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VETERAN SPORT FOLLOWERS CHOOSE STARS OF OIL CITY HIGH SCHOOL'S GRID TEAMSTask Difficult One is Opinion of Majority— Selections Range From 1904 to 1924; Many Men Named Later Became ProminentBy CY KING.(Derrick Sports Editor)While the memories of the last football season are fast fading into history and grid talk is gradually giving way before (he basketball and flgnt hordes, it Is rather interesting at this time of the year to look back—with the help of some of the older sport followers of this vicinity—to the seasons and players that have gone before and the history they made while members of Oil City high school football teams.Inquiries were directed to several well known followers of sport In Oil City asking them to choose an ali-ttme, ali Oil City high school football team, and, if their memories sustained them to that extent, to choose second and third, teams. Composite teams were chosen from the answers by a system of points awarded on the players' popularity with those questioned and appear in the box at the left.\ll ti::e starsof former Oil City high school of sport fans of Oil City. The item of points, each man being it number of points he received.LAMSECOND TEAMF. LowersanPollard CumminsJim OramonRussell BuckhamssPercy LancasterinR. Maddox, B. HiltonnDoug WadetrS. AlexandervesRobert LambertonlirkFrank BerryhnDick O'Neill*Absurdity’ zo Stagg SaysMinted PreaeAmoi Alonso Stagg of the Unlver-eans today to attend the annua) on of Football Coaches with the American team is an absurdity.'' ked. Why, it take* a football its men two or three weeks and s the best player on his own team8 So how can a so-called football I expert who has to pick from the I entlrs United States, know which man In the country Is the best for | a particular position? It can't be done.'*There was a time, perhaps, when the coach was In sympathy with the custom. That was back In 1889 when Walter Camp picked the first all-American team with Amos Alonso Stagg. Yale end, on the eleven.“In those days it was recognized that Yale, Harvard and Princeton had the best football teams In the country and it was easy to pick an all-American team, Stagg said. But In a few years players from other colleges were Included and it soon became an impossibility to | select the best playersAsked his opinion of the proposals to begin the second half of a football game where the first left off and. In tha case of a tie, to declare the team victorious which | had the most first downs, he said , the fans seemed satisfied with the | present rules.! It does seem unjust, he added, j to let one team make a touchdown by driving the ball down the field i and then let the other tie the score ! by a lucky fumble, but that is a | thrill the football fane enjoy. This ! keeps the element of luck in the I games and nearly everybody has I some gambling Instinct.; Failure of football teams to at-| tempt more field goals puuled the i coach.‘1 suppose it is the old gambling Instinct, be said. The quarterback figures that three points from a field goal would not do much good, while six or seven points from a touchdown would help a lot. Bo he tries for a touchdown instead of a field goal.But I believe that more points would be made by trying for every field goal within reach Instead of taking a chance on a touchdown. But better football Is played now than in the good old days.Why. they start playing now when they are knee high, to it is no wonder they can play better.The coaches' meeting opens tomorrow.the first week Jan. 7—Bethel vs. Grace; Christ Lutheran a Becond Presby.Jan. 8— iptiet v« First Presby; Evangelica vs. Trinity.Jan. 11—Good Hope vs. Y M. C.A.On the face of it, it would, eeem that it would be a simple matter to choose 11 men or 22 men from the many stars that have worn the Blue and White in the past but all those who consented to chooee the teams stressed the fact in their answers that it was very difficult. Undoubtedly there are some deserving players omitted, but if so, they have been forgotten by those who received a questionnaire and are not being discriminated against,The teams are composed of players who were members of the Oil j City high school grid squads as far J back as 1901 and as near the pres-| ent as 1924. During that period of J time there were hundreds of boya I who were gridiron aspirants and to I soma of them came success. Tha ! aU-tlme, all Oil City high school j teams are good indicators of tha j measure of their success, in that, j the players had to be outstanding J men to be remembered out of the hundreds who have been graduated ) and have left the local school.One of these players Is Polly | 1-ogsn, s strong man while in high school and who later became one of the best known players in the collegiate world. Logan played a guard for several years with Oil City high and then went to Lafayette where he became a star, in either 1905 or 1906, Logan was given honorable mention by Walter Camp, the dean of All-American choosers and whose word in those days carried unquestionable authority. Polly Logan is now connected with the Pierpont Motor company of Pittsburgh.In contrast to Logan, a player of over two decades ago, there are j three stars of high school teams of not so many years ago, Ken Pop-! tor, Stew Wilson and Kay Vaughn,Portar, Wilson and Vaughn played together on the. championship team of 1924, Porter and Vaughn were graduated tn 1925 and Wilson went to prep school in the following seasons Porter was a stai at Edinboro State Teachers college and is now employed in Oil City. Vaughn has been a prominent athlete at Colgate for foul years, being a star of the freshman team of 1925 and a membei of the varsity squad in the three years since. He displaced Duke Khaughncsay, who received All-American mention, In his juntos year, and this year, despite serious i’tness tn the sprtng, regained hla old time vigor to be one of the strongest men In the Colgate backfteld. Wilson was the driving power of the Washington and Jeffereon freshman team t hie year and a regular berth on the W-J varsity is practically a certainty for him next season. In the Pittsburgh district, sports writers are predicting he will make the All-American a year after next, Wilson, because of his strong left handed passing, sterling work as a tackle end his extraordinary punting ability has greatly Impi eased football critics who have seen him. None of I he players of the past four years were mentioned for ths all-time teams.Tt is also interesting to knew where the various stare have gona ( since they played football for OH City, Hare, Trax, Koeee, Cunl-I mine, Buckham Maddox, Wade.| Alexander and Berry are all In Oil ('tty. Jack Cieavts, who la one of Princeton's Immortals, Is in the gas business In Boliver, N. Y, Exact information as to the others was not available to The Derrick s sources of Information.The athletic situation in Oil City, especially tn regard to football, is due to rise. It is believed, as a result of the school board s move toward supplying a good field upon which to play and other accessories to the game and as some of the ‘oldtimers’ expressed it, tt is the sincere hope that Oil City will soon be on the athletic map again.
Newspaper Details
Oil City Derrick
Oil City, Pennsylvania, US
Thu, Dec 27, 1928
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Oil R.
PA, USA 26 Oct 2023
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