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

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The 7979 Squad Grouped Around the Famous Runabout. but undoubtedly the most outstanding oi all, the great lfckersall. ln that memorable season occurred the famous Q to 0 victory over Michigan. lndiana was the only team to cross the Maroon end line. Coach Stagg, always a picture ol perfect health, sutleregl his First physical breakdown in 7903, alter he had irritated the sciatic nerve while knocking up Flies to his baseball squad all one afternoon. l-lis illness drove him to Colorado that summer, but despite the vacation and rest he continued to sutfer through all of 7905, 7906 and 7907. Alter a long absence the sciatic attack returned in 7970, Forcing him to coach his football squad from a motorcycle side car. Another recurrence in 7979 led some of the admiring alumni to present him with an electric automobile, from which he coached that year's team. It was this same runabout which he continued to drive until he left Chicago in 7932. ln spite of his serious physical disability the Qld Man can proudly boast that he has never missed a Chicago Football game, except for one time when he trav- eled to Milwaukee to get a line on the Wisconsin attack. The 7906 revolution in Football, which came about asa result otdrastic changes in the rules, definitely handicapped the game tor some seasons following. The sport could be said to be on probation, this attitude even being retlected in the size ot the squads. Qnly seventeen to twenty men reported to Stagg for loot- ball in 7906, 7907, and 7908, not enough for two full teams. Yet two important factors turned dismal pros- pects into spectacular results, For Chicago was barely nosed out oi the championship in 7906, and won it in 7907 and 7908. The lorward pass, which gave rise to a bewildering aerial attack, and two brilliant open Field runners turned the trick. ln addition to the inimitable Eckersall who was playing his last season forthe Maroons, there was a new Walter added to the team in 7906. This was Walter Stetlen, who proved to be the Equal of his sensational tgalig-mate in we arts out dodging and running. Stagg ranks Eckersall and Stetlen as t e greatest pair o open- ie runners e ever ad. Eckersall was gone in 7907, but Stetten admirably Filled his place at quarter, and his generalship, sup- ported by lddings and Worthwine in the backtield and Page and Bill l-lewitt at ends to snatch down his passes, landed Chicago at the top of the heap in that and the following season. After Stettens last game Stagg said of him: ln twenty-Five years as coach and player, l have never seen his like as a dodger in point of cleverness and resourcetulness, supported by splendid speed. ln running from quarterback position, l never have seen anyone who could even approximate his ability. l-le dodges with equal Facility either way. l-le is clever and accurate in forward passing. l-le is sale and deadly in his tackling. l-le is unusually strong in catching! and returningdpunts. lie is a good punter and drop kicker, and above all he is an inspiring eaaer an an unsurpasse genera. Thengraduation of such a truly remarkable player as Steifen naturally left a gaping hole in the 7909 team which was Farther widened when the last remnants ot the 7908 squad graduated in Mlune 7909. Chicago 30

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The year T894 also saw the completion of the new combined gymnasium and field house. Stagg tried the experiment of leaving the south 50 feet of the Q50 feet of floor space with a dirt floor to permit shot putting, pole vaulting, and high jumping practice. OF the numerous baseball stars developed by Coach Stagg, Nichols, the captain of the 'I894 team was probably the most outstanding. During all of his playing years, he was the Babe Ruth of Conference baseball. l-le was a first-rate pitcher, an unusual hitter, and a brilliant fielder. Twenty-five years after his graduation, Nichols, now in business in New York, returned with his old team mates to play the 'I9Q'l varsity at com- mencement time. l-le lived upto his reputation when he opened the game by blasting the first ball pitched for a mighty home run. The 'I898 football team was distinguished for a number of reasons, the most amusing of which was the fact that it was Chicago's first completely smooth-shaven sauad. The season itself, however, was but mere preparation for the great things to come in 1899, the year in which Chicago came into its first championship. ln that season Chicago played a twenty game schedule, winning sixteen, losing two, and tieing both the lndiana and pennsylvania contests. Between the fourth and fourteenth of Qctober the team played Notre Dame, lowa, Dixon College, and Cornell. Later in the season Brown was defeated, Northwestern was swamped 76 to 0, Minnesota bowed Q9 to 0, and Wisconsin lost 'I7 to O in a post-season game. Stagg tells of many interesting things that happened in ,99. l-le had a guard that season, l-lerb Ahlswede, now of l.ong Beach, California, who broke a leg in practice two days before a game but played through the contest without realizing his injury. At Ahlswedefs tearful pleading that he be allowed to play in the game, Doc Raycroft worked most of the night before to devise and get made in time a boot and pad that would permit him to play. A shoemaker and blacksmith finally succeeded in constructing a sole leather extension on his shoe, braced with an iron which went under his instep and up the leg almost to the knee. Stagg declares that this is the only case of which he knows where a player started and played through a game with a broken leg. A newcomer to the 'I899 squad was a slight tow-headed lad, weighing only 145 pounds, who at once attracted Stagg's eye as a fierce tackler. l'lis name was ,limmy Sheldon and he eventually captained the 'l90'l and T902 teams. l-le was assistant coach in 1903 and 'l904, and later went to lndiana where he coached for nine years. ln that same year, the Stagg coached track team won the Western lntercollegiate Championship, and this led to the promotion of a trip to the Qlympic games at Paris in 'l900. Stagg was forced to borrow S2500 at the bank to finance the expedition, President l-larper and T. W. Goodspeed indorsing the note. Five men made the trip: Charley Burroughs, an excellent sprinter, Bill Maloney, a quarter and half miler of great ability, his brother Fred, a fine hurdler, l-larvey l.ord, a quarter-miler, and l-lenry Slack, a Q90 and 440 yard runner, Walter Eckersall, who walked onto the Chicago football stage in 'l903, brought with him a new era in Maroon football. l'le was a local boy, having gotten his prep school experience at l-lyde Park l-ligh School. l-le captained the teams that defeated the New York high school champions, Brooklyn Polytechnic, 'l05 to 0 and 59 to 0 in successive years. It was not until 'l905, however, that Chicago won its second con- ference title. Strangely enough, eight ofthe eleven warriors that brought Chicago its second championship were Chicago boys, while the other three members of the team hailed from lowa, This T905 team, probably one of the greatest ever to wear the UC , boasted of such famous players as Bezdek, Catlin, Detray, Parry, Bert Gale, Dan Boone, Bubbles I-till, Art Badenoch, Babe Meigs, Fred Walker, Clarence Walker, and last, 29

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Upper Left-Three Generations. Upper Right-Tennis with Paul and Lonnie. Lower Left-Mr. and Mrs. Stagg. Lower Right-On l lis 68th Birthday. football reached a low-water mark in the next year, but by 1911 the team that was destined to win the 1913 championship began to develop. Paul Des glardien, an All-American center, and a pair of mighty tackles, Spike Shull and Goettler, both killed in action in the war, were the bulwarks of that great undefeated team of 1913. 1-o Dolly Gray, a great side-stepper at left half, Captain Nels Norgren, a splendid punter, powerful plunger, and spectacular defensive player at right half, and Snitz Pierce, a hard hitting back, Stagg added the wily Pete Russell, quarter-back deluxe, to complete as great a backfield as ever wore the Maroon jerseys. The year 1913 was also noted as the one in which the great west stand of the new Stagg field was com- pleted. lhe stand was dedicated on Qctober 4, the ceremonies being attended by a large group of notables. The chances of retaining the Big 1-en championship in 1914 seemed fairly good, but Coach Stagg's hopes were shattered when Pete Russell injured his shoulder early in the lllinois game and was invalided for the remainder of the season. lhe1915 eleven, captained by Russell, played well and won a hard foughtgame from Wisconsin,14-13, but lost to both Minnesota and lllinois. The World War brought disaster to Chicago football activities in 1916, when Maroon prospects reached the lowest ebb since the discouraging 1910 season. It again crushed all hopes for a championship in 1917, but Stagg was proud of his team of that year, for with only three veterans in the lineup, it held the powerful lllini to a scoreless tie. Big 'len football was suspended in 1918 by a Conference faculty order, for if the game was to be played at all, it would have to be by army teams immune to the usual eligibility rules, inasmuch as all students were members of the Student Army Training Corps. The boys came marching home in all their glory in 1919 to produce a team that went down in defeat before only the powerful teams of lllinois and Wisconsin, The 1920 team was weak on offense but proved to be one of the best defensive teams ever coached by Stagg. But Stagg achieved his greatest measure of success between 1921 and 1924 when his teams lost only two conference games and tied four. ln 1921 a defeat suffered at the hands of Chia State by the close margin of 7 to O cost the Maroons the champion- ship, while a O to O tie withWisconsin in 1922 brought the same bitter result. ln the latter season john Thomas starred in the ill-fated Princeton game which Chicago lost 21 to 18. ln 1923 lllinois won a bitterly contested game from the Maroons 7 to O to again nose Chicago out of the championship. l-lard and strenuous work was finally rewarded in 1924, however, when the Staggmen finished the season the undisputed champs of the Big len in spite of the fact that Qhio was tied 3 to 3, Wisconsin O to O, and lllinois 21 to 21. Stagg considered the 1924 Illinois contest the most thrilling game ever played on Stagg Field. Red Grange, at the height of his power, was thundering his way to everlasting fame over the gridirons of the Big len and Zuppke and his supporters came to Chicago confidently singing the praises of the wearer of the 77i. When the lllini took the field, however, they found that the Qld Man had developed a poisonous - 3 1