“THE GIANTS AT MONROE” AND THE 1909 CHASES FOR THE STATE TITLE…PART 2

Last spring (2025) I received notice that Ladysmith High was going to begin an Athletic Hall of Fame and I was invited to attend the banquet to be held on Friday October 10 with the homecoming game to follow the next day.  First, I have never been to Ladysmith nor, until I wrote a stories about the 1940’S-1960’S teams…HEART OF THE NORTH…LADYSMITH…PART 1 and HEART OF THE NORTH…LADYSMITH…PART 2 

I had never talked to anyone from the town.  Maybe the stories helped get the ball rolling for the HOF.  Second, I have never been invited to a HOF dinner and I was excited.  I put the date on my calendar.  However, I work part-time for the Milwaukee Brewers and I had to tell the people at Ladysmith that if the Brewers made it deeper than the first round of the playoffs I couldn’t attend. As time for the banquet grows closer, I was made aware of the grandfather of Bob Davis, Frank.  Bob, who earned honorable mention All-State in 1959 at Ladysmith and who will be inducted into the first HOF class there wrote that the 1909 Monroe team was a very strong squad and I should look into things.  Bob sent me photo copy of a page from the October 13, 1973 edition of The Monroe Evening Times.  It was in very poor condition.  A hard to read and slightly crumpled and, in my view, fading photo. 

Since it was hard to read, I decided to take a day trip from Milwaukee to Monroe to look at microfilm at the public library.  Upon my arrival I found that the microfilm for that period of 1973 had been sent off for repair.  Yearbooks at the public library, the high school and the county historical society for 1910 (Covering the 1909 team) are not available.  So, I had to wait for the film to be returned and repaired.  I was told it may be weeks so I put this potential story on hold.  While at the public library, I looked at the 1909 Evening Times editions and found very little in the way of game reports on the team.  Some scores weren’t even reported.

Suddenly, four days later I received a pdf. file from the library.  It was crystal clear and has proved to be a big help.  I had found in the 1909 editions of The Evening Times there were only had four small game stories until a final December recap. 

 October 13, 1973 The Monroe Evening Times

It was strange that I found little local information in the 1909 newspapers but the 1973 story filled in a little bit of the season and also had some misinformation.  The above picture was taken by a E.H. Gloege.  Where the 1973 paper obtained the picture is a mystery to me as previously stated, the libraries, public or high school nor the local historical society had not a thing on the 1909 team.  I looked into mid-December of the 1909 newspaper and didn’t find the photo.

Next, the 1973 news story stated that they played eight games and scored 418 points.  They actually played nine games and scored 399 points.

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The above schedule is taken from a very late November edition of The Evening Times (I didn’t record the date) and you will note that there is a mistake in the Madison score.  The Capitol city high school actually scored 12 points not the two that is on the scoring schedule but is correctly noted in the brief story that the team allowed only 18 points overall on the year.  That’s an average of scoring 44.33 points per game and allowing only 2.0 points a contest.  BUT note that they scored the 399 in the next seven games after they had been shutout in the first two.  So, when the team could put points on the board in those seven games, they averaged 57.0 points!

The above schedule also lists that they played Delavan, but it wasn’t the local high school but rather the Delavan School for the Deaf.  That team had to use hand signals to “call” the plays.  Also, one of the stories I did find on Monroe was trhe game against “the Dummies”.  A derogatory reference to the boys with hearing problems but, well, that was ok in those days, I guess, but certainly not acceptable today. 

The usual starting Monroe team roster was: 

Center, Frank “Muzz” Haren, right guard Carl “Plug” Ruegger, right tackle Frank “Slim "Davis who was also the team captain, right end Alfred Chilson, left guard Ben Preston, left tackle Harry “Monk” Stauffacher, left end Andrew Trickle, quarterback Roy “Nick” Collentine, right halfback Clarence Trickle, left halfback Harold B. Caradine and fullback Hoy Clayton.  Of the 15 players shown in the team picture only 12 officially earned “M’s” for their school sweaters, according to a short story in the Evening Times.  The other letter winner in that brief note was listed as Clarence Baltzer.  Since the other players in the photo have “M’s” they also must have been awarded the letter later. 

This a lineup from The Beloit Daily Free Press, October 11, 1909. The only lineup I could find.  If you compare the lineup to the afore mentioned starters that some players switched positions…Spauffacher (Mis-spelled Sauffacher) moved from fullback to left tackle.  Yes, only 10 players from each side are listed. Another misprint.  The right end list for Monroe, last name Pergl.  No left end is listed. Since the 1973 article had one of the players is listed as "unknown”, this maybe he.  Again, no yearbook to check.  Unfortunately, the Beloit newspaper story didn’t give any meaty details, just like the Monroe edition.  One other point in the story was that Monroe was champion of four states...Wisconsin and three others. Well, that's not true. They didn't win the Wisconsin state title. They did beat Sterling (IL) which was considered the Western Illinois state Champion. They defeated Danville, champ of downstate Illinois and they defeated both Moline and Rock Island, both of whom defeated Davenport (IA) the 1908 Iowa champion

The Evening Times did have one tid-bit.  Frank Davis was the team's kicker…punting, kicking off and extra points.  If you figure that Monroe scored six touchdowns, at that time they were worth five points, then Davis possibly converted on two of those point after attempts.  Later, in the other story reports, Davis was mentioned as the kicker.  Not having scoring information, it is hard to tell how many team touchdowns, extra points and field goals were actually scored.  I can only estimate that 68 touchdowns were made by the team and 59 extra points possibly kicked.  Did Davis kick 13 extra points against Lake Mills and 59 on the season? I haven’t included possible field goals.  BUT these are only estimates. My numbers are just conjecture.  

One other thing stuck out in looking at the schedule.  The 103 points against Lake Mills was not in my state records lists and so it has been added.

Since the Cheesemakers were out of final contention for the state title, the team scheduled a Thanksgiving Day game against Sterling Illinois.  Several schools in Illinois, like Wisconsin, claimed the state title.  Sterling made a similar claim even though they lost 5-0 in the serason opener to Rockford.  Later in the season, after Sterling beat Rock Island 22-0, Rock Island turned things around and beat Rockford 5-0.  Sterling then beat Danville, considered by many as the best team in downstate Illinois, 42-9.  East Aurora also had a very good team but the class of the state was Chicago Engelwood which went 11-0-0 and is listed in a WIKI page as the 1909 Mythical Champion… High school football national championships - Wikipedia.

While WIKI doesn’t have the actual season record (11-0-0), in another file that I found online about 15 years ago.  No author credited.  The Excel file has game-by-game scores of all the proclaimed Mythical National Champions from 1897.  Englewood faced some tough opponents and deserved to be #1 in Illinois and the country.  Tim Hudak, who is the author of “All the Way To #1” which is about most of the teams listed in the WIKI story, agrees that Englewood was the best. It’s a big book but a good read on football history.  Tim is also the creator of the Ohio High School football record book and is national known by us high school football history geeks.  

Sterling played some tough competition and after the season opening loss to Rockford, they reeled off eight consecutive wins against generally tough central/western Illinois teams.  Two wins were against Dixon College and De Kalb Normal (Now called Northern Illinois University).  This was truly a very good team but so was Monroe and when the two met in late November it was the size of their Wisconsin opponent and in truth, better coaching.  Most teams average weight was around 145-160 pounds.  Monroes opponent Lake Mills had two “giants” who stood 6’0 and weighed 190 pounds.  But the team’s average weight was only 150.  The largest player for Chippewa Falls was left tackle Nate De Long who was a massive 5’10, 170.  The team’s weight averaged only 152.45 with ends Will Velte (135) and Robert Wiley (138). Quarterback Gus Dorais’ weight was usually reported as 140 but some papers had him at 130.

So, when Sterling stepped onto the Monroe football field that Thanksgiving Day, they were facing an opponent that averaged 175 pounds!  HUGE.   One of them was 250-pound tackle Frank "Slim" Davis. Sterling went to Monroe after being offered the princely sum of $50.00 to play the Cheesemakers.  Despite having a great season, the team ended $30.00 in debt and couldn’t afford to give the players a letter sweater.  The Sterling yearbook said that the team was out of shape, not having practiced for a few weeks.  The Monroe field was made of mud and slush from snow that had to be shoveled in order to play.  Sterling’s team averaged 145 pounds and the weight difference showed.  Early on the two starting ends for the visitors were hurt and couldn’t continue playing with broken ribs.  Monroe dominated, winning 61-0.  Sterling had scored 275 points in their next eight games following the shutout issued by Rockford and had allowed only 40 points prior to losing to Monroe. 

Monroe ended with a very respectful 7-1-1 and the big story in the local paper was about the banquet the school and town gave the team.  Many local dignitaries (The mayor, councilmen, the coach) spoke and then team captain, Frank Davis was asked to say a few words.  And he did.  “Thanks” was all he could muster.  Stepping up after Davis was Roy Collentine who said a few more words: “We aren’t afraid to play any team in the U.S.A.”  The audience rose to their feet with great applause and the dinner was over.

I haven’t mentioned the Monroe coach.  His name was Tommy Mills, born in Beloit in 1883, and a graduate of Beloit College.  Mills had been a star halfback for the college. He had been living in Rockford prior to the 19o9 season and only coached the one year at Monroe.   He would move back to Rockford and become the head coach at Rockford High School for the 1910 season, guiding the team to an 8-0-0 record and a claim to the state title.  However, Oak Park is considered by experts to be the Illinois and National Champions with a 10-2 record.  Their two losses were to adult athletic clubs and they played Portland (OR) Washington, the top team west of the Mississippi River, for the national championship.  Interestingly, in 1910 Rockford beat Chicago Englewood, the 1909 champion, 35-0.

Mills would move on to Omaha where he would coach Creighton Prep High School and Creighton University in football and basketball.  He would have coaching tenures at Beloit College, Georgetown and Arkansas State as head coach for both sports as well as head basketball coach at Notre Dame and working as a football assistant coach to Knute Rockne (1928-1929).  He would later be a sports administrator at Notre Dame where he died of a heart attack in 1944. 

NEXT, FINAL NOTES ON 1909 MONROE AND A BIT MORE.