University of Chicago - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Chicago 21 lllinois 21. 6 November 19524 lt was his fathers great desire that young Stagg should have the best of educational advantages, but because of his meager Finances he Found it almost impossible to send him to school. l-le told his son that he would provide him with a home, but it would be necessary For him to raise his own tuition money. Accord- ingly he began his education in the small district school house of West Grange, paying his tuition by picl4ing up ditterent odd jobs. ln an interview some ten years ago, Stagg told a reporter of how he recalled in particular one job which consisted of beating Brussel carpets. l-le added good naturedly that he was prob- ably one of the best rug beaters in all oi West Grange. The majority of the boys in West Grange were satisfied with a grade school education, in fact many oi them stopped at the third or Fourth grades, but Amos Alonzo realizing the handicaps his Father had suttered from lacl4 oi learning, aspired to high school training. Accordingly, he diligently worked his way through Grange l-ligh School in three years, laboring at all types of jobs Familiar to poor but ambitious boys. It was while he was in preparatory school that he First played on an organized baseball team, and this initial par- ticipation in organized athletics is one ot his fondest boyhood memories. The very First year he became the school pitcher by virtue of his small stocl4 of curves, and the following year he helped to organize an amateur team. l'le pitched For this team when he could sandwich a game in between jobs, and gradually he began to earn something of a local reputation. ' During his last year in high school, Stagg sought the advice of the high school principal as to how he should go about rounding out his educational pursuits. The principal, who was always a sympathetic Friend to the ambitious boy, urged him to matriculate at Yale and study For the ministry. Stagg was much in Favor of this proposal, but when he came to investigate the situation, he Found that he could not pass the Yale entrance examinations. l-le, therefore, decided to go to Rhilips Exeter Academy to mal4e up his scholastic deficiencies. F-le spent the next six months in concentrated study at the Academy, his poverty forcing him to live under extremely trying conditions. l-le was so engrossed in his worl4, however, that he didnyt seem to mind the dingy garret room, where he was forced to live on two meals a day consisting of a hall pound of soda crackers, divided between the noon and evening repasts. Neither did he seem to mind the shivering Tl-lE LAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS-1924 Top Row-N. B. johnson, C. C. Jackson, A. A. Stagg, N, l-l. Norgren, Dr. C. O. Mo- lander. Fourth Row-T. G. Drain, .....,.....,.. , F. M. Henderson, F. E. Law, R. C. Emrich S. A. Rouse. Third Row-P. B. Barto, G. A. Kernwein, F. G. Clark, D. Cameron, F. j. l-lobscheid l-l. E. Neff, J. Pondelik, l-l. G. Frieda. Second Row-C. M. McKinney, F. F. Caruso, M. A. Polcrass, W. E. Marlcs, F. K. Gowdy Captain, S. E. l-libben, l-l. L. Thomas, G. W. Scott. Front Row-J. P. Long, R. N. Rolleston, A. L. Goodman, l-l. E. Barnes, R. E. Curley Clark, E. A. Francis. s,,.. I , ..-3-lg., ,,3i:,z,,,,.,z,,-:lui-'11--QE-e M V V -- I

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Michigan 'IQ Chicago O, Thanksgiving Day, 1895. AMOS ALONZO STAGG, A BIOGRAPHY By William D. Watson and Everett C. Parker Amos Alonzo Stagg began his colorlul career in a small but comlortable cottage located at 384 Valley Road, West Grange, New jersey on 'I6 August 1862. l-le was the Fifth in a Family ol eight children. l'lis father was a cobbler by trade, having been apprenticed to a shoemaker at the age ol seven. The lather was intellectually ambitious, however, and by the time he was twenty had succeeded in educating himsell. This desire lor intellectual advancement he later transmitted to the large lamily which was his greatest pride, and while the Stagg home was devoid ol most ol those advantages which make living luxurious, it was never one which was starved ol inspirational ideals. All ol the children were early given moral instruction in the home, and while their minds were still plastic, they were inculcated with a code ol upright living. The neighbors ol the Stagg family in West Grange were predominately native and lrish, being lor the most part a homogeneous group ol hat Factory workers, and laborers. Some ol the men ol the com- munity were addicted tothe habit ol sauandering their wages on drunken revels. The Stagg lamily scorned such tactics and the children at an early age were made to understand the evils connected with the saloon. That Stagg learned his lesson ol the saloon well is demonstrated by the lact that all ol his liie he has been a militant crusader lor temperance. As a curly headed boy, Stagg First learned to love sports, engaging in his First team play when but a little over six years olds As a member ol a local baseball team, the boy acted as both secretary and player, playing First-hand base and third-hand base. The story is told ol how he was given custody ol the pennies which the boys laboriously saved in order to buy a league baseball. Finally having saved the total ol S'l.25, they invested in a Hred-dead baseball, which was the pride and joy ol every member ol the team. When proiessional baseball came to Grange in 'l876, the boys watched the progress ol the games through knot holes in the lence surrounding the Field. From the very First Amos Alonzo took a great interest in the art ol pitching, and lor many weary months he practiced with his cousin who lived next door, experi- menting with the curve ball, a discovery then new to the game. l-le tells ol how one day he stumbled upon the out, easiest ol curves, and ran excitedly to the kitchen yelling, HMammal Mammal l,ve got itln Tl-IE FIRST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS-1899 Top Row-Charles Gibbons Flanagan, Frederick Feil, Charles William Ervin, Bert James Cassels, H. B. Conibear, Trainer. Third Row-Henry Gordon Gale, Kellogg Speed, James Ronald l-lenry, l-lerbert Frederic Ahlswede, Clarence Bert l-lerschberger. Second Row-Amos Alonzo Stagg, Coach, Frank Louis Slaker, August Fred l-lolste. Front Row-William Franklin Eldridge, Ralph C. Hamill, Walter Scott Kennedy, Capt., Jonathan Edward Webb, James Milton Sheldon.

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if' 55 , B al Chicago E29 Minnesota O. Q5 November 1899. New England winter, which he weathered without any underwear. l-le recalls how he gladly accepted the first job offered to him. It consisted of sweeping out the chapel at fifty cents a week. l.ater the German instructor, Professor faulhaber, gave him board for doing the chores at his home. Meanwhile, for three months of what he declares to be the bitterest winter he had ever experienced, his rations cost him but sixteen cents a day. l'le took the Yale entrance examination in glune, 7884, and his hard work was rewarded when he passed it with flying colors. During the remainder of that summer he worked for his father, putting up hay in the Newark meadows. The following September found a rather perplexed, anxious looking new student at Yale, with his entire wealth of eighteen dollars safely tucked away in his pocket. l-le immediately rented a small, dingy room in a garret, very similar to the one in which he had spent his days while at Exeter, and reverted to his old diet of crackers. feeling mildly prosperous on various occasions, he treated himself to a pound of round steak which he cooked on his garret stove. At the end of a few months he was successful in obtaining a job waiting on table, and in that way picked up enough money to make life reasonably comfortable during his period of adjustment. The athletic program at Yale opened with a huge student mass meeting at which addresses were made by the captains of the crew, the baseball team, and the football squad. Stagg attended the meeting with his fellow townsman George Gill who was disposed to the crew, and where Gill went Stagg was inclined to go. But on the way down Chapel Street to the boathouse on the first afternoon of practice the two novices were met by a friend of Gill's, a football enthusiast, who persuaded them to turn back to the new Yale field and to report for football practice. Stagg had seen only one football game, a contest played the year before between Yale and Princeton on the Polo Grounds in New York. football, therefore, was a relatively new experience to the aspiring athlete, and it was with some trepidation that he lined up with the scrubs against the powerful Yale varsity. No better picture can be painted of Staggfs first experience as a football player than his own descrip- tion of the activities of that afternoon. HAlex Coxe, Q90 pounds and big boned, was at left guard for the varsity. Not content with using his bulk in the line, Captain Richards was employing Alex to lug the ball. Tackling Alex waist-high or higher, as the rules enforced, was a auixotic enterprise, and he dragged us steadily toward our goal line. llhis was ata period before the old Rugby Union rules had been com- pletely abolished, and the so-called maul in goal still persistedl Another steam-roller sortie and he went over the line, with lillinghast of the scrubs still hanging on. Coxe landed on his back, and the ball was not down in that clay until it actually touched the ground. If Tillinghast could keep Coxe from turning over, or could wrest the ball from him, there would be no touchdown. This was the maul in goal, legislated out the following year, and the rules stipulated further that it was a strictly private Fight between the man with the ball and the man or men who had their hands on him when he crossed the goal . . . What lillinghast lacked in weight he made up in fight. While twenty of us looked on, the two fought it out for fifteen minutes- and l do not exaggerate. lt ended in a victory for the scrubs, -fillinghast getting the ball away from the winded Coxe. Thirty-five candidates reported for practice that season, and the team was coached by a staff of graduate students. Stagg won a place on the varsity but did not play in any important games. At rushing time in the Spring of 1885 the freshmen and the sophomores played their annual baseball game. lt was seldom that a first-year team managed to beat its older rivals, and the sophomores, determined 20