by Sam Hatcher
HEISMAN’S FIRST TROPHY
100TH ANNIVERSARY
HEISMAN’S FIRST TROPHY
The Game That Launched Football in the South
SAM MATCHER
Copyright © 2016 Sam Hatcher
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief quotations in critical reviews and articles.
Published by Franklin Green Publishing
P.O. Box 51
Lebanon, Tennessee 37088
www.franklingreenpublishing.com
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 9781-936487-332
This is a work of fiction. Critical events in the story took place and individuals who participated are portrayed as may be imagined. Efforts have been made to provide an interesting story that correctly presents critical facts surrounding the game, and the role of the colorful cast of characters who participated in the event.
Cover and Interior Design: Bill Kersey, www.kerseygraphics.com
Edited by Ken Beck
TO FAMILY
I dedicate this book to my wife Teresa; her parents, Frank and Carolyn Dudley; my two sons-in-law, Caleb Dennis and Ryan Sprouse, both graduates of Cumberland; our daughters Kalyn and Karah; and to my parents the late John and Billie Hatcher.
Cumberland University has touched the lives of many in our region although not anywhere close to the thousands who have been educated at Georgia Tech.
Within my own family my wife, mother, sons-in-law, and I are alumni of Cumberland.
The existence of this grand old university founded in 1842 is important to us all and to the community in which we live.
Thank goodness the game about which this book is written was played in 1916 and Cumberland was saved once again.
Resurgam, “I shall rise again.”
CONTENTS
Foreword
1 Forty Years Ago Today
2 Not Coach Heisman’s First Rumble with Cumberland
3 Heisman Detects Cumberland Ringers
4 Bankruptcy Looms
5 Changing The Game and The Rules
6 George And Jack Tie One On
7 Making It Happen
8 Down in Atlanta
9 Game Day Arrives
10 The Big Game
11 The Score Escalates
12 Press Allows No Mercy
13 Losers Away, Heroes At Home
14 Winning It All
15 Football in the South Booms
16 What Follows
Addendum
FOREWORD
Versions of American football have been recorded as early as 1820 when Princeton students played a mob-like game called “ballown.” In that game players were allowed to advance the ball by any means available including their fists, their feet, whatever.
Harvard introduced a version of football in 1827 called “Bloody Monday,” which featured freshmen and sophomore classes battling it out in a game that often resulted in riots on campus and in the city of Boston.
In these early days, a couple of decades past the turn of the century, football had a critical need for refining. Some would say taming. Although audiences were fascinated by the game, patrons were beginning to surmise that the sport had no real value other than being a display of blood, violence and unsupervised play.
Rules for football were soon developed. The standards applied to the game ensured competition would be fair, teams would be treated equally, that rules would be consistent and enforced the same from one school to the next, and that the safety of players would be a primary concern.
By the late 1800s many colleges and universities were competing in the sport, rivalries had been developed, and because of a growing fan base so passionate about this relatively new American pastime, the nation’s media reacted adding football coverage, including opinion columns, to sports pages inside newspapers.
Each week a new story was being told. There were deaths on the field, hidden ball tricks, the introduction of the forward pass, and the creation of legendary coaches.
Of all the stories told from the beginning of football time in America until today there has not been a more compelling story than the David and Goliath match up in 1916 that pitted the small and obscure Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tenn. against football legend John Heisman and his nationally ranked Georgia Tech Engineers.
It’s a romantic memoir that features a gallant and heroic effort of 14 fraternity brothers who volunteered their service to save their small but prestigious university from bankruptcy by playing a football game in Atlanta. And it’s the telling first steps for a major university that has developed its football program to become one of the nation’s most prominent.
Both universities adopted football programs late in the 19th century. Georgia Tech lost 12–6 in its opening game against Mercer in 1892 and Cumberland two years later tied Peabody College, a Nashville school that later merged with Vanderbilt, 6–6 in its football debut.
Today both Tech and Cumberland continue their respective football traditions albeit Cumberland competes in the NAIA and Tech as a contender in the NCAA Division I.
Beyond football both schools have produced or staked claim to notable alumni, faculty members, or in the case of Georgia Tech, a legendary coach, the late John W. Heisman.
Cumberland University’s honor roll of graduates includes a U.S. Secretary of State, more than 80 members of the U.S. Congress, two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, three U.S. Ambassadors, a number of state governors, scores of state and federal judges, and hundreds of elected local and state officials.
Also graduating from Cumberland was George E. Allen, an advisor to four U.S. presidents and the person primarily responsible for the historic game played between his alma mater and Coach Heisman’s Georgia Tech team in Atlanta.
Following Tech’s record pounding 222–0 defeat of Cumberland, much has happened in the world. Two World Wars have been fought. The U.S. has recovered from two devastating collapses in its economy. Man has landed and walked on the moon. And the world has experienced many more accomplishments, events, and catastrophes.
Meanwhile college football is alive and well and Georgia Tech and Cumberland, still very different in very many ways, continue to provide the academic discipline in the classroom and orderly prowess on the athletic field to produce quality driven and capable graduates who are determined to make tomorrow’s world better for all.
Getting past Ann to Ike
“The President’s office, please.
“Good morning, Ann. It’s George. What kind of day does he have today? I’m hoping we might get in eighteen before the rain and some cooler weather comes in later.”
Ann Whitman was President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s personal secretary. She knew when he could play golf and when he couldn’t. A stern woman, whom Eisenhower had met during his campaign for the presidency, Ann could be difficult at times particularly when dealing with an obstinate George Allen.
Ann was no pushover by any measure. Lured from a high-ranking secretarial post with the Crusade for Freedom Organization in New York City at the age of forty-four, she was hired by the Eisenhower campaign team in 1952. After he was elected to America’s top office, she was chosen by the president to be his confidant and go-to-person at the White House for the eight years he served.
George and Ann’s personalities were often in conflict.
At times they even struggled to understand each other’s dialect. George spoke with a deep-southern native Mississippi drawl, while Ann would counter with a sharp and
deliberate northern Ohio oral rapid fire.
Nonetheless, George knew how to deal with Ann. And Ann knew she had to tolerate George because he was close to the president and a force with whom to be dealt in Washington political circles.
George commenced his relationship with Eisenhower during the 1940s when he made frequent trips to England and Europe on behalf of the American Red Cross. Their visits developed into a close friendship, and Ann was aware of their history.
Despite their differences Ann and George could find some mutual ground due to their background. George, a dozen years older than Ann, was raised in Baldwyn, Mississippi, a hamlet in the northeast corner of the state only a couple of counties removed from Memphis. Ann hailed from Perry, Ohio, a tiny crossroads-like community that bordered Lake Erie.
President Eisenhower
George Allen
The two also shared similar sentiments about their college days. Both attended small colleges. Ann’s alma mater was Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, while George graduated from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. The two private schools had been founded in the mid-1800s before the Civil War: Cumberland in 1842 and Antioch in 1850.
The one element above all else that connected them most was the absolutely essential need for a close relationship with the president.
Ann wasn’t about to give up her role as the White House protocol mistress, and George, for the sake of his livelihood, could not afford a breach with the Oval Office.
The lobbyist, dealmaker, opportunist, and political insider had to get along with “Miss Ann” in order to get along in Washington.
He knew it.
And she knew it.
“He’s got a full schedule today. I can’t see him getting out of the office. Sorry George, it just doesn’t look like there’s any possibility of a four-hour opening for a round at Burning Tree. Not today at least,” Eisenhower’s control officer declared.
He had advised presidents
Before he wound down his career, George Allen would have advised four U.S. Presidents including Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. He had been a key leader in the National Democratic Party, had accepted a number of presidential appointments, many of which were for assignments in foreign countries, and had been at one time in his younger days a pretty damn good courtroom country defense lawyer.
Hearing Ann say “no” didn’t come easy for him, especially on this day.
It was Friday, October 7, 1960. Ike was in the midst of a crisis with Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev.
The popular television series Route 66 would be making its national debut that evening, but taking center stage in the minds of many Americans was the second Kennedy-Nixon debate which was to be broadcast by host NBC and carried live as well by CBS and ABC, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
Kennedy-Nixon debate
Sixty million Americans were expected to be sitting in front of their televisions on this night when NBC newsman Frank McGee, the debate moderator, would welcome the audience. Most of the viewers would be watching on sets that provided black-and-white reception only. And many on their way home from work would steal a glimpse of the debate as they passed department store windows where the latest technology in television sets including elaborate wooden consoles would be on display.
George knew that if he and Ike were going to play golf they’d have to be finished before an autumn sun began to disappear and early enough for the president to return to the White House so he could wrap any unfinished business and be ready to watch John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon go at each other for a second time.
The first debate had scored major points for the Kennedy campaign. The attraction for the audience for the second debate, which focused on civil rights, was to see if Nixon could rebound.
George, a former ranking member of the National Democratic Party holding key leadership posts as secretary and treasurer, had a stake in the Kennedy-Nixon race. Although a close friend and confidant of Eisenhower, George was buried in the trenches with the Kennedy campaign. He had bundled thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, worked with key campaign operatives on a number of strategic decisions for the South, and had helped where he could in other parts of the country.
Ike, a Republican, knew George was in the other camp working for Kennedy but respected his position and did not let that come between their friendship or their competitive spirit on the golf course or, for that matter, friendly exchanges over a couple of J.W. Black Labels on the rocks after they left the links.
Pushing a tad more, George insisted to Ann to let him speak to the president.
EISENHOWER’S DRINK OF CHOICE
* * *
President Eisenhower, who suffered a number of heart attacks which were largely blamed on his chain-smoking habit, didn’t often drink more than one cocktail a day but sometimes would slip and have a couple if he thought word would not get back to his doctor. His favorite libation was J.W. Black Label scotch on the rocks.
Doubtful and resistant as she was, she obliged, warning that the president had but a few minutes to spare.
The Oval Office phone rang a couple of times, and finally the president’s voice came over the line. He had been alerted by Ann that George Allen was calling.
Let’s do Burning Tree at 11:30
After a quick exchange of greetings, George immediately got down to business.
“Look, I know you’ve got a full day ahead of you, but I have an 11:30 tee time at Burning Tree. We can easily be finished by 3:30, so you can get back to dealing with that Russian son-of-a-bitch and still have time to watch the debate tonight,” George pleaded.
A unique private club, located in Bethesda, Maryland, Burning Tree Golf Club is situated on two-hundred and forty-four extremely well-manicured acres.
“The Tree’s” reputation, since it opened in 1923, boils down to really one rule: “no women allowed.”
According to history, Burning Tree was conceived after a male foursome at the Chevy Chase Country Club was stuck behind a slow-playing group of female golfers.
Burning Tree has been the club of choice for seven presidents, members of congress, wealthy business executives, high-paid lobbyists, and television celebrities, among others.
The elite who have held memberships at Burning Tree, besides Eisenhower, include Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H. Bush; Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger; print-media mogul William Randolph Hearst; and famed broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow.
Stories have been told that Tip O’Neill, when he was House Speaker, would play golf at Burning Tree shirtless, which must have proven quite a sight for a man weighing in close to 300 pounds.
A great deal of lore surrounds Burning Tree. Supposedly a helicopter once had to make an emergency landing on the golf course with a U.S. Secretary of State aboard. Two security agents accompanying him were female. All the passengers in the helicopter were allowed to disembark and retreat to the clubhouse except for the two females, who had to stay on the government chopper until appropriate service vehicles came to the club to retrieve the entire group.
The club was so beloved by Eisenhower that he maintained a desk and special telephone in the locker room from where he could conduct business between rounds or in between reshuffles of an occasional locker room card game.
House Speaker Tip O’Neil
Today, in a corner of the downstairs museum-like clubhouse edifice, Eisenhower’s massive, white-oak desk and his black, rotary-dial telephone, that during his presidency served as a “hot line” to the White House, command a place of honor.
NO FEMALES
* * *
Burning Tree has but one rule: No Females Allowed. Women are provided no facilities whatsoever at the private club. If a taxi cab brings a golfer to the entrance and the driver is female, the passenger/golfer must leave the cab at the gate, wait for a ride to the bag drop, or call for a club attendant to come with a c
lub vehicle and carry him to the clubhouse. Female taxi drivers are not allowed on the grounds.
Although the club has pronounced its prejudice against women, this has not been the case when accepting African-American members. Burning Tree began enlisting black members decades before Augusta National welcomed its first in the 1990s.
For a very long while women were allowed on the grounds of Burning Tree once a year. In December a limited number of weekdays have been set aside for a period of two hours, from 9 o’clock to 11 o’clock, when wives of members may enter the club’s pro-shop and purchase Christmas gifts.
The six hundred-member club requires an initiation fee of $75,000 and is open to membership by invitation only.
“OK, OK,” the president reluctantly agreed to George’s plea. “I might not have time to hit practice balls, but I’ll be there by 11:15.”
When Ike said he might not have time to hit practice balls, George knew what that meant.
Ike’s standard routine for practice was to hit a dozen or so drives from the first tee. Once he hit one long and straight, he’d claim it, and the round would officially begin.
Thrilled at the president’s response, George planned the rest of his morning before departing for Burning Tree.
He reached the club just before 10, grabbed a bucket of balls and headed to the practice range a couple of hundred yards from the clubhouse. While he delivered a flurry of shots with his mid-irons and wedge, the painful memory of where he was this day forty-four years ago began to gnaw on his mind.
Patiently waiting for the president, he finished whacking his full bucket of range balls and then spent fifteen minutes on the practice putting green. Even though there was no sign of the president, he ambled to the first tee.
The clock ticked closer toward 11:20. Foursomes were backed up like a minor traffic jam on the Beltway. Nice weather brought them all out thought George, realizing that if Ike didn’t get there soon, they’d lose their tee time, no matter if his playing foe for the day was the President of the United States.