1904 Championship Game Program/Lineup card

[TanksAndSpartans]

I wanted to share this with the group because its the first Ohio League program I've come across. Just stumbled on it online. I've never seen another pre-1920 program (technically it looks like its more of a single page lineup card) from a team from this region. I think I may have seen a pre-NFL program out of the New York area once. if anyone has anything else, I'd love to see it.

1904-program-small.jpg (125.66 KiB) Viewed 14614 times

You can read more about the season here: http://www.profootballresearchers.org/a ... _Again.pdf

Here are some highlights:

*Since TDs were worth 5 points, Massillon scored twenty-six touchdowns and eighteen extra points to gain their total against poor Marion.

*Three Pittsburgh stars: Bob Shiring, Doc McChesney, and Herman Kerchoffe were in Massillon's lineup for the Pittsburg Lyceum game and forward

*Ted Nesser and Charles Follis played against the Tigers in the Shelby game, and then Ted was recruited to finish the season with Massillon

*Dan Riley was from Canton and his real name was Policowski.

*Frank Botoner was one of the few true Massilonians who started

The championship game against Akron was played on Thanksgiving Day and the only account I found was from the Akron Beacon Journal which in my opinion was heavily biased with at least 10 different reasons why Akron was better. Massillon won 6-5, as Akron missed a PAT with time running out, to complete a perfect 7-0 season. Ted Nesser listed at LH (pre-game) actually played LT in the game and was the only Massillon player the Akron newspaper had anything positive to say about.

Here's the box score:

1904-BoxScore.png (207.34 KiB) Viewed 14614 times

[JohnH19]

Some real nail biters there!

[TanksAndSpartans]

Some real nail biters there!

Yeah, they really dominated up until that last one. One of the interesting things mentioned in the biggest blowout was that when you score, you have the option to kick or receive, so they kept receiving that game and the other team only got to go on offense as a result of the opening kickoff and they went 3 and out.

[Bob Gill]

One of the interesting things mentioned in the biggest blowout was that when you score, you have the option to kick or receive, so they kept receiving that game and the other team only got to go on offense as a result of the opening kickoff and they went 3 and out.

By the 1920s that rule had been changed so the team that had been scored on had the option of whether to kick off or receive. That's part of the story about Red Grange's famous game against Michigan when he scored four touchdowns in ten minutes or something: Michigan (or was it Michigan State?) kept choosing to kick off after Illinois scored, in the believe that Grange would get tired if Illinois kept giving him the ball.

Possibly the last time that option was ever used was in a 1940 game between the Boston Bears of the AFL and the Kenosha Cardinals. I may have this backwards, but I think it was Boston that chose to kick off after Kenosha had just scored a touchdown. I wonder when the NFL changed the rule, or if the practice just died out as teams came to value possession more than field position.

[Bryan]

*Three Pittsburgh stars: Bob Shiring, Doc McChesney, and Herman Kerchoffe were in Massillon's lineup for the Pittsburg Lyceum game and forward

I can imagine the conversation regarding this. "We only beat our last opponent by a score of 148-0...we need to get better players immediately!"

[Ronfitch]

One of the interesting things mentioned in the biggest blowout was that when you score, you have the option to kick or receive, so they kept receiving that game and the other team only got to go on offense as a result of the opening kickoff and they went 3 and out.

By the 1920s that rule had been changed so the team that had been scored on had the option of whether to kick off or receive. That's part of the story about Red Grange's famous game against Michigan when he scored four touchdowns in ten minutes or something: Michigan (or was it Michigan State?) kept choosing to kick off after Illinois scored, in the believe that Grange would get tired if Illinois kept giving him the ball.

"Okay, fellas, *this* time, I think we've got them right where we want them."