The 1918 Auburn Tigers vs. The Great War, Georgia Tech, Flu and Injuries

From the 1919 Glomerata (click on page images to zoom in a little):

The 1918 season record for the Tigers was 2-5.

Oct. 19 OGLETHORPE 58-0 W
Oct. 26 CAMP GREENLEAF 0-26 L
Nov. 3 at Marion 20-7 W
Nov. 9 Camp Gordon in Columbus, Ga. 6-14 L
Nov. 16 Vanderbilt at Birmingham 0-21 L
Nov. 28 at Georgia Tech 0-41 L
Dec. 7 Camp Sheridan in Montgomery 0-7 L

Notes and Fun Facts, page 134

“Mike” Coach Mike Donahue. From 1913 into 1915, Donahue’s Auburn Tigers went 22 consecutive games without a loss. In 1918, his Tigers went 2-5. Record at Auburn was 99–35–5. Later went on to coach football, baseball and tennis at LSU. As the baseball coach at LSU, Donahue was preceded by another Auburn Tiger and his former football player R.J. “Moon” Ducote in that coaching position.

“Moon” Ducote or Richard Joseph (R.J.) Ducote was a running back/guard/freestyle field goal kicker?!?! for the Tigers. In the book, “The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron” by John Stegeman, Ducote is described as using his leather helmet as a kicking tee to beat the University of Georgia team in 1916 by a final score of 3-0! Read on, Tiger fans:

In the Auburn game at Columbus, the teams rocked each other all afternoon without scoring a touchdown. Both elevens had a shot at a field goal. Bill Donnelly missed for Georgia, but “Moon” Ducote, of the Plainsmen, making use of an improvisation of his own, was successful. As he lined up to sight his place-kick, Ducote put his helmet on the ground in front of him. The ball was snapped and the holder spotted it on top of the headgear. Ducote’s kick sailed high over the heads of the rushing Georgians and above the cross-bar thirty-five yards away for the only score of the game. Georgia’s protest was in vain since Ducote’s unique kicking tee was not excluded by the rules of the day.

Ducote kicked a field goal from the 48 yard line in Auburn’s 20-9 loss to Vanderbilt that same year. The 1916-17 “Intercollegiate Athletic Calendar” hailed Ducote as “one of the greatest long distance field goal kickers the South has ever seen.”

“Pete” Bonner. T.H. Bonner, a guard and Auburn’s team captain in 1919.

“Bill” Donahue. William F. Donahue, halfback. During the 1918 season, Donahue was in the U.S. Army’s Veterinary Corp. with Veterinary Company No. 1. Donahue played football in 1918 for the Camp Greenleaf team that included Sgt. Jock Southerland from Pitt, William McGill from Clemson and John C. Dawson from the University of Iowa. The Camp Greenleaf “all-star” team pummeled the Auburn Tigers in 1918 by a score of 26-0. Donahue actually played against his Tigers for the Army veterinary team that year!

The War Eagle Reader had trouble locating what branches of the Armed Services that Ducote and Bonner served under during the 1918 season.

Notes and Fun Facts, page 135

” … hung to the sour apple tree.” What a great phrase. Never heard it before. Maybe originates from the Union Army’s marching song “John Brown’s Body” with the line: “We’ll hang old Jeff Davis (3x) from a sour apple tree” with the original verse being “We’ll feed old Jeff Davis sour apples ’til he gets the diarhee.” Apparently, “diarhee” offended the sensibilities and the verse had to be changed.

“… the famous Strupper”. Everett Strupper was the famed (and apparently much feared) running back for Georgia Tech.

Atlanta Journal‘s reporter Morgan Blake commented during the 1917 game of Georgia Tech vs. Carlisle Indian Industrial School:

“[Tech's] Everett Strupper played like a veritable demon. At one time four Carlisle men pounced on him from all directions, and yet through some superhuman witchery he broke loose and dashed 10 yards further.”

Tech won the game against Carlisle by a score of 98-0. Yes, 98-0. Also, “superhuman witchery” is a bad-ass phrase that must be used more often in everyday occasions.

Later in life, Everett Strupper was a part-time sports columnist for the Atlanta Journal and responsible for the University of Alabama being associated with elephants, planting the red-elephant seed with his description of the Ole Miss vs. Alabama game in 1930:

“At the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, ‘Hold your horses, the elephants are coming,’ and out stamped this Alabama varsity.”

Further reading on Strupper: “Georgia Tech’s 1917 backfield, better than the Four Horsemen” by Bernie McCarty in the College Football Historical Society Newsletter, May 1988

“the famous Golden Tornado” From the “Ramblin’ Wreck” traditions Web page: “The Golden Tornado is another former nickname thought to be created by sportswriters when John Heisman led [Georgia] Tech to its first national championship in football in 1917. Tech was the first team from the South to earn the honor bestowed by the International News Service, and any team thereafter which approached the same level of excellence was referred to as the Golden Tornado. The nickname was used as late as 1929, when Tech defeated California in the Rose Bowl.”

Time out for a quick comment from TWER: “Why o’ why don’t we play Georgia Tech every year?!?! There’s a grand tradition between the two teams. Also, Auburn needs sweet, sweet vengeance!”

Notes and Fun Facts, page 136

“War Work Fund” Possibly meaning the United War Work Campaign, which was “a collective of the YMCA, the YWCA, the National Catholic War Council, the Jewish Welfare Board, the War Camp Community Service, the American Library Association, and the Salvation Army — authorized by the U.S. Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy to work for the soldiers and sailors in and near the camps.”
Source: A speech by John D. Rockefeller Jr. on behave of the campaign.

Notes and Fun Facts, page 137

“Several players were developed who will help bring Auburn football back to its regular standard.” And how! The 1919 team went 8-1! The Tigers the next year beat Georgia, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, but lost 7-6 to Vanderbilt in Nashville. Also, Auburn was the champion of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association that year. War. Damn. Eagle.

From The Notebook: Paul Hemphill (1936-2009)

Paul Hemphill, noted newspaper columnist and author of “The Nashville Sound,” “Leaving Birmingham,” and “Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams,” died Saturday morning. He was 73.

His last book, “A Tiger Walk through History: The Complete Story of Auburn Football from 1892 to the Tuberville Era,” was published in 2008.

Hemphill was a native of Birmingham and graduated from Auburn in 1957.

1957 was a good year to graduate…

It was also a good year to be The Plainsman’s sports editor.

Here’s Hemphill’s column from December 6, 1957.

[you can read it in its full, antique glory here]

I’ll Remember…
What does it take to be the best football team in the whole nation?
Lots of things, friends, lots of things… more than you’d think.
Most of’em are obvious, like scoring more points than the guys at the other end of the field every Saturday, or blocking hard and tackling the same way.
Your Aunt Matilda – who’s never seen a football game in her life – knows it takes a lot of good football players and the same amount of coaches molded into a happy, winning machine.
But there are plenty of things making for undefeated seasons which never get into the headlines… some folks call’em “intangibles”… others name them “loyalty” and “pride” and “desire.”
This Auburn team, the 1957 one, the one that’s sitting right on top and looking down at everybody else in the football world, had those “intangibles.”
Maybe that’s why almost everybody calls it the best in the nation instead of just another good football team.
And maybe I’m too sentimental, but it’s gonna be so, so hard to forget the many little – yet big – things that happened in the fall of 1957 to the bunch that has to be called the greatest in Auburn history.
I’ll remember all the surprises that came along week by week… things such as Lloyd Nix’s brilliant quarterbacking that cold, wet, day against Tennessee in his first college game at that position…
And the sight of unknown Mickey Welch, jumping into the battle against Georgia Tech in his hometown and stopping – all by himself – the Engineers’ most serious scoring threat.
I won’t forget either the raw courage shown by Bobby Hoppe when he refused for three Saturdays to give in to two ribs broken in the opener against Tennessee… Nor the way 165-pound Tommy Lorino buried back into the fray against Kentucky minutes after being laid low by 240-pound Lou Michaels.
The same kind of stuff was shown all year long by Captain Tim Baker, who was so banged up even before the season began that he shouldn’t even have been in a uniform.
“Desire,” is the nice word they call that… it’s also “guts.”
And I’ll never forget the display of same rendered by loose-jointed John Whatley, long, lanky and almost-forgotten, when he threw off his parka that cold afternoon in Birmingham and replaced Jimmy Phillips in a manner described by the All-American as “better than I could ever have done.”
The sights in the Auburn dressing room after that come-from-behind win over Mississippi State are even more clear in my mind.
There was end coach Gene Lorendo, big, tough, and with the booming voice, so happy about “Ol’ John’s” (Whatley) golden moment that he was almost in tears. And outside the clubhouse, there was backfield teacher Buck Bradberry, who was telling writers – even before they asked – what he thought of his Tigers’ coming from behind for the first time.
That was “pride.”
And when you start talking about “loyalty,” you have to mention everything “Shug” Jordan did, everything he said, all year.
He showed it each time he was asked about one of his men. Never, not once, was there a word of criticism for a player who had obviously made a mistake.
Never did the savior of Auburn football portray any doubt that the men who played for him WERE men.
That, you have to call “loyalty.”
And never did Jordan’s loyalty and respect of his football players show more to this fan than last Saturday against Alabama in a fleeting incident that almost everybody missed.
It was midway in the second half when graduating Bobby Hoppe had prematurely ended his college career with a twisted elbow.
And as the gritty Chattanoogan sat dejectedly on the Auburn bench, head down and probably with a tear in his eye, his coach sensed the need for saying one last word of gratitude to the one who had exemplified the Auburn spirit throughout the football season that was almost endd.
I’ll never, ever forget the look of fatherly pride in “Shug” Jordan’s eyes as he cupped Bobby Hoppe’s chin in his hand and lifted his head to say a simple… “thank you.”
That was loyalty, pride, and respect.
And I’ll remember…

Visions of ’57: Auburn 29, Florida St. 7

From the 1958 Glomerata:

Goes to show…

… how famous Michael Jackson really was. And how small.