James Whitcomb Riley High School - Hoosier Poet Yearbook (South Bend, IN)

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Footboll Squad Shown here is the organization Coach Wood labeled The greatest group of boys with whom I have ever been associated. From the plauded varsity man down to the strug- gling C squad gridder, every man in this picture possesses the spirit which has made Forest Woods ten years of football coaching so successful. BO'I I'OM Row tLefl to right! Stephenson. Smith, Knapp. Hartup, Youngs. lirame, Reiter. Battenherg, Evans, Galloway, Murtaugh. SECOND Row: Bullock. Hannon. Yoder. Walz, Clemans, fiirtl. Early. Wick- ens. Haenes, Bell, Bohm. THIRD Row: Annis, Adams, Horvath. Stevens. Haroff. Kuntz. Weiss, Glazer, Koepke, B. Sterzik. Rowe. FOURTH ROW: Kish, Ernsberger. Husvar, R, Sterzik, Perkey, Hillring, Toth, Muldreink, Barany, Pallatin, Nemeth. FIFTH Row: Macri, Hill, DuBois. Meilke, Hendryx, D. McMillan, Standfield, McCarthy, Amos. Miller. McCray. SIXTH Row: Grimmer. Bridgeford, Pasalich. Nelson. Burke, l.ee, Ferdinand. Barrett, Jessup, Capatina, Swisher. SEVENTH Row: Hopewell. Gervais, Linstead, Zolman. Biersdofer. Madich, Dodd, Hagquist, Weaver, J. McMillan. Perkey. EIOHTH Row: Walker, Minnis. Stan- age. Balaban. Marvel. Vvlhiteman, Clifford. Early, Weaver, Girard, Yanez. NINTH ROW: Nimtz, Farrell, l,ahey. Zeigert, Boxwell, Botich, Kolecki, Borinstein, Farkas, TENTH Row: fMdHUQ9F.Yj McKinney, Bell, Adams, Johnson, VanMeter. Varga, Klausmeyer, Warner, Goyer. CENTRAL, Zl: RILEY. 13. Hopes for a second victory over the Central Bears were completely shattered when the Cats were introduced to two young Bruin backs, Dan Preger and Al Smogor. As though still mindful of the 1937 trouncing administered by the Riley eleven, 22-7. Central's burly gridiron outfit ref turned touchdown with touchdown and then finally served up one better. to win 21-13. Owen Evans pro- vided the Cats with the lion's share of their yardage, and Ross Stephenson joined him in touchdown credits. Twice did the Central ace, Preger, cross the Riley goal, and once did the other half to the Bruins touchdown twin couple, Smogor. knife into Vv'ildcat scoring ground. All the sheer doggedness and stick-to-itiveness the Cats could muster could not stop the Bears. who. unfortunate for the Riley eleven, were playing their best game of the 1938 season. MISHAWAKA. 13: RILEY. 6. Coach Russell Arndt's Mishawaka All Cavemen made a clean sweep of things around South Bend in l938, with the Riley team no exception. After decisively brushing off Central and Washington, the Mishawakans got by on the skin of their teeth against Wood's football men, l3-6, The Maroons were at a loss to provide their own scoring until the Riley eleven spotted them a touchdown via an in- terference penalty pass. Disheartened by their inability to retaliate, the Cats were forced to allow another Caveman touchdown, sealing the Mish- awaka victory. Even so, the Riley team took credit for the most spectaf cular event of the affair, when amidst their rallys. Owen Evans raced 85 yards to touchdown terrain. Evans took the oval on the kickoff. started to his right. angled to evade Maroon tacklers, Enally cut to his left, and aided by splendid downneld blocking. express-trained the additional fifty yards down the side lines. thus performing what was labeled by sports writers. A'The most magnificent touchdown run ever seen in School liieldf' ASST COACH K055

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Football FOLLOWERS of Riley football looked forward to the 1938 season with no exceeding trepidation. After a magnificent eastern division cham- pionship team in 1937, little was expected for the Wildcat unit, now rid- dled by graduation. Two lone regulars, Owen Evans and Jake Galloway, and an alternate, Earl Hartup, formed the nucleus of the 1938 squad. When Coach Forest M. Wood, whose 1938 team culminated ten suc- cessful years of football coaching, and his right-hand man, Line Mentor Harry Koss, issued the call for the first practice session one sunny July day. they were answered with the largest gathering of football talent in the his- tory of Riley. Some one hundred and twenty-one candidates reported to the coaches, hopeful of securing a choice position on the first eleven. In spite of the tinyness of the Wildcat gridders. the smallest teambeiferhto represent Riley, a page was written into the annuals of Riley foot al t at COACH WOOD would not soon be forgotten. After ten years of constant building, Riley had finally and assuredly arrived in the real of athletic competition. RILEY, 18: HAMMOND TECH, 6. The Hammond Tech grid- ders invaded School Field boasting their strongest team in years. Greatly outweighed and supposedly out- classed. the Wildcats upset the provincial dope bucket with an 18-6 victory . . . a successful beginning. Owen Evans was by far the outstanding man on the field as he carried the pigskin over the Tech goal on three occasions, personally accounting for the Riley score. SCOTT OF TOLEDO, 20: RILEY, 6. Short lived was the Riley winning streak. The Wildcats took their longest trip of the season, and although they thoroughly enjoyed the over-night journey, were disappointed on the gridiron. Scott High School trotted eleven nifty gridders into their giant horseshoe sta- dium, and despite a first quarter nfty-eight-yard touchdown run by Evans, came back in the last three periods with an invincible drive to down a scrapping Riley team, 20-6. 4 , RILEY, 18: LA PORTE, 0. Amidst all the festivities of dedicating revamped School Field and dis- playing new band uniforms, Riley's small but mighty pigskin cohorts touched off a gala evening with a con- vincing exhibition of football tactics. Jumping back into the winning column once again, the Wildcats trounced their first conference foe, 18-0, before 16,000 delighted spectators adorning the new stands. Port Guard Paul Bohm batted down a Slicer punt and struggled fifteen yards for the initial touchdown. Soon after Owen Evans and Allan Bell augmented Bohm's tally with touchdown plunges. The victory captioned Wood's charges as definite factors in the championship race. RILEY, 25: NILES, 0. A low-hanging London fog and nippy session of collar-raising weather was apparently beneficial for the Cats. In their next journey to football pastures, they traveled to Niles, Michigan, where they brutally crushed the meager Niles eleven, 25-0. This game was the chance for the reserves to get into the fray, since after the first team had hammered the Tornadoes almost into complete submission, the Riley subs took over and added the final flourishes to an easy victory. Fleety Allan Bell crossed the last stripe twice for the Wildcats, both times on end-around jaunts. Tomi Bullock and Owen Evans added their share to the total, Evans scoring on a 19-yard sprint and later converting the first successful extra point of the season. Bullock's tally was emblematic of the sub's contribution to the field day, coming after a forceful down-field drive. ELKHART, 13: RILEY, 12. Dame Fate did not always accompany the Riley footballers. Even though the Cats exhibited their finest football of the season and fought to the bitter end, they finally suc- cumbed to the potential NIHSC champion 13-12. The Wildcat-Blazer tussle was unquestionably the most thrilling bit of football seen at School Field in 1938. No other team had come as close to halting the pow- erful Blue Avalanche as did the Riley men. The teams battled on even terms throughout the entire game. ex- cept when the Riley team took an early lead and threatened to make it a one-sided affair. Allan Bell and Owen Evans provided the Wildcat twelve points. Winning factor of the game was a momentous extra point strategem on the part of the Blazers, successfully completing a pass, Swihart to Ronzone. As for the indi- vidual star, they were many-but one stalwart Riley end, Earl Hartup, stood out as he captained his gallant Wildcats to a worthy defeat. RILEY, 25: MICHIGAN CITY, O. Even though they had been outweighed by their opponents all season, the Wildcat met the heaviest team of the year when they motored to Michigan City, Indiana, one pic- turesque autumn day and turned a football game into a '2Iack, the Giant Killer dramatization. At their best the Red Devils were only able to reach the Riley 23-yard line. Evans set the Cats off on their scoring spree, racing around his right end eleven yards for the first tally. Immediately following, he aided Earl Har- tup in the most comical incident of the year when he tossed a touchdown-pass to End Hartup, who gathered it in while sitting contentedly in the end zone. James Killer Knapp gave the spectators the biggest thrill of the afternoon a bit later, as he thundered through the Imps' line and slipped past the secondary for a 65- yard touchdown. When the varsity had done their quarum, the subs spiced the program with another touch- down, Emil Firtl passing to Tom Bullock. RILEY, 7: WASHINGTON, 0. The greatest triumph of the season. Satisfying the cooped up re- venge for a 1937 loss, Riley aggressively scalped a member of their own feline family, the Washington Panther, 7-0. The first half was largely a headache for the Cats, barely turning back the Washington scoring thrusts and being unable to count themselves, but the second portion of the game found a different Wildcat unit on the field. Functioning with all the efficiency of a well-oiled machine and attacking savagely, the Ri- ley eleven marched into position for the winning tally, furnished by Owen Evans. With the chips down, End Earl Hartup planted the conversion squarely between the uprights and completely disheartened a defeated Panther aggregation. It was the first conference game existing -between the two, and brought the football relation to a Riley advantage, having won two of the three tussles.

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Football ROM the time Owen Evans booted the first Riley kickoff down the field to Hammond Tech's visiting bruisers till Mishawaka Fullback DeMeyer plunged unsuccessfully for the last gridiron play of the year, these twelve men have been the outstanding contributors to Riley's claim for football supremacy. For wins and losses the 1938 season was not the most brilliant of Riley football, but followers of the Wild- cat eleven will partic- ularly remember it as having featured the play of som-e of the greatest players to take the field for the south-side school. Owen 1DiPPYl Evans topped all other backs ever to grace the ranks of a Riley football squad. He was a powerful and slippery runner, and efficient passer, and unbeatable punter, and capable blocker. All these tal- ents earned him the honors of all-Indiana halfback, all-conference and most valuable player. and unanimously all-city. End Earl Hartup was just as effective in his department of play, and was selected hon- orary all-state. all-conference. and all-city. Small but mighty, the Wildcat forewall did probably the greatest piece of line work in the history of Riley. At no time in the entire season did they face an opposing line that did not outweigh them, yet Riley backs fared just as well as other teams who had larger frontmen. At the top are Gal- loway, Murtaugh, and Reiter: and at the bottom Youngs, Frame, Wickens, and Hartup. Riley's 1938 backfield men were overly eflicient. Not only did they do their share in the ball-toting department, but more often formed valuable in- terference for long yard- age gains and touchdown plunges by Owen Evans. A hard - driving fullback, Knapp: a brainy quarter- back, Stephenson: a ver- satile left halfback, Evansg and two hard-fighting al- ternate right halfbacks, Smith and Bell, com- prised the mail-toters. These men represent not the greatest team in strength, or even in size, but characterize a coach's dream for personnel, attitude, perseverance, initiative, and individual adeptness. It was not always their better ability which made them stand above other teams, but the sheer doggedness and never-say-die spirit with which they fought.