A. A. Stagg and Springfield
End Fiftieth Football Season

mos Atonzo Stace 791, the “grand old man”

of football will end his fiftieth year as a

coach when his College of the Pacific team meets

the University of Hawaii at Honolulu on
December 16.

The last game of the season with Rutgers
University on November 18 also marked the
end of the season for Springfield College, for
it was here that Coach Stagg organized, cap-
tained and coached his first football team in the
fall of 1890. After Coach Stagg was graduated
from Yale as one of its greatest athletes, he
enrolled at Springfeld for the two-year training
course.

His first team was made up of eight of the 21
students in the physical education school and
three students from the other section of the
school which was then called the ‘School for
Christian Workers.” Although Coach Stagg was
the only experienced player on the team and
was captain and coach as well, they undertook

 

Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg Celebrates
Fiftieth Anniversary

an ambitious schedule of eight games, five of
which were won with scores totaling 148, while
the opponents made only 74 points. An upset
of that season was the 26-0 win of the newly
organized team over Amherst. The first indoor
football game was played that fall when the
Springfield team met the Yale Consolidated
team at Madison Square Garden in New York,
which Yale won 16-10.

By the end of the second season the Stagg
coached team was called the “Stubby Christians”’
a name which followed them for many years.
Coach Stagg coached the team for two seasons
before he left to become director of physical
education and football coach at the University
of Chicago, where he remained for more than
forty years until his retirement in 1933. He went
immediately to the College of the Pacific that
fall and this year finished his seventh season
there.

His team has 12 contests booked this year and
their defeat of the University of California by
a score of 6-0 on September 30 was one of the
early major upsets of the season. To date they
have won six games, lost 3 and tied one.

Coach Stagg was awarded an honorary master
of physical degree in 1912 by Springfield College;
an honorary master of arts degree by Oberlin
in 1923; and an LL.D. degree by Wooster (Ohio)
College in 1933.

 

Captain Dick Redding goes for a touchdown in the I

Football Team Ends Season W
Three Losses and One Tie

GC 71 points to their opponent’s 42
on the gridiron this fall the College football
team ended the season on November 18 at
Rutgers University, with a record of four wins,
three losses, and one tie.

The final game was the hardest of the year
for the Maroons, and the score of 17-6 in Rutgers
favor, does not tell the story of the game, with
the Springfield team fighting hard and playing
heads up football all the way despite bad breaks.
They faced a Rutgers team who had a string of
12 victories behind them before the largest crowd
ever to gather in the Rutgers stadium.

On November 18, in their final home game,
the Maroons rolled up a score of 26-0 against
C.C.N.Y., to thrill alumni at the annual fall
Home-Coming.

Fifteen members of the varsity football squad
will be graduated next June. They are Captain
“Dick” Redding, hard-hitting end from Pitts-
burgh, Pa; Victor Obeck, tackle, Audubon, N. J.,
mentioned for the “Little All America” team
last year; Tom Johnson, halfback, Camden,
N. J., the team’s high scoring ace; George John-
son, blocking back, Gardiner, Me., who in the
C.C.N.Y. game intercepted a stray pass and
galloped for the first touchdown of his three
years of collegiate football.

 

At the opening game of the College of the
Pacific this fall with the University of South
Dakota at Sacramento, Calif., Springfield College
presented Coach Stagg with a scroll which read:

“Springfield College pays tribute to Coach Amos
Alonzo Stagg, dean of football coaches, who fifty
years ago this fall, as a student, organized, coached
and captained the first football team at Springfield.

“Today after fifty years of continuous contribu-
tion, Coach Stagg stands as a symbol of the highest
ideals in competitive sport. His name is engraved
forever on the rolls of illustrious Springfield Alumni
who are serving as outstanding leaders for the
Youth of the World.”

Cross-Country

The College freshman cross-country team won
the Connecticut Valley run held on the Spring-
field course on November 7. They also won from
Trinity, Wesleyan, Mass. State and Stockbridge
Academy. The Maroon cross country harriers
only won one meet, beating Amherst, and losing
to Trinity, Wesleyan and Mass. State.

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