Iowa Heritage Digital Collections
State Library of Iowa

1916 Yearbook

1916 Yearbook

Title

1916 Yearbook

Description

AFTER an absence of two years, college football was resumed at
St. Ambrose and games were scheduled with teams in the Hawk-
eye conference, and with two members of the
conference of Illinois.
"Little Eighteen"
Mr. George W. Jones a former Holy Cross star and, later,
coach of the Worcester Polytechnic team, was secured as director
of athletics at St. Ambrose.
Owing to the late return of the students, Mr. Jones did not call for candidates until ten days before the first game. The men who responded were all
green and after the first two games it was plainly evident that they were far too
light. In a measure they made up for this lack of weight with speed and plenty
of the old St. Ambrose grit, but they lacked the necessary bulk to stop the heavy
attacks of their opponents. The back field, consisting of Ryan, Graham, Miller
and Vorwick averaged only 149 pounds, while the team as a whole averaged 156.
With this team we played elevens whose averages ranged from 165 to 185.
The first game was played September 25, with William and Vashti, on the
St. Ambrose campus. A drizzly rain had soaked the field and continued to fall
during the game. The heavier Aledo team, aided by the mud, tore the St.
Ambrose defence to pieces. The final score was 32 to 0 in favor of Vashti. The
next game took us to Galesburg, where we met the Lombard eleven in the roughest game of the season. The weight of the Lombard team was given at 182
pounds, while our team weighed in at 156, just twenty-six pounds lighter to
the man.
The team showed that peculiar reversal of form, for which they were afterwards noted. While the William and Vashti was a spiritless affair, the melee at
Galesburg was bitterly contested, and the Lombard giants were justly proud of
their eighteen points. Injuries were numerous, and greatly handicapped the
Ambrosians.
A practice game was secured with the Palmer Chiropractic team for October 9. The "Chiros" sent up a heavy scrappy team, but they were no match for
the St. Amborsian squad. The final score was 32 to 0. The next date on the
schedule took us to Oskaloosa, where we met the Penn College team. October

Date

1916

Rights

St. Ambrose University, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, IA 52803

Identifier

http://cdm16810.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16810coll2/id/3452