The students are coming back and the whole campus is bustling as we rush around finishing the last details of our summer work. The landscaping projects are finished, the last of the old houses on Crawford Street are gone and replaced with a big fence. The construction upstairs in the Lilly Library is just about finished and a newly expanded coffee shop is now just steps away from reality. In short, Wabash is gearing up for another great year!
At this time of year it seems like there is something in the air that speaks to us of football. A cool crispness that reminds us that summer is fleeting and fall is around the corner. Here is a bit of the early history of football at Wabash and I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed pulling it together.
Beth Swift, Archivist, Wabash College
One thing all Wabash men have in common is their love of a football game on a sunny autumn day. This passion was born at the very beginning of the football program at Wabash. The images below record that birth in 1886 and also show that football and fanatic have always been linked at Old Wabash. These scans were all made from a great scrapbook compiled by Caleb Mills’ grandson, Blackford Condit [W1892].
From Wabash College: the First Hundred Years,
“Football was first introduced into Wabash in the Seventies. The Rugby game which is played today had not yet been brought over to this country; Association football, ‘soccer,’ was the game played in all American colleges. As it was first played at Wabash football was simple. All the students in college who wanted to play would come out into the treeless part of the campus that is now the athletic field, would be divided into halves by ‘choosing sides,’ and would begin a game. On fair days as many as forty players would be lined up on a side, for numbers made no difference so long as the sides were numerically even. The game consisted of kicking, batting, throwing, or dribbling the ball to advance it toward the goal.”
In 1884 there were selected 11 men to represent Wabash against other teams. This team went to Indianapolis to play Butler and beat them 4-0 in front of a crowd of about 20 supporters. As no other school was playing this sport, Wabash had the championship. The next year no other schools played this sport so we kept the title.
1886 was the year that modern style American football arrived in Indiana. The Indianapolis Athletic Club organized to promote sports, especially football, in Indiana. They created a league with Wabash, Hanover, Indiana University, Butler and Franklin as the first schools. League rules were that all games would be played in Indianapolis. The Athletic Club would cover the expenses and receive the gate receipts. Lose once and the team was out of the running for a championship, the last team standing undefeated won.
The Wabash team practiced their game, but rumors started that the new style of football, rugby, was being played at other schools in Indiana. The first game was against Franklin and when our Wabash men arrived in the morning, they were told that the game to be played that day would be the new football. A Yale man, friend of Wabash, and future Trustee, Evans Woollen came forward to help our guys learn this new game. The remainder of the morning was spent practicing and in the afternoon the Wabash team took the field against Franklin and played to a 4-4 tie.
Here is an eyewitness, though highly partial, account of the game Wabash played against Franklin in 1886..
Excited by their performance against Franklin in the face of great odds, the team and their supporters were in high spirits. In preparation for the next game, a yell was created to increase team spirit:
“Wah! Hoo! Wah! Wah! Hoo! Wah! Wah! Hoo! Wah! Wabash!”
A school color was also needed – one suggestion was heliotrope and many of the fans agreed. Heliotrope, I have learned, is a garden flower grown for its lovely, fragrant, purple flowers. The color is a purplish-pink. Again, from the history Wabash College: the First Hundred Years, “Then a speaker arose, with few words but cogent. ‘Heliotrope, Hell!’ orated he: ‘We want blood!’ And scarlet it is.”
With their new yell and wearing their scarlet ribbons, the Wabash football team returned to Indianapolis to “play-off” the tie with Franklin and won, 8 to 4. When the team arrived back in town, a great celebration ensued. The last game of the 1886 season was with Hanover and we won easily, 23 to 4. Following the rules of the league, as we had beaten both Franklin and Hanover – who had beaten Butler – who had beaten Indiana, Wabash won the championship.
This next image is of a piece of the first scarlet ribbon ever worn by a Wabash athlete. It is in great shape and what a delight it was to see it in that scrapbook.
Next month I will share a bit more about this first team and its first quarterback.