The Beginning Era of High School Football: The Great Teams, Players and Coaches of 1884-1909

Well, it all started in 1884 when the Reverend Sydney Smyth founded a private school in Delafield and it was called St. John’s Military Academy. Needing a way to entertain the students that fall he gathered some material he had on sports…there were really only a limited number of athletic activities available at that time. Besides baseball, running events and swimming, football was a sport he enjoyed as a student at Racine College where he studied for the ministry. He had a set of rules, the new and official rules that Yale’s Walter Camp and others had hammered out to refine the game, making it less of a version of rugby and more identifiably it's own thing. He was the first to utilize the IFA (Intercollegiate Football Association) rules, the first guidelines of the modern sport. Insisting that all the opposing teams played by the same rules, Smythe made or obtained copies for teams he hoped to play. St. John’s was the first school…public, private or college east of the Allegheny Mountains to follow the “Eastern” rules, as they were sometimes called. The school played two games in 1884 and won both contests.

In those days it wasn’t uncommon for a teacher or the team coach to play in the games. At about age 48, in 1890, Smythe was hurt in a game pitting St. John’s against Beloit College. He broke a thigh bone and walked with a limp for the next 33-years. After his injury Smythe demanded that only students of the school play for St John's and his opposing teams have only “proper aged” players…no teachers or ringers were to be allowed.

The game progressed and many schools and colleges began to play football. Madison High School had their first teams around 1892 or 1893. The Milwaukee high schools, North Side, South Side and East Side schools (Later known as North Division, South Division and Riverside high schools) started about this time to field teams as would West Side (Later known as West Division and now remade as Milwaukee High School of the Arts). They, along with other several colleges and St. John’s helped to form what would become the WIAA in 1896. After a few years the colleges were dropped from the active roster of schools in the organization and St. John’s, because it was a private school was not allowed to join the WIAA. It would be 104 years for private schools to formally be allowed to apply for membership in the WIAA.

The early years are difficult, as I have said in other blogs and my book, to track some teams. So, my research for this era has been a hard one in searching for the correct data. What I present here is based on the best information I could find. Let’s get started at looking at the best of the best from 1884-1909.

The Top 10 Teams for 1884-1909:

1) Delafield St. John’s Military Academy…1904…9-0-0

2) Milwaukee South Side…1898…7-0-0

3) Madison High School…1897…8-2-1

4) Chippewa Falls…1909…6-0-1

5) Sparta…1907…8-0-0

6) Oshkosh…1908…6-1-0

7) Eau Claire…1903…8-0-0

8) Delafield St. John’s Military Academy…1905…7-0-1

9) Eau Claire…1904…6-0-0

10) Fort Atkinson…1902…6-0-1

Why the 1904 St John's team at number 1? The team was undefeated, untied and unscored upon while scoring 355 points. Their opponents included four colleges (One was a combined Carroll College and Waukesha High School team), three private academies and two high school…beating Appleton 39-0 and Elkhorn 102-0. This season also began a run of 18 consecutive shutouts which is still a Wisconsin state record.

1898 Milwaukee South Side was also undefeated, untied and unscored upon beating two college teams and they even defeated St, John’s 39-0. They were honored as the second National Champion football team, the last Wisconsin high school to be so honored. South refused to play Madison in 1897 because there was a question of the capitol city team having age eligible players.

The 1897 Madison team was recognized in the state to be the best team that season. They are also recognized as the first National Champion team by beating Tonawanda, NY 14-0 in a game played in Detroit on Christmas Day. Their two losses were to the University of Wisconsin varsity squad and their tie was to Whitewater Normal College.

Chippewa Falls had a 12-game shutout streak that ended in 1909 when the team played a game against their own alumni, a 11-5 win. Powered by the great quarterback Gus Dorais, who was one of five all-state players on the team.

Sparta cruised through the 1907 season, including a 113-0 defeat of New Lisbon. In the title showdown they beat La Crosse 6-4. The team was bolstered by two all-state players, end Kessling Thayer, and center Moses “Mose” Smith along with quarterback/halfback Earle “Runt” Jefferson. The team was coached by a local dentist, Dr. George Hull Barlow.

Oshkosh in 1908 ruled the Fox Valley and the north east part of the state as they beat Fort Atkinson for the title on a snow-covered field 4-0. Their only loss was to Ripon College in the season opener, 11-0.

The 1903 Eau Claire team was the best team in the state as they went 8-0-0. They claimed the title when Fort Atkinson failed to show for the championship game and was awarded a 2-0 forfeit win.

St. John’s in 1905 continued their shutout streak as they defeated three colleges, four private academies and tied 0-0 against Chicago area powerhouse Morgan Park Academy. The streak continued into 1906 when they shutout their first opponent before losing to St. Louis University 27-0. Several weeks earlier in 1906, St. Louis played Carroll College and attempted the first legal pass. The forward pass didn’t become legal until that year. The combined 1904 and 1905 seasons helped make St. John’s one of the most dominate teams in the state.

1904 Eau Claire again dominated the north as they shut out all of their six opponents including a 33-0 shellacking of Green Bay East for the state title. A follow up match with St. John’s never materialized because the two couldn’t agree to the date and location of the game. Eau Claire would have a 16-game shutout streak during the 1902-05 years.

Fort Atkinson was declared the 1902 state champion by several papers although Eau Claire also made a claim that season. Fort tied Janesville 0-0 and did trounce Stoughton 103-0 but they only scored 169 points on the season and did have a close 11-10 battle with Madison. None the less, they were a super team. Their coach, George Lloyd, was in strong competition for my Coach of the Decade as he led his teams from 1902-1909 to a 41-4-4 record.

The Best Game:

This is a tough call to pick a game. The 4-0 win by Oshkosh over Fort Atkinson in 1908 might have been the best game and it was for the state title. Fans crowed the field and made problems for the referee’s when the Oshkosh people shoved the Fort players in between plays after some of the team would run out of bounds or get close to the sidelines. The field had lots of snow on It and the conditions were slippery. It obviously was a see-saw battle. Fort Atkinson outweighed Oshkosh 154 pounds to 141 pounds. The game was played in Ripon. Early stats showed that Oshkosh outgained Fort 150-yards to 115-yards. A drop-kick from Fort's 43-yard line on the first half (They played two 25-minute half’s, not four quarters) was the difference. Field goals that season were worth 4-points. As the Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper reported, the “little giants” of the north triumphed over the “giants” of the South. The actions by the Oshkosh fans led to stricter control of the sidelines around the state starting in 1909.

The Best Coach:

Like many coaches of the era, most didn’t stay at one school or even coach for very long. My pick is Louis C. Christofferson of Delafield St. John’s. Only at St. John’s for the two seasons (1904 and 1905) he developed a well-oiled machine that would, in 1905, earn honors for the school as they were awarded the National Military Prep Championship, the Western Prep Championship and the North Central Academy Association Championship. He left St. John’s to coach college ball.

As I noted before, Coach George Lloyd of Fort Atkinson was a close second.

NOTE ABOUT THE BEST PLAYERS

You will see that for this issue of the top players of the decade that there is a first team and an honorable mention list. Future first team lists may have more than the usual 11-players along with the honorable mention list. As I progress into the 1970’s when the 2-platoon system became more common after substitution rules were relaxed, I will be presenting first team offense and defense teams as well as an honorable mention list.

Remember that Hercule Poirot (Remember the reference in my last blog) is still searching for the first names of older players and thanks to the help from Jarod Roll at the Monroe County Local History Room and Museum in Sparta I learned of the first names to two of the three players on my All-Decades Team and Honorable Mention list along with the first name of the team coach, Dr. George H. Barlow. Jarod helped me when I wrote my book in finding the scores for the 1907 and 1913 state champion Spartan’s and it is through his help and that of his research assistant that the names were finally tracked down.

I hope you like what you see here. From time-to-time I will be doing other decades of stars, coaches and teams.

Nearly everyone mentioned here is profiled in more detail in my book, The Great Teams.

Odds and Ends

STATE RECORD BOOK

Just to let you all know that the 11-player and 8-player record books have been updated again and have been posted on the WFCA web site. I’ve posted a link if you are interested… State Records (wifca.org) Thanks to all that submitted some 2021 stats that I missed and to those who sent in information about earlier seasons. One of the older updates deals with Coleman’s Mitch Champagne, 2009-11. I found that I had credited him with only 70 touchdowns on his career but it turns out that he scored 79 and an additional 23 2-point conversions which gave him a career total of 526 points. The total now places him #19 on the career scoring list. After the January 4 posting I was inundated with information and I want to thank Travis Wilson, first, for his article posted at WISSPORTS.NET alerting people to that original update and now I thank him for posting the new records on the WFCA web pages.

A SPECIAL NEWSPAPER STORY SHARED BY A READER

In late December Kerry Johnson sent me an interesting story from the November 18, 1933 Waukesha Freeman. Waukesha sure threw some wild post-game events back in the 1930s. It reads as follows:

Waukesha Loses Game

But Wins the Football

“West Milwaukee High school won the football game Saturday but Waukesha fans saw that the football used in the contest stayed in the Spring City.

While most of the spectators remained in the stands to watch, several hundred members of both factions crowded onto the field after the game to tussle for the oval, which someone had snatched from the referee.

For a half hour the fight waged. Noses were bloodied, hats trampled in the mud, and various and sundry articles of clothing torn as the ball passed from hand to hand in a swinging vortex of kicking, rushing, fist-waving humanity.

Even the law, in the person of Officer Tom Owen, entered the fray, but to no avail. It finally took Mike Rich, Carroll football star, to get into the clear with the ball. Given some nice interference, Mike reached the east exit.

He tossed a neat lateral to Frank De Santis who sprinted down the hill toward the railroad tracks by the West Milwaukee gangsters. Overtaken, De Santis handed the ball to a high school lad, who made a successful get-away and the last we heard, the ball was safely locked in the high school gym.

A tear gas squad was summoned at the height of the conflict but arrived too late to throw anything but dirty looks.”

Thanks again to Kerry for the story.

DECADES and NAMES

I have some new blogs in the pipeline. I intend to cover the best teams, coaches and players from the past each divided by decades. I'll be starting with the "decade" of 1884-1909 and then move onto actual 10-year periods. So, after the first story things will go 1910-1919, 1920-1929, etc. I hope you like it. While putting things together I’ve found that I needed to go back and re-look at previous research.

Do you like mystery novels? Some of the research is like reading an Agatha Christie novel with Hercule Poirot tracking down the murderer. Some of my new research has been trying to find first names for people that I hadn’t found in past tracings. As I’ve said before, many newspapers and yearbooks didn’t print first names which makes things frustrating for me. I actually was working on the 1910-1919 “Best Players of the Decade” and I’ve been working on finding the first names to a number of people from Fort Atkinson. Three players on my honorable mention list for the decade are from that school, mainly from the 1911 state champion team. Pottinger was an all-state center/guard, listed on all four of that season’s known all-state teams. Owens, a tackle, was named to two of the four all-state teams and Mussehl, an end, was also named to two of the all-state teams. Besides those three, I can’t find the first name of Coach Vosberg or for their fine coach on the period 1902-1909, Coach Lloyd.

I was reading the novel by Christie, “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”, rated by 600 major mystery writers from around the world in 2013 as the best mystery ever. Lots of twists and turns. I’m not Poirot but I do use my “little grey cells” to search for the names. I have reached out to the Fort Atkinson Wall of Fame organization, a group that honors past athletes and teams. I was surprised to find that none of their older players or coaches from their 1902 and 1911 state title football teams were not on the Wall. Even Howard Lee “Whitey” Woodin, their great guard from 1911-14 wasn’t even on their honored list. I’ve reached out to the group which will be honoring three new members on January 28 and I sent them info from my research and book and asked them to help with first names. Well, I'll see if they have information to help. With the cities historical society and the county historical society in Watertown closed because of COVID and the school and public library’s only have yearbooks dating back to about 1917 it’s looking like it might be difficult to “solve the case” but I’m still on it.

I expect to get a lot of feedback as I release my 1990-1999, 2000-2009 and 2010-2019 editions. Let me know who you think were the best coaches, teams and players of these or any decade and give me some reasons and I'll may include your thoughts in the blogs.

So, there you have it. Isn't it nice to read a short blog sometimes? I’ll catch you soon.

Reminisces and Records

Yes, it is that time of the year to reminiscence a bit, to look back at the history of high school football. Sorry, almost none of what I’m talking about here will pertain to Wisconsin high school football as this is about the national scene.

Some information, in some national or state record books just plain have things wrong. Lucky for me people haven’t presented me with outrageous bogus info that can’t be confirmed. Others have not been so lucky in believing incredible tales.

In 1950 the Alabama Journal reported that Jack Golson scored six punt returns in one game for Fort Deposit in a 61-13 win over Loretto Academy. The performance is listed in the National Federation of High Schools record book and in the Alabama High School Athletic Association record book. In fact, the AHSAA record book notes that Golson's six punt return touchdowns are the only punt return touchdowns he scored all year. However, a few days later the Lowndes Signal reported that it was five punt returns and one kickoff. He also scored two touchdowns rushing and kicked seven extra points for a total of 55 points. The true info didn’t come to light until 2006.

Earlier this past season quarterback Justyn Martin of Inglewood high school in Californian tossed…wait for it…13 touchdowns in a 106-0 win!!! The 13 td’s are a California state record. That placed him #2 on the national all-time single game list. OR, did it? You see, 100 years ago, to the day that Martin tossed his 13 touchdowns Arthur Smith of Cozad (NE) tossed 15 touchdowns in a 201-7 win against Overton (NE). There are some game stories from the local newspaper and Smith is credited with scoring 10 times but no mention of touchdown passes. This is just one of several records that have had to be corrected in Nebraska and in the national record book in the past few years.

In a 1942 game pitting Mogadore (OH) vs. Hudson (OH), Mogadore claimed many passing and receiving single game records. One was the 32 catches made by a guy named Larry Bennett. It’s in the school record book that Bennett is listed as gaining 335 yards in the 53-7 loss to Hudson. However, the Akron Beacon Journal listed Bennett as the quarterback and in another, game, he was listed as a fullback. The Beacon Journal doesn’t mention him catching a single pass against Huron. Mogadore also claimed that 69 passes were thrown in the game. The claims by the school raises more questions than have been answered.

Others like the 1956 report of Jim Linnsstaeder from Brenham Texas who supposedly intercepted 35 passes in a single season are coming into question. Some other records are backed by piles of information.

Now, for some very slight connections to Wisconsin. When I first started collecting weekly stats from state wide newspapers and coaches, my lists had passing, rushing, receiving and scoring (A stat category I wish WisSorts.net would add). I once had a future WFCA HOF coach report week after week his quarterback as one of the state’s biggest scorers. Maybe his stats person was giving him the info. What was reported was his passing touchdowns and rushing td’s combined for the scoring category. He ended up passing for 14 touchdowns and scoring 9-rushing but the total was submitted as he scored 23 touchdowns on the year. Even in the “modern age” of stats things got mixed up but, somehow, when the school sent in stats to the WIAA for the state title program they got things correct.

The first record book I looked at was Bill McMurry’s Texas High School Record Book originally published in 1974. There were records for basketball, baseball, track and swimming along with football. In the receiving section a player from Dallas Roosevelt high school was listed as John Washington. His name was on the list in several places. I was confused. I had read about the book in the Dallas Morning News. The story stated that Washington was headed to Arizona State, the school I was attending. The article also told of the record book written by a Houston Chronicle prep sports writer. I sort of got Bill McMurry in trouble when I called the newspaper to talk to him about obtaining a copy of his book. Bill was out doing covering an event and I was forwarded to his boss who was a bit upset that Mr. McMurry was conducting business on his work time. I got the book and later found out later that even though the records were listed in Washington’s name, that after he came to ASU his last name had changed to Jefferson, taking his mother’s last name. He starred at Arizona State then played for San Diego’s “Air Coryell”. After three seasons he was traded to the Green Bay Packers where he teamed with WR James Lofton, TE Paul Coffman and QB Lynn Dickey. The offense was explosive but the Pack was saddled with a poor defense. After four seasons he went to Cleveland and finally retired in 1986. The record book gave me a lot of insight to what was to come.

In the same record book were other several listings of note. It was hard to overlook the stats of Sugar Land High School’s great running back, Ken Hall who set a huge number of national and state records, some that are still at the top of the lists. From 1950-54 Hall rushed for an incredible 11,232 yards and scored 899 career points. The second player on the single season rushing list was a guy from White Oak, a fullback named Max McGee.

Yes, the star receiver for Vince Lombardi’s great teams of the 1960’s. McGee would gain his greatest notoriety by being the star of the first Super Bowl played in New Orleans when he caught 7-passes for 139-yards and two touchdowns. He should have been the game’s MVP but, for his directing the winning team to that win the honor went to Bart Starr. Receiver Boyd Dowler was hurt in the first quarter and Lombardi looked to his bench and saw a player who was hungover from spending the previous night on Bourbon Street with his long-time buddy and roommate, Paul Hornung. Kansas City Chiefs defensive back and future actor Fred “The Hammer” Williamson had said to the press prior to the game that Boyd Dowler wouldn’t catch a pass against him. Dowler was targeted once before he went down injured. He didn’t catch a pass but Max McGee tore him apart.

Back to the record book. It listed that in 1949 McGee ran for 3,048 yards. This was the first time a Texas player gained 3,000-yards in a season and later, in the national record books, the second 3,000 rushing season of all time. The first was in W.C. Roberts of Warren County High School located in McMinnville Tennessee who in 1928 ran for 3,690 yards. Of course, the next season Ken Hall would start his run for the record.

Thanks for an easy evening where I had nothing to do a few weeks ago I explored newspapers.com to look up game records of that 1949 season on McGee in the Longview (TX) News-Journal. There were game stories for the White Oak Roughnecks but other than the game scores there was little statistical information. No game stats or player scoring recaps. You had to read the stories carefully to add up the individual scoring stats. Only the last game, the Class B championship, had a team statistical recap but no individual players totals. A story three days later in the paper recanted that McGee had carried the ball 17 times for 338 yards against Brownsboro, a 39-0 win to cap a 10-1-1 season. I searched for additional stats on Max but it wasn’t until a 2007 story covering his death did additional information turn up. I found the facts of the story concerning the 166 points that McGee scored in 1949 as being correct but the story also had him punting for a 43.7-yard average and intercepting 17 passes and of course, the 3,048 rushing yards. I can say that from the game reports he had some prodigious punts on the season and had a number of interceptions but no complete information. How or who submitted the info to Bill McMurry isn’t known.

Now I digress a bit. This past October 15 Kevin Askeland of Max Preps.com had a story about a player named Sal Gonzales of St. Anthony Gadsden, New Mexico. In 1972, while combing the library at Arizona State for information on an English paper I ran across a section in the archives of sports related magazines. In a publication by Scholastic Coach from 1956 I saw the name of Sal as being named to the 1955 All-America football team. For some reason I remembered the name. Now, nearly 50-years after I came across the name Kevin Askeland asked the question why his career rushing and scoring records weren't in the New Mexico Athletic Association or the National Federation of State High School Associations record books. The answer was, as it turns out, not even the school had the official records. Lost? Not sure. His career was long before these two record books existed. But Kevin Askeland found stories in the El Paso (TX) Times newspaper (The largest newspaper closest to St. Anthony) that confirmed his career totals. They had been submitted to a sports writer at the paper after the 1955 season, Gonzales’s final year. A month later after Kevin’s story in MaxPreps the NMAA adjusted their records. Sal’s career 607 points scored is now #5 on the state list and his 7,098 career rushing yards are listed #2. All it took was someone to confirm the stats. People at the NMAA were aware of his records but had no way of confirming the facts.

Why do I mention Sal Gonzales? Well, his career stats had been distorted over the years. Sal was also an outstanding basketball and baseball player. After playing football at the University of Arizona for two seasons he followed his head coach to the University of New Mexico for his final two years. As a senior at Gadsden, he had offers from the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the Cincinnati Reds and several other teams to play pro ball. After graduation at New Mexico, he spent some time in the military and then came back to coach baseball at several high schools and colleges in New Mexico. Besides rushing for 7,098 yards he also passed for 2,417 yards for a career 9,515 total offense yards. Not bad for a 38-game career of which he started the last 36. The team won 34 consecutive games and the 1953, 1954 and 1955 Class A championships, posting 10-0-0 records each year (There was no Class A title game in 1952). In a July 26, 1987 story in the El Paso Times he was listed as having 9,207 career rushing yards, second to Ken Hall and just ahead of Emmitt Smith of Pensacola (FL) Escambia high. who had 8,804 career yards in the newspapers national career list.

Where did the 9,207 total come from? No one knows. Maybe it was yards on kick returns, receiving (Even though he was the team’s main passer) and interception yards that was originally omitted from the 1956 stats report. The point is, like a lot of early stats, similar to those of Max McGee and maybe Ken Hall, other yards were added into their totals. How could that happen? I’m not sure how coaches and stats people couldn’t keep things straight. However, there are multiple records from other states that really can’t be confirmed.

In 1950, John Giannantonio of Necong (NJ) High School (A now defunct school) supposedly ran for 4,756 yards in an 8-0-0 season as a 5’7, 137-pound sophomore. It was first reported by Doug Huff in his national high school football record book. Somehow, it got into the NFSHSA in 2001. How could this happen? No one is sure. It took 50-years for it to get into the national record book. He supposedly ran for 754 yards in one game as he averaged almost 600 yards per game. Too much to really believe. Look John up in Google to find more about his incredible story, one that can’t really be confirmed. No clear cut newspaper stories to back things up. He had a lot of long kick returns that 1950 season as he scored 41 touchdowns and maybe that yardage got added into his rushing totals but, no way, could a player average 600-yards a game rushing, especially in 1950. Yes, in 1953 Ken Hall rushed for 4,045 yards in a 12-game 1953 season. He also scored 57 touchdowns and 53 extra points for a total of 395 points. His 337 yards per game is a bit more credible that that of Giannantonio’s. Ken Hall’s career lasted 4-years and he kept getting better each season. In 1950 he gained 569 yards, then, in 1951 he zoomed to 3,160 yards (Bettering Max McGee). As a junior he bettered that earlier total by rushing for 3,458 yards and then his premier season in 1953 he upped his game to run for 4,045 yard (The first to run for 4,000 yards and one of only 10 players to gain 4,000 yards in a season, all of whom played at least 14-games during their great season). Maybe I’m too trusting about Hall’s totals but maybe he did rush for all of those yards. After all, when Bill McMurry was putting together his record book, he had access to Hall’s stats because Sugar Land is a suburb of Houston.

So, again, why did I focus on non-Wisconsin players? Because it’s fun to look at other states from time to time. Also, if you aren’t following MaxPreps Kevin Askeland’s national blog I have a link here as he rates the 1917 Marinette state champions as #48 out of the top-50 teams for that year, Well, that’s it for today but I have a lot more coming soon.