Latin School of Chicago - Sigillum Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 99 text:

SIGILLUM BRENNAN, Manager, HAYS, FLANNERY, LEVINE, EELS, SECKEL, KIEFER, Cizowia. MR. BRADLEY, Btossoivr, MCCAR'I'Y, CRANE, KQARDNER, EBRIGHT, Pos'rELL. BASKETBALL Latin students can well be proud of their basketball team this year. At the start of the season, with no regular heavyweights returning and with only two members having ever played as heavy- weights, the prospects did not look very favorable. However Coach Bradley undertook the job with much patience and succeeded in developing a five that won eight of their eleven games. Under the leadership of Bob Crane the teams started slowly, but improved steadily during the season. The highlight games of the yera were the Harvard and Milwaukee Country Day contests which were thrillers up to the last minute. Especially enjoyable was the Mil- waukee victory, for it helped to attone for the football encounter. Both of the Parker games were disappointing for a victory in either would have been greatly enjoyed, but Parker's experience and Latin7s inexperience coupled to spell defeat both times. At the Private School Tournament Latin did not come up to expectations, and although they looked well most of the time they lost two exciting games. It was the experience of playing in front of a large crowd that seemed to disturb the players and was the jinx which Latin could not break. Unfortunate also was Wally Burke's leg injury two days before the tourney. Tall lWr. Burke, who had joined the team only a few weeks before, was being counted

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SIGILLUM FOOTBALL HISTORY Football teams at Latin have always been most interesting and more closely followed than either of the other two major sports. Although the records are incomplete, the first real championship teams were the squads of 1903 and '04, each of which won the cham-. pionship of the Preparatory League. During those earlier years of the twentieth century Latin played Senn, Austin, De Paul, Loyola, and other Chicago public high schools on even terms. In the 1910- 1912 regime four players who later went to Yale and were mentioned for All-American honors-Veeder, Owsley, Gallauer, and Spalding- held down positions on the Latin eleven. lt was during these years that Latin saw the best players that have yet worn the school colors. Mr. Engle was then coach of the team, and he set up a very im- pressive record considering the caliber of the opponents. At that time the school's great rival was the University School, holding somewhat the same position as the Francis Parker school at present. The high point of Latin's football record was when Latin won the high school championship of Chicago by defeating Pullman Tech at Wrigley Field. In 1923 Latin again played for the city championship at Wrigley Field against Lane, public school cham- pions, but lost 20-13. The accomplishment in the defeat was that Lane had had only three points scored against them before that. lVlcGlaughlin succeeded Engle and teams under him were very consistent, but never spectacular. Pete Fortune, who later starred at Princeton, played in '26, '27, and '28, the latter year as captain of the Latin team. Next Dewey took over the coaching and Chuck Duval, who starred at Northwestern University, played under him. During one of Mr. Dewey's years Latin played three scoreless games. Although his record was not too impressive, it could have been much better had some of the teams shown more spirit. Frank Rokusek began his coaching in '33, and with rather meager material to work with he has developed some very excellent teams. Gordon Spens and Jack Lhotka, two of the latest Latin stars, both profited much by his instruction and have used it to advantage in college. Summing up the Latin football records, we may say that Latin has always been a team to which their opponents conceded nothing, and usually playing against schools with larger student bodies than their own, the Latinites have always managed to make cred- itable showings.

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SIGILLUM on to aid Latin's lack of height, and his loss was a psychological disadvantage. So to players Gardner, Howell, Postell, Crane, Blossom, and the reserves, goes much credit for having made good in their first year of heavyweight basketball. BASKETBALL HISTORY Basketball has always been one of the three major sports at Latin, and although Latin began the sport when it was compar- atively new, it is constantly growing in popularity and no doubt will always continue so at Latin. The records, which date from 1900 on, show a championship team in 1902 and 703, when Latin won the Preparatory League title. During this time Latin played many of the public schools here in Chicago, just as in football, and was more than able to hold her own with the best of them. It was then that the most points ever scored against Latin were recorded, in a game which Deerfield won 71-19. Although it is not absolutely certain, the most points ever scored by Latin against an opponent occurred recently when in 1936 Latin defeated Todd 56-11. In 1913 Latin had one of the best teams in its history, dropping two games out of eighteen while continuing to play such schools as Evanston, New Trier, and Lane. Basketball continued on down through the years, and in 1929 another championship team was turned out, this time under the able guidance of Mr. Bradley. This team entered a national tournament at Madison, Wisconsin, and managed to defeat St. John's Military Academy before being eliminated. Bud Sauter played forward on Latin's 1930 team and continued to play until he captained the Princeton team in his final year there. Pete Fortune also starred for Princeton after aiding Latin in many games. In 1936 for the first time in the history of Latin basketball, a team went through it's season without a defeat. This team also was the greatest scoring aggregation ever to repre- sent Latin, averaging slightly lower than forty points a game. The team, composed of Zeigler, Lhotka, Antonsen, Baird, and Ely, managed to reach the semi-finals of the Private School Tourna- ment at Morgan Park. Earl Zeigler's record of a fourteen point average per game will likely stand for some time. Basketball stresses speed and skill rather than brawn, and thus Latin with its smaller students has always taken advantage of basketball as a means of defeating much larger schools. And so we hope it will continue to be, for basketball is recognized nowadays as one of the most scientific of sports. Good luck to future Latin sharpshooters.