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Page 3?THE MESSENGER, ifhens, Ofilo - Suniay, Sept. 4, T«470-Year-Old CoverageOf Football Interesting(EDITOR’S NOTE: The writ j the University of Cincinnati er of thi sstorv Is a former m Chillicothe during the ’97 student reporter for The season a plea if) encouragejust retu r n e d football because it made peo-iTJ.from Natal sendee, who return to Ohio University thisfall. He Is an Athens resident.)Bv CARL DENBOW, Jr.With the college grid season almost here and the high school season upon us, 1 thought it might prove interesting to take a look at beginning stages of the annual “fall madness” around the turn of the centurv.wWhile scanning through the microfilmed records of ancient Messenger editions it was surprising for this author to find fairly systematic coverage of Ohio U. football as early as 1S97. At that time the Athens Messenger and Herald, as the paper was called was a weekly and during* ftrthe football season a half to a full column was devoted in each issue to coverage of the Green and White. It was also Interesting to note that OU football and an occas i o n a 1 hivh school game account were practically the only athletic contests to receive coverage at anv time in the yearp!e interested in collegesformed this conclusion of thetheir heads hung and in complete silence.Cocky Group On a dav in November 1897wa cocky group of footballerswrite-up on the game: ’The amount of freead*vertising a football team secures for a college is simply inestimable. The Chillicothefrom West Virginia University came to town. The WVTJbovs were so sure of victory.papers gave glowing accounts of the players and their coland besides the townlegeswas for Ohio Universityallthe article said, that they bet on themselves with local residents and lost. They left town quickly after the game—without paying all their debts,The reporter put his feel-the time, a larg number wearing the colors. A good football team that can put up aings on the game into rhyme' And they came and theygood game makes more people learn something about asmall college than almost any other medium.Amusing C overageSome of the coverage of a typical game at the turn of the century* is interesting and also somewhat amusi n g when looked on from our vantage point here in 1966.In a game OU lost to Marietta in October 18,96 bv the score of 22 to 0 the conclud-The beginnings can be seenof the stvie which was toweventually manifest itself in ‘lu 1920's and 30’s, an era which became known as the golden age of sports writing, of viewing each contest as aclassical epoch.i Some of the headlines were: OU Defeated Not Disgraced; Dennison Easy Mark for the Home Football Team Saturday Afternoon: and In a Bla/e of Glory The OU Football Team Winds Up the Sea son at Chillicothe.”were conquer'dWith swift dispatch andesAnd they felt that (urgingsorrow which In vain they could appease Thought not that woe awaited themAcross Ohio’s stream.And like the poet found that things Aren’t ever what thevGentlemanly FellowsIn the game in November of ’96 when OU visited Chilli* cothe for a contest against the Young Men’s Club of that, city elements of this type ofing paragraph went like,The game was a good I reporting were m evidence♦ 4*'U *clean exhibition of football.' ‘The YMC boys are a gen-thin9tthere being no slugging orjtlemanly set of fellows from wrangling on either side and; manager to water boy and the refereeing the best we’ve I took their defeat in a philo-ever seen. The team was! sophical spirit . . the mayor treated handsomely bv the! of Chillicothe turned the citvMarietta bovs and the ladies of the college entertained m honor of the vanquished ele-over to the wearers of the Green and White and thevwsvnt th« evening in jollifying* *ven. The Marietta b oys' over their victor should receive a warm and That article had also gone hearty welcome w hen they j into detail explaining ihe deplay here next monthFree AdvertisingWhen OU was defeated bvseem.And thev came from fair Virginia The place of Morgantown. Where swift Monongahela flowsPast mountains look i n g down:Proud and boasting came they hither To wrestle for the goals Which thev found almostwas quickly As disembodied souls.Badlv battered left thev-r *,+homeward In vain could thev conceal The awful havoc of their!,' bucks’Gainst 0. l.:.’s pointedsteel:And they left here sad but wiserOf many manly tricks,For the gridiron here is hot! d As Athens politics.” jMavbe the 1966 Bobcats willACinspire lyrics of a more modern type. After all Arkansas had their “Ballad of a Quarterbacking Man” last vear.orthit?agheouerlexprjected feeling of Chillicothe j Considering last year the players and how they had re* Green and vVhite may need tired from the gridiron with some solace.OUtoad(4Orhr*
Newspaper Details
Athens Sunday Messenger
Athens, Ohio, US
Sun, Sep 04, 1966
Page 22
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 08 Feb 2021
Other Publications Near Athens, Ohio
Athens Messenger
Athens Messenger and Herald
Athens Daily Messenger
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