportmanship, or lack of it, are molded by the Coach. And as the Coach is, so will his team be. Athletics have a great present and a greater future. It is written that with the passing of time and the constancy of practice will come perfection, and with perfection will come a knowledge and understanding of the principles—and the principles are those things which give athletics their ever increasing popularity. 26

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Review of the Basketball Season of 1924-25 Boys With three veterans from the team of 1923 and several other monogram men. Coach Foy whipped into shape a fast going quintet that showed its heels to everything in its class in the district. League teams during the past few years have become leaders at state and district tournaments. Dearborn High this year had, without doubt, the best quintet in the league; and but for illness, which crippled the team, would have finished the league schedule without a defeat. The team, however, succeeded in taking second place after leading the league until the final game of the season. Dearborn entered the District Tournament at Ypsilanti with fifteen other class “B” teams. In the draw Dearborn was matched with Albion, the champions of the South Huron League and succeeded in eliminating them in a close hard-fought game that left no doubt as to the better team. Again in the pairings. Dearborn was matched with a championship team. Wyandotte, State Champions the year before with a team of veterans. Dearborn trailed throughout three quarters of the game when Wyandotte grew over confident. Dearborn crept up to within two points of a tie and with two minutes to play, tied the score and then went into the lead. The Wyandotte team broke and Dearborn caged two more baskets—and so ended the best game of the tournament. On the morning following Dearborn was eliminated by Eaton Rapids, future district Champion. And thus ended the most successful Basketball season of all time at Dearborn High. 28