St Marys College - Dial Yearbook (St Marys, KS)

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ATHLETICS n F You might ask “How could this be done?” The writer learned foot ball and its fundamentals at Kansas University, but learned more about offense and defense every year afterwards through officiating. Sunday afternoon, the squad at the grave-yard would always get a play, maybe two, used by some team in its Saturday game. Year by year we built up a system of play that became entirely a “St. Mary’s offense” and the plays, shifts and all, even the signals, were drilled into the Second League teams by their coaches. When those boys came up to the “Varsity” they were better coached than the average high-class High School team. I have been asked to pick an “All St. Mary’s” foot ball team. You know I have been for years opposed to “All Teams,” but, for just once, I’ll break over. Having coached teams that played both the old and the new game, I feel that in justice to all there must be an Old-style All Team” and a “New-stylc All Team.” “All St. Mary’s Team” as chosen by Mr. Quigley: Old Style” Pos. “Open Game” “Jack” Purcell.....................C..............................“Jew” Burns Pete Falkcnburg....................G...............................John Conrad Leo Cleary.........................G..............................Chas. Brown “Art” Bcakey.......................T..........................Leo Tighc Basil Fox..........................T..................“Prof.” Scanlon “Nig” Hughes................... ...E................... Fess” Mooney Tom Walsh..........................E................................Tom Hallacy Mike Murphy........................Q.................“Shorty” Bennett “Jodie” Clancy.................:H B.............................“Heine Rauth “Tommie” Burns.................H. B................................Paul Amberg Chas. Spcice......................F. B.......................Mark Gross In baseball it finally developed that we had to play nearly everybody. The “Cubs,” Detroit “Tigers,” Buffalo, St. Paul American Association, Denver and Topeka Western League clubs all helped make our baseball teams what they were. The “Big Leaguers” would give the boys good advice—a secret (the boys would then tell me and together we would work it all out and finally we all thought we knew a little about baseball). It is a pleasure now to look back on those days in baseball and realize that St. Mary’s base ball teams really did play an exceptional brand of ball. We had the pitchers and we had the catchers. The hitters were there and the boys did enjoy playing correct ball. How satisfying it was to see each one develop! How interested they all were! To pick an “All-Time BascBall Team” is quite a task, but as long as you ask for one here goes: Tom Walsh...................................................Catcher “Speedy” Swift.............................................Catcher “Toots” Collins............................................1st base Semi Collins...............................................2nd base Tommy Burns................................................3rd base Walter Walsh..............................................Shortstop Mark Gross................................................Left Field “Shorty” Bennett........................................Center Field “Hcinic” Rauth...........................................Right Field Utility Infielders: “Prof.” Scanlon—“Biscuit” Ruwart. Utility Outfielders: “Honk” Rozier—“Pete” Falkcnburg. Pitchers: “Father” Hill, Cy Young, Clarence Bakule, Jo-Jo Hendrix, “Chin” Green. “Hank” Collins, “Jock” Mahoney, “Ropic” Hayden. I have stated that the success of the teams was spelled in morale and cooperation. Many an enjoyable night was spent cither in the “blue-grass” or in the “smoking-room.” Those old-time “Stay-ups” just meant everything to the boys. They lived over and played over each game. The coffee and cakes came in due time—the stogies were lighted and each run scored was made a hundred times before the “Squad” answered the pocket bell of the prefect. COOPERATION.—Those of you who enjoyed even one year of squad privileges at St. Mary’s know that that word was spelled in more ways than one. To some of you it was Whelan,” to others “Kenney,” to many others Hermans”—to those later on “Hoffman,” and after that “O’Connell.” To me, these men just made athletics what they were at St. Mary’s College. S DIAL AN7MUAL One Hundred Forty

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ATHLETICS “RECALLING THOSE DAYS” By Mr. E. C. Quigley : : - H r : ■ ; Looking back from the “Lights of Broadway” to the small confines of the old “Flats,” (the home of the old-time Philosophers), is not such an effort, but a resume of St. Mary's athletics during the time the writer was “Director of Athletics” there with no data at hand except a repetition of pleasant memories, must lack definite details and dates. Three dates arc indelibly fixed: Oct. 2, 1902, when the writer first arrived at St. Mary’s; April 1, 1914, when our term of service came to a close, and Saturday, October 8. 1910, the day we held the ever victorious Kansas University team to a 9 to 5 score on McCook Field. To be sure, athletics at St. Mary’s, during the year of 1902 and for many years preceding, were strong; but as we all look back at those days now, we realize that St. Mary’s, like other schools of that time, just “played” football and baseball. There was no athletic policy in the small colleges; there was an absence of proper administration both in the business and technical phases of sport; and then, .oo, few small colleges had coaches. In foot ball our schedule consisted f of a few college games. For years the big game at St. Mary’s was the annual bt. Mary’s-Kansas City Medic game. Ottawa, Fairmount, the Normals and Kansas Aggies made up the college competition. Later on when St. Mary’s became a member of the Kansas College Conference, our schedule called for games with Kansas University, Kansas Aggies, Washburn, Fairmount, Friends, Southwestern. Kansas Normals, College of Emporia, Ottawa and William Jewell. At different times, Warrens-burg Normal, Drury College and Marauctte University tested their brains' and brawn with our boys and not to the discredit of St. Mary’s. The writer has been asked what made our football teams from 1903 until 1912 so uniformly successful, and. without hesitancy, the answer must be: morale and cooperation. The world loves a winner and the writer cared little for moral victories. The letters won in athletics were highly prized, and no one w(jrc them but a “letter man.” In football the men sacrificed their morning recess time to run signals in the yard; the afternoon recess period was used for classroom work on rules, interpretations and plays; at 4:30 P. M. the squad took to the track; and the third hour at night was used for signal and formation work, sometimes in the present Senior Billiard room, which was our Gymnasium, sometimes in the Junior recreation room, which was their “gym.” Our football season was a continual session of toil, and, I believe after all was over, it was time well spent. Our teams were made up mostly from the leagues and these league teams were coached by squad men. It was an unwritten law that each Second League team had to be coached by a “letter man.” and when you had league teams coached by such sterling boys—and boys they were—as “Shorty” Bennett, Fess” Mooney, “Corncy” Stoll. “Dutch” Kistner and “Tommy” Burns, is it any wonder that we had more material than we needed? The other leagues had squad men coaching them and it was not surprising to have a fourth league player make the “Varsity” the next year, because he knew what to do. DIAL ANNUAL One Hundred Thirty-Nine

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ATHLETICS REMINISCENCES By Mr. S. O'Rourke As I travel the road of Yesterdays and find myself once again a lad in grammar school, I can recall very graphically the manner in which I used to digest Father Finn’s stories about old St. Mary’s. Even as a youngster in an Eastern city, the Blue Grass, the Small Yard; Pawnee creek and “Stay Ups” were mystic and magic names to me—and the St. Mary’s of “Tom Playfair,” “Percy Wynn” and “Harry Dee,” was my dream school. My grammar school days passed away and, with youth approaching, the elders at home directed me to other scholastic fields—yet my early impressions of St. Mary’s, gleaned from the pages of the famous Jesuit author, always lingered with me. Hence, when I began my career as coach of athletics at the dream school of my youth, 1 was a stranger to St. Mary’s—but St. Mary’s was no stranger to me. In September, 1915, when I took over the coaching position, the names of Mat” Carpenter, Jimmy Bray, Pough Walsh, “Tommy” Burns, Ray Dockery, “Shorty” Bennett, Eddie Murphy, Paul Kistner, Percy Burns, Langhoff and a host of others who contributed much to the athletic tradition }f the Blue and White were still on the lips of the students. The feats of these athletes and the excellent record of all of Mr. Quigley’s athletic teams seemed to be beacon lights—inspirations, as it were, for the students to follow and to be guided by. 1 was enthusiastically received and that enthusiasm, that genuine old St. Mary’s spirit, helped me miraculously in my pleasant associations with the St. Mary’s students during my six years as coach of her athletic teams. Yet here, I must say, that the little success obtained by the teams during my administration as coach was due, first to the old traditional spirit of the school, and second to the wonderful assistance, cooperation and suggestions given to me by the First Perfects—viz: Mr. Walsh, S. J., Mr. Petit, S. J., Mr. Holton, S. J., and Mr. Bennett, S. J. These four Jesuit scholastics always had the interests of the St. Mary’s boys at heart. They anticipated their every want and in victory were the first to congratulate. In defeat, their words of counsel and good cheer were incentives to overcome defeat’s sting. Conrad, Gavin, Gancy, Bannantine, Gatz, Smith, Lamb, Devitt, Sipes, Kigali, Armstrong of the football team of 1915 can well remember our campaign of defeats. A rift in the skies did not seem possible, yet that 1915 knew the meaning of the St. Mary’s spirit, and guided by that, possibly the most enjoyable victory during my stay there as coach, was gained on Thanksgiving Day of that season. The students of that year can recall the Doane-St. Mary’s game. With the Nebraskans leading 7 to 3, and out a minute to play, Kigali caught a punt and ran sixty yards to a touchdown and a victory. This was our only victory of the year, yet the fight, the determination, and the spirit displayed by the 1915 squad in defeats became a tradition for the following football elevens. In the winter of 1916 St. Mary’s Basketball team for the first time entered the Kansas Conference with a standing of seven wins out of fourteen games played. Old boys of that year can remember our first conference victory. Fairmount College was our opponent. The Wichita quintet was leading 24 to 23 and as the timer’s whistle announced the close of the game, “Marty” O’Toole’s shot from the center of the court, was sailing majestically through the air. The proverbial hush was in evidence, and as the ball glided gracefully through the net, giving the Blue and White a victory by one point, even Father Louis O’Connor S. J., then Prefect of Studies, momentarily forgot his dignity and joined the pandemonium of the crowd by boisterously slapping Father Kuhlman, S. J., on the back. Marty O’Toole—how well the old boys of 1916 remember him—a true type of the real St. Mary’s boy, whom God called to His Home, while in our midst. 5 DIAL ANNUAL il 1 One Hundred Forty-One