{"id":1305,"date":"2010-06-29T13:45:31","date_gmt":"2010-06-29T18:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/library\/"},"modified":"2012-07-03T10:50:56","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T15:50:56","slug":"1929-undefeated","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/archives\/history\/illustrated\/am\/1929-undefeated\/","title":{"rendered":"The Undefeated Champions of 1929: Mulerider Football during the 1920s"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Excerpted from James F. Willis, Southern Arkansas University: The Mulerider School\u2019s Centennial History, 1909-2009<\/em>, pp. 111-13)<\/p>\n

\"Coach<\/a>

Coach Sage McLean, 1929 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"President<\/a>

President Charles A. Overstreet, 1935 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cromer<\/a>

Cromer Ames, 1928 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite the setback on securing new buildings, the year 1929 remained among the best in Magnolia A&M\u2019s twenty-five-year history. The school was accredited [by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools], and the Mulerider football team went undefeated, a feat never achieved at A&M again. It was the climax of the \u201cgolden years\u201d of Mulerider football when, for the third time, the team won a conference championship. While the varsity team played only colleges, the second team, nicknamed the Mulettes, had occasional games with high schools.<\/p>\n

These remarkable football years began in 1926 with an unexpected victory over Henderson-Brown. Sage McLean said it was the \u201cmost exciting\u201d game he ever coached in the fourteen years he led the team (1923 to 1936). The strong Reddies team was heavily favored. Late in the game with Henderson threatening to score again from the Magnolia fifteen-yard line, the Reddies quarterback threw an interception. Defender Cromer Ames caught the errant ball in his own end zone and ran back 101 yards for a touchdown. When Ames kicked the extra point to win the game, 14\u201313, McLean said that waiting for the ball to cross the goalposts was the \u201clongest five seconds I have ever lived.\u201d What students most remembered about the thrilling game was President [Charles A.] Overstreet, on the sidelines, becoming so excited when Ames made his runback that the president ran with him all the way to the Reddies goal line. McLean insisted Ames was the finest running back he ever coached.<\/p>\n

The Muleriders marched to the 1929 championship of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference (AIC) with seven wins, no losses, and two ties. The season began with what the Arkansas Gazette<\/em> called \u201ca savage 6-to-6 tie\u201d with the Ouachita Tigers. Coach McLean\u2019s usual game plan consisted of bruising \u201cstraight line plunges\u201d and a stubborn defense that held its ground \u201clike a stonewall.\u201d This strategy worked in game after game. In six of nine contests, the opposing teams did not score.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The special train to Shreveport, 1930 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

Excitement grew when the Muleriders journeyed to Jonesboro to play the Gorillas (an early name of that A&M college\u2019s team). Three hundred Magnolia fans gathered in the National Guard Armory to listen to live play-by-play reports via telephone from Ves Godley, the assistant football coach. He walked the sidelines with telephone in hand, a long wire trailing as he talked. Standing on the armory\u2019s stage in Magnolia, cheerleader Curtis Youngblood relayed Godley\u2019s descriptions to cheering supporters as the Muleriders rolled over the Gorillas 39\u20130.<\/p>\n

When the team went to Shreveport to play Louisiana Normal College (Natchitoches) on Armistice Day, November 11, 1929, Magnolia\u2019s Lions Club sponsored a special train for fans. Hundreds made the trip. Fifty-eight patriotic businesses in Magnolia closed that day to honor the fallen heroes of the First World War and to go cheer for Bill \u201cBattering Bill\u201d Brown, their Mulerider hero. In this game, as in previous ones, this tough fullback scored with \u201cirresistible line plunges.\u201d As always, the team\u2019s front wall was anchored by Jason Greer, \u201cthe big red-headed right tackle\u201d; John Hamm, the fierce left guard; and Paul Umbach, the left tackle, \u201ca brainy fighting type that never quits.\u201d The Muleriders shut out Normal\u2019s Demons 13\u20130.<\/p>\n

\"Homecoming<\/a>

Homecoming Queen Ruthe Youngblood, 1930 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

As the final game with the traditional rival, the Monticello Boll Weevils, approached on Thanksgiving Day, the Arkansas Gazette<\/em> reported that the city of Magnolia was \u201cfootball mad.\u201d If the Muleriders won, the team would secure the conference title outright and have a solid claim to the state championship. The Lions Club, American Legion, and Business and Professional Women\u2019s Club competed to see which could sell the most tickets\u2014$1 each\u2014to the 2:00 p.m. game at Smith Field. The Bray\u2019s<\/em> staff prepared a twenty- page souvenir program and printed a thousand copies to sell.<\/p>\n

To add pageantry and color to the football game, Magnolia\u2019s faculty and staff decided to hold a Homecoming Day and to crown a football queen for the first time. Before the game began, as the band played, uniformed student members of the campus\u2019s Arkansas National Guard unit escorted Queen Ruthe Youngblood, a popular cheerleader, and her court of maids to the midfield ceremony. After receiving her crown, she in turn presented a large bouquet of roses to the captain of each team as the huge crowd cheered and applauded. So many people\u2014more than three thousand\u2014came to Smith Field, which had no bleachers, that officials had to suspend the game several times to push fans off the playing field.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Prize: “Frankie” the Goat, 1930 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

Monticello added to the festivities by bringing a white female Angora goat to be awarded to the winning side. Each season for the next seven years, this goat\u2014named for the Monticello president \u201cFrankie\u201d Horsfall when won by Magnolia and \u201cCharlie\u201d Overstreet when won by Monticello\u2014became the prize of the Turkey Day game. Knowing that a mule and a goat were featured mascots of the famous Army-Navy football rivalry, the Arkansas Democrat opined that \u201cfrom the frothing and foaming and sputtering which goes on\u201d the \u201cMulerider-Boll Weevil game bids to become the Army-Navy battle of Arkansas football.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the opening play that Thanksgiving Day in 1929, the Muleriders fooled the Boll Weevils, who expected their opponents\u2019 well-known \u201ccold-blooded smashing tactics.\u201d Instead, Monticello players faced a \u201cbrilliant surprise forward passing attack\u201d that Coach McLean devised and that quarterback J. D. Cooksey skillfully executed. More confusing still was that Custer Ross, the right halfback, did most of the passing, twice throwing for touchdowns. Three scores occurred through the air, and the other two from the reliable running of Bill Brown. Monticello was held to two first downs while Magnolia gained nineteen. The Muleriders would have achieved another shutout but for the runback of an errant pass in the game\u2019s waning minutes. It was, however, a long-remembered Magnolia A&M victory, the final score 32\u20136.<\/p>\n

\"Football<\/a>

Football at Smith Field, 1932 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

Coach McLean ran a scandal-free football program, and as a chemistry teacher, he emphasized scholarship as much as athletics. A number of his players went on to make notable records as athletes and as students at four-year institutions. Within two years, members of the 1929 team were playing for major college programs at the University of Arkansas, the University of Arizona, and Louisiana State University. The University of Wyoming awarded scholarships to five Mulerider players. The Bray\u2019s<\/em>sportswriter, Horace Wilson, followed his friends to Wyoming and subsequently completed a law degree there. Other players received undergraduate or graduate degrees at Wyoming, most notably Paul Umbach, who earned both bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in biology and geology. Umbach returned to Magnolia A&M to teach and to assist in coaching. A freshman member of the 1929 team, John H. Wilson, graduated from the University of Arkansas Medical School and became medical director of the Dyess Colony, an important New Deal experiment for resettling tenant farmers in the 1930s. Wilson later returned to practice medicine in his hometown of Magnolia and served as an A&M board member for two decades. Two Mulerider centers of this era\u2014Claude H. Hughes (1924\u201325) and Richard V. Fincher (1931\u201332)\u2014also played center on varsity teams at the U.S. Naval Academy. Hughes won the Navy team\u2019s coveted Thompson Trophy Cup in1930. These young Magnolia A&M alumni finished their almost-parallel lives, both serving as naval officers and both dying in accidents before the Second World War.<\/p>\n

\"Claude<\/a>

Claude Hughes, 1930 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Custer<\/a>

Custer Ross, 1930 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Richard<\/a>

Richard Fincher, 1932 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Excerpted from James F. Willis, Southern Arkansas University: The Mulerider School\u2019s Centennial History, 1909-2009, pp. 111-13) Despite the setback on securing new buildings, the year 1929 remained among the best in Magnolia A&M\u2019s twenty-five-year history. The school was accredited [by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools], and the Mulerider football team went… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":1724,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-1305","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1305\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}