Shortly before his death in 1950, Harry Hamill, captain of
the 1885 Northwestern football team, set down his recollections
on the emergence of the sport in Evanston:
I played on the team while a
student in the preparatory school in 1881. The field was located
on the meadow in front of what is now Deering Library, and there
we gathered three or four afternoons a week to practice and
play informal games. Our greatest difficulty was obtaining a
ball, since we had to buy them ourselves and few of us were
plentifully supplied with money.
The games attracted few spectators.
Occasionally students would stop by and watch us practice,
but their principal interest was baseball, which was played
both spring and fall. I recall two games with Lake Forest
in 1882. They were really informal affairs with little organized
play on either side.
The games Hamill recalls are actually Northwestern's first
intercollegiate "season" -- the 1882 squad won one and lost
one against Lake Forest. Long before that, though, football
was catching hold on the campus. The first evidence of any football
activity at Northwestern appeared in an article in The Tripod
(a predecessor to The Daily Northwestern), on February
24, 1876:
The trial game of football on
Tuesday last enthused the boys so much that they have formed
a Football Association and intend to give the representatives
of "Old Rugby" a hard time to beat them in a scrimmage when
they come here again.
That Association was formed on October 23, 1879. Its initial
officers -- all students -- were: J.S. Conwell, president; F.H.
Thatcher, vice-president; F.B. Dyche, secretary; and R.V. DeGraff,
treasurer.
The first archival photograph of a Northwestern football team
comes from 1889. The team, coachless but led by captain Erman
Ridgway, ended the season 2-2, beating Evanston High School
and the Chicago Wanderers, but losing to Notre Dame and a Northwestern
Alumni team. In 1891, Northwestern acquired its first football
coach: Knowlton L. Ames. His '91 team went 1-2-3 against Lake
Forest, Wisconsin, Beloit, and the Chicago YMCA -- the following
year (Knowlton's last as coach), their record was 5-3-2.
1891 was a key year in the development of Northwestern football;
then-President Rogers and the Board of Trustees turned over
a portion of north campus, where the fraternity houses now stand,
for an athletic field. George Muir, proprietor of the University
Book Store, began a campaign for the construction of a grandstand
on the new field; he planned to construct a $3,500 structure
to seat 700 spectators. The following year, two football leagues
were organized among Midwestern colleges. Northwestern joined
both: one with Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and the other
with Illinois, Lake Forest, and Beloit.
1892 also saw the addition of Northwestern's first football "stars": Jesse Van Doozer, Alvin H. Culver, and Charles Wilson.
Wilson was a Methodist minister who, due to his aggressive style
of play, was nicknamed "The Fighting Parson." Culver, who would
later become coach, described his enthusiasm for the game:
The harder the game was, the
better he played. As a matter of fact, when the going got tough
he would always play over his head. I remember one occasion
when our team was being driven back until the enemy was on our
five-yard line. Wilson stood up, waved his arms, and shouted
to us in a voice that could be heard on the sidelines, to stop
them in the name of the Lord. And believe it or not, we did.
Late in the season of 1892, however, Wilson's bishop forbade
him to play, arguing that his nickname brought the church into
disrepute.
Van Doozer, then a freshman, reported for the team having never
seen a football game and ended up as one of the regular tackles
(along with Culver.) In 1894, however, he dropped out of school
to play with the Chicago Athletic Association team -- Culver,
who had already graduated, did the same. Van Doozer found himself
moved to the position of halfback, where his 200 pound frame
made him one of the hardest chargers in the region.
Northwestern's 1894 season did not go so well -- the most memorable
game was a 66-0 loss to Illinois. Charles Jeter, the team's
left tackle, later wrote:
I have many recollections of
pleasant experiences during my football days and strange to
say one that stands out is when Illinois beat Northwestern 66
to 0. One of our best players, the Negro halfback, Jewett, was
so exhausted that we couldn't get him to his position and we
had no one to put in his place.
In 1895, Van Doozer returned to Northwestern; Culver, then
in law school, became the team's coach. Among that year's freshmen
was a halfback named Albert Potter. During the 1895 season,
Potter and Van Doozer led the team to a 7-5 record, with wins
over Purdue, Chicago, Rush, and Lake Forest. Van Doozer scored
four touchdowns in a 34-6 game against Beloit; he and Potter
combined for eight against Armour Tech. The year's biggest win
was an upset over Chicago, which saw Potter scoring three touchdowns,
and Van Doozer one.
The next year's team went 6-1-2 overall, losing one game to
Chicago, but winning another 46-6. The Chicago Tribune's
account of that game spanned six columns, and said of Northwestern's
star players:
If there was any doubt as to
Van Doozer and Potter being the best halfbacks in the west it
was dispelled yesterday. They simply covered themselves with
glory and last night were lions among their fellow students
... Potter would rank well in any place but Van Doozer is in
a class by himself. He has never met the line that he did not
go through. Yesterday he waded through the Maroons as if they
were made up of 15 year old boys.
The final game of that season, against Wisconsin, was for the
conference championship -- Wisconsin was 2-0 in the league,
and Northwestern 2-1. The game ended in a 6-6 tie, putting Wisconsin
ahead in the rankings. William Andrews, a tackle on Northwestern's
team, wrote the following:
It was the last game for Van
Doozer, Pearce, Potter, and myself. Years after, the last time
I saw Keg, he said to me: 'Andy, I wake up in the night ...
and think about that game. I can't forget it.'
Van Doozer coached the team to a 4-3 record in 1897. W.H. Bannard's
team went 7-4 the following year, and in 1899, the team found
its first long-term coach: C.M. Hollister, who kept the position
until 1902.
When Van Doozer died in 1929, Potter wrote a tribute for Northwestern's
Alumni News:
Van is gone and the news of
his death brings back sad and tender memories. I have always
thought of Van at this time of the year when the fall season
comes and football days are ushered in ...
He was my inspiration. When things
did not go right and discouragements came, the sacrifice Van
was making would come to me and my fancied troubles would
vanish. Yes, Van was a great football player but I always
thought of him as an unselfish friend.He listened to all our
little troubles, helped solve them and welded us into a winning
team.
So, boys of the 1895 and '96 football
teams, we have lost an unselfish friend and a great football
player.
...next...
