IT'S VICTORIES==IT'S MEN==IT'S COACH
Photo by Squires "Bert" Kennedy,—the man behind.
"BERT" KENNEDY
To "Bert" Kennedy an incalculable debt is owed by the students of the University. In the short time allotted him, he made a machine which at the end of the football season had no superior in the Missouri Valley. His task was an especially difficult one owing to the frequent changes in coaches that have been made in the last few years, and the consequent absence of any traditional Kansas University system of coaching.
Coach Kennedy's football experiences have been long and cast in pleasant lines. After his football days here ended, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, and soon made the team, where he gained a as enviable reputation for himself in Eastern football circles as he had in the Missouri Valley when playing with Kansas.
After leaving Pennsylvania, he was engaged to coach at Washburn college, where tor two years he produced an all-victorious team. As Coach Kennedy's home is in Lawrence and his growing practice in dentistry made his presence here more and more imperative, it was an easy mat for the Athletic Association to secure his services early this fall as coach for two years.
HARRY HART
Harry Hart, sub-half, did some sensational work in the Missouri game, making several long runs. He weighs 156 pounds. Other good substitutes are Russell, 175 pounds, fast on his feet and a strong hunter. Reed, Milton, Livingstone, Thoms, White and Root, all deserving men.
The commendable zeal with which he has coached the team, his pleasant relations with its members and the students and his qualities as a man, make Coach Kennedy an individual admirel and respected by all with whom he comes in contact.
The annual Thanksgiving game is the all-important football game of the year. For fourteen years these games have been played. Of these fourteen games, Kansas has won nine Missouri four, and one drawn battle.
THANKSGIVING GAMES.
Photo by Squires.
Photo by Squires Myers.
RESUME OF THE SEASON.
What Has Been Done And What It Means. The foot ball season of 1904 has now passed into history. The last game has been played, the parties, banquets and receptions given to the members of the team are over, and the captain of next year's team has been selected. The interest of the students at large, concentrated for the past three months in the victories and defeats on the gridiron, will be diverted into the various common channels of student activities and foot ball will be lost sight of for the remainder of the year.
The Kansas team of 1904 is one of the best that ever represented the University. Certainly it ranks above any Jayhawkter team since the "Ever Victorious" team of '99. Individually and collectively, the team is a model football organization. Every man on the team is a bona fide student of the University of Kansas and is in the University primarily to receive an education, and not for the mere purpose of playing football, They are representative students and gentlemen in every sense of the word. The University of Kansas is perfectly willing to rest its reputation as an educational institution upon the conduct of the 1904 football team both on and off the field.
One circumstance that contributed in no small degree to the
success of the team is the fact that most of the men are veterans. Practically all of them have had some experience previousto his season. The team had a little hard luck at the beginning of the year but when it once got fairly started as it did about the middle of the season, the players made a clean sweep of everything. And, at the end of the season with every part of the powerful foot ball machine working smoothly and harmoniously, there was no show whatever for Kansas' valued rivals, the Missouri "Tigers."
The progress of the team was slow and unsatisfactory at first. A large amount of material came out, but Coach Kennedy was bothered with many difficulties and obstacles that greatly hindered the development of the
Photo by Squires Manley Michaelson.
team. The first game, with Emporia college, was a disappointment to the students and supporters of the varsity team. The score of 6 to 0 was disheartening in the extreme as a year before the Jayhawkers had defeated the college by a score of 34 to 0. However, colder weather and a week of hard practice worked wonders in the team and the following Saturday Kansas rolled up a score of 34 points against the Kansas State Normal team, the visitors failing to score.
The outcome of the Haskell game on October 6 was not unexpected as Haskell had a great team and had already rounded into mid season form. On October 25 the Jawhawkers lined up
against the strong team from Colorado University, which had but a week before defeated Nebraska by a score of 6 to 0. The game ended in a tie—6 to 6.
On October 22 the Kansans played Oklahoma University at Norman and won easily by a score of 16 to 0. Constant practice and drilling in formations by Coach Kennedy now began to show good results and in the game with Washburn College at Topeka the Jawhawkers showed little improvement, though Kansas won by the small score of 5 to 0,the score should have been much larger The first half was played almost entirely within twenty yards of Washburn's goal line and on the defensive, the Kansas line was impregnable.
As the season progressed the men played together much better; offense became fiercer and more compact, and the defense was a veritable store wall. Victory followed victory in rapid succession. The stong Notre Dame team was defeate 124 to 5, Washington University at St. Louis went down to the tune of 12 to 0 and Manhattan swamped 41 to 4, and finally, in the great Thanksgiving day contest at Kansas City, before 8,000 spectators, with the team in perfect condition, the Jawhawkers rounded out their great season by defeating Missouri 29 to 0.
The team of 1904 has made a record for itself that will long be remembered by football enthusiasts of the west. The only game lost by Kansas was the one to the Haskell Indians and this was early in the season, before the team was fairly developed.
Photo by Squirrel Donald.