St Xavier College - Xaverian Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY And now comes the high-Jight of the 1923 football season as well as the very peak of the career of our noble captain, Herb Davis - the St. Louis game. This, the fourth battle of the season, was played on Corcoran field on November 3rd, and ended in a 20-10 victory for the Xaverians. The story of the game is told in one small but significant word -Davis. A modern Achilles in the diminutive, Captain Herb proved the complete undoing of the Missourians by scoring every point for the winning side. Not that his team-mates did not give him every assistancee far from it. The Billikens, however, true to advance notices, began with a rush and a bang which made them increased favorites over our boys. But their advance was met with a defense which fairly paralyzed their efforts; not, however, until they had first scored ten points, and all within the first half. For St. Xavier the first period showed seven points, due to a 20-yard dash by Davis and a kick after touch- down. Though trailing at the end of the half, 7-10, the Meyermen came back in the third quarter for seven more points. A pass to Davis, another brilliant 20- yard sprint, and he once more kicked goal. The climax came in the final frame when, as the Louies were about to score, the gallant Herbert intercepted an aerial message and dashed daringly through a field of frantic friends and frenzied foes for 90 yards, dealing utter and crushing defeat to the Missourians. All hail to our little Chieftain! Most notable among the visitors were O,Toole, Quirk, and SchaHering, while the work of Bartlett, Knecht and Baurichter was marvelous, both on offense and defense. Page 07:! Humimd Fifty-four

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JOHN CARROL UNIVERSITY My, what a bunch of fighting maniacs football turns out! Those who wit- nessed the Carrol Ui encounter on the 20th of October wilf certainly corroborate the above statement, The contest was a vicious affair which led to a 13-9 victory from the hmen from home, Taking a game away from an aggregation such as represented the fair Cleveland institution is a task somwehat similar to appropriating a tasty and tempting morsel from his majesty, the man-eating king of the jungle. For example, there was that man Bright, who proved to be a roving terror; and that human small-measure, Carney, who created such havoc in the center of the line. And we all saw the steel- like line and the marvelously swift backfield of the up-state eieven run with the fleetness of scared hounds and bore; through with the strength of enraged lions H and then wither and die and fail. And why? Because they fell before a superior and flner-textured fierceness; a hrmer and more relentlsess aggressiveness; a slower but surer resoluteness which was that day evinced by the scrappy lads from Avon Hill. ' ' t ' Though slow to start the Saints quickly picked up speed and presented to the frenzied spectators a brand of sport such as was never before seen on Corcoran Field. Those who saw the runs of Captain Davis, the relentless line-bucks of Mamell and Rapp, the aerial attack of Reynolds, and the fine play of Muelier and Weiskittel, will never be forced to rack their brains for a reason why St. Xavier was victorious over John Carrol University. 131sz0 One Humirtd Fifty-thrte ,

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U. S. NAVAL ACADEMY As the sands of the hour-glass slowly dropped one by one, bringing to an end that fateful day of November 10, the 61-0 score remained as an indelible remem- brance of the awfuI massacre that took place when St. Xavier went down to her first defeat of the season This game may be truly likened to Custerts last stand, marking an entire annihilation of a little band of green-clad warriors by a vicious tribe of score-marking sailors far away in the wilds of Farragut held. And yet above it all rose the still indomitable Xavier spirit of that little band of one hundred rooters which had accompanied the team for so great a distance. 'Tight is not the word which characterized the struggle; it is more likely fright. For the St. Xavier team was decidedly not the team of previous con- tests. But let it be said that individually some of our boys were Hthere. Cap- tain Herb Davis dHered an example which, alas, his noble team-mates found diihcult to follow. However, Herb Lammers, the plucky halfback, was severely injured in a grand attempt to follow his captain, and forced to retire from the game for the remainder of the season. The one remarkable feature of the game, and one which is generally overlooked, is that despite the terrific onslaught of the sailors in the first half, the Avon boys, with a team composed chiehy of substitutes, held the Navy gridders in the second half to fourteen points. No small amount of credit must be given to the brave subs on this account. But to those future admirals, Barchet, Shapley and McKee, we must, out of a sense of fairness, tender the palm. Fag: One Hundred Fifty-jiw