A really great season of football supercharges the college spirit and this year we have a really great team. In this article let’s look back to another really good team. The 1919 team was pretty darned good as we can see in this cartoon by the talented student cartoonist J. Allen Saunders [W1920] who later was the nationally syndicated creator of the Steve Roper and Mary Worth cartoon strips.
Looking at Saunders’ art from the football issue of the Wabash Magazine of 1919 we learn that the Rose Poly game was mighty wet, Wabash stomped Franklin 68-0 and the team sent the Butler bulldog home with67-0 loss and a can tied to his tail! The last frame is about the Michigan Agricultural College game. MAC, later Michigan State, which Wabash played to a 7-7 tie on Thanksgiving Day. Right at the center is a great image and one that Wabash fans will love as it depicts the Caveman of Wabash and the Tiger of DePauw. The referee’s shirt, “Ty Score,” makes it clear that they played to a tie in the 1919 season. The following quote from the Wabash Magazine of December 1919 is a perfect description of the series, “Anyone within the limits of Wabash fame – and, incidentally, those limits are boundless – knows that the sole ambition of the student body is to score a victory over DePauw.” Quick side note, though the rivalry was fierce it was not the yet “Bell Game.” It was not until 1932 that the Monon line donated the Bell as our prize.
Here is a parade picture from that same magazine issue showing the band marching and the Wabash Always Fights banner waving. If you are wondering about the background, this parade was in downtown Indianapolis. In this time the big games were played there. A large crowd could be counted on to raise the gate receipts which was vital as athletics were self-funded.
The students could get to Indianapolis easily via the Interurban train system. The next picture is a shot of the Wabash crowd intensely focused on the game.
Enjoy this year’s version, and GO WABASH!!!