Epler's 6, 8-Player Game Lives On
November 10, 2017
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
Is it a coincidence that the Stephen E. Epler Residence Hall on the campus of Portland State University is a six-story building?
Constructed in 2003 in the heart of downtown Portland, Oregon, the 130-unit structure is a belated tribute to Epler, “the founder of the Vanport Extension Center — the beginning of today's Portland State University.”
Following World War II, Epler moved to Portland with his wife Ferne to take a job counseling returning veterans on their educational opportunities. Once in the position, Epler quickly “realized that few colleges had the housing and jobs needed for the flood of veterans who wanted to take advantage of the GI Bill,” according to Bryce Henry, writing for The Oregon Encyclopedia, a project of the Oregon Historical Society.
To meet the needs of the area, he proposed “a two-year ‘feeder’ college. Established in March 1946 by the State Board of Higher Education, within 86 days, Epler had secured buildings at an old shipyard in Vanport and assembled a teaching staff into a college with housing. The Center allowed those veterans to begin work on achieving a college degree. For the next 10 years, Epler did all he could to nurse the Center he had helped create as it sought success and recognition.
In 1952, after a series of physical moves around the Portland area, the Center was relocated to a site downtown and renamed Portland State Extension Center. Despite his work, Epler was passed over by the Oregon State Board as Dean. In 1955, with the announcement creating Portland State College by the Oregon state legislature, he was again passed over by the Board when they named a college president.
"’It was a blue day for me,’ Epler wrote in his diary,” wrote Charles White in a biography also written for the Encyclopedia. “With no administrative role in the new college, Epler accepted the presidency of Reedley College in California, where he served for five years. He then served as president of the prestigious College of Marin.
“Epler was fondly remembered by students who attended the Vanport and Portland Extension Centers, and in 1995, Portland State University honored him in a celebration of the school's origins,” continued White, a former professor at Portland State. “PSU feted its founder, dedicated the ‘Vanport Room,’ made him a PSU professor emeritus, and (later) named its new dormitory Stephen Epler Hall.”
The recognition for Epler, who passed away in 1997, was long overdue. Still, it wasn’t the first time Epler’s accomplishments had been celebrated. In what may have seemed a lifetime ago, he was honored on multiple occasions for an earlier creation.
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Born in 1909 in Brooklyn, Iowa, Epler was the son of a Disciples of Christ pastor and later played football at Cotner College in Lincoln, Nebraska. Following graduation, he taught for a year at Lincoln Teachers’ College High School. In 1934, he was working as a science and physical education instructor at Chester High School in Nebraska. On a rainy Saturday in the spring of 1934, an informal chat with Dean Moomey, the superintendent of Chester Public Schools, would alter the life path of both Epler and thousands of others.
The conversation was about football, or the lack of it at Chester, a school located on the Nebraska-Kansas border. “I was loyally defending football and giving reasons why every high school should play it,” recalled Epler, “but Mr. Moomey was reminding me of the actual situation in the small school and the sad experiences Chester and other small schools had … with the game in the past.”
Moomey identified two primary problems at play in Nebraska and beyond. Organizing a football team was a challenge because of expense, as outfitting “twenty-two or more players needed for a squad” was a burden for a small district, “when the gate receipts alone would hardly pay the official’s fee.” Funding was a major burden for small farming communities, compounded by a nation that was slowly working its way out of the Great Depression.
An even greater area of concern was for the safety of the players when a football team was formed. Squads from the smaller schools often included “lighter and weaker boys (competing) against players of vastly superior physical strength and stamina.” That, in turn, created worry and fear by parents about what might happen during a game, and certain disapproval if “their boy got hurt.”
In Nebraska at the time, more than 70 percent of the schools had enrollments of fewer than 100 pupils. Epler’s studies found that less than 19 percent could field a football team.
With Moomey’s encouragement and support, Epler settled on a goal of modifying the rules of the 11-man game he had played and loved to allow for “a safer, less expensive game, and one that required fewer players.”
Later that year, Epler outlined the rules of six-man football, and on September 26, 1934, the first six-man football games were played at Hebron College. The contests featured a preliminary battle between Beatrice High and Hebron Academy that ended in a scoreless tie. A second match-up, staged between teams from Belvedere and Alexander High Schools and a squad representing Chester and Hardy schools, also ended in a deadlock, 19-19. “One of the officials at the (later) game was Mr. Epler himself, then coaching at Beatrice High School.”
A crowd of around 1,000 attended the matchup, in which every man, with the exception of the center, was eligible for a pass. Epler’s game was played on a shortened field, 80 yards long and 40 yards wide. Playing time was to consist of four quarters, each eight minutes long. All players were to wear basketball or tennis shoes. While coaches of the two teams could allow exception, the rule was in place “to cut down the cost of equipping the team.” Instead of 10 yards in four downs, six-man football required a team to gain 15 yards in four attempts “to balance the increased offensive power that comes with the smaller number of players.” Also in place was a rule that required the player who received the ball from center to make a pass behind the line of scrimmage of not less than two yards forward or backward to another player, before the ball could be advanced.
A field goal was worth four points, while a point after touchdown was worth two if kicked, but only one if passed or run into the end zone. Goal posts were set 25 feet apart instead of 18, with a cross-bar mounted lower to encourage field goals and kicked extra points.
The news of this new version of the game was carried by wire services in newspapers nationally. Suddenly, “the terms ‘football team’ and ‘the eleven’” were no longer synonymous in the world of sports.
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Epler’s first edition handbook on six-man football, numbering 64 pages, was published in 1935. In Michigan, the six-man game found immediate interest in the state’s northern-most region.
“As an answer to the curtailment of athletic funds and the question of attracting suitable material for a team, a drive is being made among smaller Upper Peninsula high schools to begin and to encourage ‘six-man’ football,” wrote the Bessemer Herald in May 1935. Channing High School coach A.J. Mautner approached Quinnesec, Felch, Amasa, Florence and Alpha about the possibility.
Knowledge continued to spread, aided by a September 1935 article by Epler in Scholastic Coach, mailed to nearly 100 percent of the nation’s high schools and colleges and aimed at coaches and athletic directors. The magazine was the first “to open its pages to six-man football.” Another Epler article, “A New Deal for Football” saw publication in October 1936 in Athletic Journal, another popular national publication targeting coaches. A September 1937 article in Detroit-based American Boy, the largest magazine for boys based on circulation, offered readers a copy of the official rule books for the game at a discount. Finally, in 1938, Epler’s book, Six-Man Football: The Streamlined Game, a 251-page book on the development of the game, its philosophy, fundamentals and style of play was published. It was dedicated “To the men and boys who organized and participated in the first game of six-man football played at Hebron, Nebraska, in 1934.”
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An alternative to both the 11-man and six-man games surfaced a couple months after the Hebron College contests. Little on the genealogy of the eight-man game has been documented, but, among the earliest records is one staged in Michigan between Morrice and Vernon High Schools.
Described in the Lansing State Journal as “a style of play designed to suit the smaller schools,” anyone interested in viewing the November 9, 1934, contest could attend free of an admittance fee. “Instead of the regulation 11,” wrote the State Journal, “each team will have but eight players. Two guards and one backfield will be eliminated from each team. The width of the field will be cut to 120 feet, the offensive team will be permitted but five men on the line of scrimmage and on kickoffs the receiving team must keep three men within five yards of the restraining line until the ball is kicked.”
E.J. Hendershott, principal, coach and agriculture instructor at Morrice, was certainly one of the earliest proponents of an eight-man version. In May of 1935, he presented on the variations of the game at the annual University of Michigan football clinic at Yost Field House.
In early November of 1935, an eight-man contest between Kalamazoo-area schools Comstock and Schoolcraft was judged “a success.” Consideration of the eight-man game was kicked around among the Jackson County High School Coaches Association in January 1936. Upon his return from a trip through the Upper Peninsula in September 1937, MHSAA director Charles Forsythe said “he found smaller schools enthusiastic about ‘miniature’ teams which play with but six or eight men instead of the regulation eleven.”
“The purpose … is to make football available to a wider range of boys than is now the case,” added Forsythe. “It is not pass and touch football, nor is it soccer. … The injury hazards are not so great with the smaller number of players on the field. … However the game should not be undertaken unless proper equipment is made available and coaching facilities are up to standard.”
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After limited experimentation, it appears that Epler’s version of the game won out in Michigan.
Nationally, the first Six-Man Football Committee was formed in 1937 and the group made some alterations to the rules, including movement of kickoffs from the 20 yard line to the 30, the creation of a “clear pass” rule that eliminated the need to judge whether a pass behind the line of scrimmage had traveled at least two yards, and changes to the substitution of players.
Nationally, it was estimated that 586 schools were playing six-man ball. In Michigan, the number was around 12.
In 1938, the national Six-Man Football Committee again altered the rules, this time to make all players, including the center, eligible to receive a pass. That fall, three schools in the Battle Creek area – Augusta, W.K. Kellogg Agricultural in Gull Lake and Climax – adopted the six-man game. Each played the other two twice during the season, with Augusta emerging undefeated, outscoring its opponents 134 to 8 over the four games.
A national report noted increased popularity of the sport. A total of 1,082 high schools now played the six-man game, nearly twice the number estimated in 1937. Around 50 schools played the six-man game in Michigan in 1938, according to Forsythe.
In 1939, the game again saw additional growth. In the Battle Creek area, Sherwood, Tekonsha, and Mendon joined Colon to form the St. Joseph Valley six-man football league. In addition, Climax, Schoolcraft, Richland, Scotts, Albion Starr Commonwealth, Sunfield, Martin and Marcellus took up the modified game. Reporting on the growing popularity, the Battle Creek Enquirer and News summed up the interest: “The scoring possibilities are numerous. … That’s what the fans like. Big Scores.”
Colon, coached by W.H. Judd, was awarded the Enquirer and News Trophy as St. Joseph Valley grid champion that season.
The “Tom Thumb League”, a subset of the Central Thumb League, also was formed in 1939. Comprised of Ubly, Port Hope, Kinde, Port Austin, Peck, Carsonville, Bay Port, Owendale and Gagetown, it was designed to provide a football program for small schools in the Thumb area of the state. Five of the nine had previously played either 11-man or six-man football in the past. No standings were kept that first year.
Statewide, 450 schools competed in traditional 11-man football in 1939, while six-man continued to grow rapidly. According to press reports, 100 or more now played the Epler version in Michigan.
In Fennville, coach Carson Niefert’s 1939 team notched an impressive 7-1 mark while jockeying between both versions of the game. Five wins came against six-man squads while the Blackhawks finished 2-1 in 11-man contests, downing both Hartford and Otsego. Their only loss came against Ravenna in the season opener. Due to a misunderstanding, Fennville was prepared to play a six-man game, but agreed to an 11-man game when the visitors arrived ready to play the standard version.
In the Lansing area, after a three-year lapse in which no football was played at Haslett High School, a six-man squad was assembled. Contests with other small schools including Bath, Morrice, Vernon, Byron, and Laingsburg were scheduled.
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In 1940, the MHSAA reported 150 schools across Michigan played six-man football. Schoolcraft and Climax were added to the St. Joseph Valley League. Colon emerged as the league’s sole champion. The conference title had been shared by Colon, Sherwood and Mendon in 1939.
The Central Thumb League and Thumb Tip League consolidated, and had shrunk to six schools playing football, as Port Austin dropped the sport, while Peck and Carsonville left the league. Ubly was honored as champion with a perfect 7-0 record.
Haslett, under the guidance of coach Paul Moyes, began its second year of six-man competition in 1940. In 1941 the Tri-County League was formed, comprised of Haslett, Bath, Morrice, Vernon, Byron, Laingsburg, DeWitt and the Michigan School for the Blind. Bath emerged as champions that season.
Augusta and Gull Lake W.K. Kellogg were added to the St. Joseph Valley in 1941, bringing that league total to eight teams.
Marenisco High School, coached by Joseph Poisson of Iron Mountain, claimed the “undisputed six-man football championship” of the Upper Peninsula in 1941. Undefeated in six games, his team averaged 51 points per contest.
Another successful six-man team from the era, according to the Detroit Free Press, was Roscommon, which had lost a single game from 1938 to 1941.
Travel restrictions and product rationing impacted high school sports around the state during the war years. Petersburg downed Britton in the final game of the 1942 season, wrestling away the Raisin Valley six-man football championship for the first time. Britton had won the league crown the previous two seasons. The teams would share the league crown in 1943.
Climax grabbed its sixth straight St. Joseph Valley win, its fifth by the league’s maximum score limit, with a 50-0 victory over Tekonsha on October 29, 1943. League rules ended games when a team’s point total equaled or exceeded 45. A week later, Climax traveled to Colon for a conference showdown of unbeaten and untied squads. Like Climax, Colon had dominated conference opponents during the season.
Played under the lights before a crowd of 1,200, the largest in Colon history, the battle between the evenly-matched squads was a worthy finish to the season. A “safety by Ralph Slage of Colon, his second of the night, sent the invading Climax team into a two-point lead at 10 to 8, with four minutes of play remaining.” With eight seconds left on the clock, that two-point margin looked secure when Climax surrendered the ball on downs at the Colon 15-yard line.
“There was just time for one play. Climax arranged its defensive forces for an anticipated pass.” Instead, Colon back Elmer Saddison broke free from a mass of Climax defenders at the 15-yard line and raced 65 yards for the game-winning touchdown.
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In September 1945, the Lansing area Tri-County League reorganized to handle the three sports of baseball, basketball and six-man football. The circuit was now composed of Bath, Byron, Gaines, Haslett, Morrice and Laingsburg. The St. Joseph Valley reorganized, with Colon and W.K. Kellogg departing to play 11-man ball. Rechristened the Southwestern Michigan Six-Man League, Marcellus joined in 1946, Martin was added for two seasons, 1946 and 1947, Centrevillie was added in 1948 and Albion Starr Commonworth in 1949.
On Monday, November 11, 1946, Laingsburg, champion of the Tri-County league, represented Central Michigan against Burr Oak, winner of the Southwestern Michigan league, in what was billed as the state’s first “six-man state championship.” With the game staged on the lighted field at East Lansing High School, Dick Sparkes scored four times on runs of 30, 19, 18 and six yards to lead Laingsburg to a 33-26 win.
A year later a crowd of 700 at Mendon High School watched as Bath, the Tri-County champ coached by former Michigan State star halfback and captain, Walt Pawlowski, downed Climax, 36-20, in the second six-man championship game between the Central Michigan and Southwestern Michigan title winners.
Again the Bath squad won the Tri-County League title in 1948 and represented Central Michigan in the six-man championship series. The third title game was again hosted at East Lansing High School on Armistice Day. Victory came easily over Schoolcraft, the Southwestern League hopeful, 43-13. Bill Ballard and Forest Bass each scored three touchdowns in the rout.
In spite of the loss to Bath, the season was richly celebrated by Schoolcraft. Runner-up medals were awarded following the game, and later a steak dinner with all the trimmings was hosted at a banquet in Kalamazoo. There, coach Kenneth Krum’s squad celebrated the school’s first-ever Southwestern Conference football championship.
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One month before on October 7, 1948, Epler, a naval officer during World War II, flew back to Chester, Nebraska from his current home in Vanport, Oregon. He was the guest of honor brought back to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the game he created. A crowd of more than 1,000 fans was on hand to applaud his achievement.
“To make the celebration perfect,” stated The Lincoln Star, “the home-town Chester six-man team bounced undefeated Sacred Heart of Norfolk by a resounding score of 26-2.”
According to rival Lincoln newspaper, the Nebraska State Journal, “It was the first defeat in 22 games for the invading Knights. … Between the halves, Epler received a trophy from the community of Chester. In turn, he presented plaques to the coaches of the two teams. …Governor (Val) Peterson, a former football coach himself, braved the weather to view the entire game.”
Earlier in the day, Governor Peterson greeted Epler, calling him a “man of vision” and “presented him an admiralty in the Nebraska ‘navy’.”
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“Is Eight-Man Football Preferable to the Six-Man Game?” asked an article in the Athletic Journal in 1942. Nationally, eight-man football had started to take hold, at the expense of six-man, especially in mid-sized schools during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Back in Michigan, the 1949 season saw a marked decrease in six-man ball, as around 50 schools in the state still played Epler’s version of the game.
Bath again finished 1949 undefeated and was now riding a 21-game win streak. Mendon ended the year unbeaten and untied in seven games, outscoring its opponents by a 262 to 112 margin. Plans for another “six-man championship” contest were made, but, as Bill Tucker, center for the Bath squad recalled in 2007, Bath’s coach Pawlowski sat the team down and announced no title game would be played.
“It was heartbreaking,” Tucker told Lansing State Journal reporter Chris Solari. “(Mendon’s coaches) said they were tired of playing football. I’ll tell you what – we’d have whomped them, anyway.”
The 1950 season saw the formation of the Cherryland Class D Conference, comprised of Leland, Suttons Bay, Lake Leelanau St. Mary, Empire, Williamsburg and Kingsley. New arrangements were made for a mythical six-man state title contest, pitting the Tri-County Class D champion against Lake Leelanau St Mary, the Northern Michigan champ. Laingsburg won the game, played at Clare High School, 34-12. Laingsburg and the rest of the Tri-County League moved to 11-man ball in 1951.
At Elk Rapids, Bellaire, Bergland, Ewen, Mercer, and Ironwood St. Ambrose, Epler’s game endured several more years. According to press reports, St. Ambrose scored four undefeated seasons of six-man ball between 1942 and 1947, before discontinuing the sport following the 1951 season. It was revived in 1954 for three additional campaigns before stopping again.
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In 1950, Freeport High School played its first-ever football game – the eight-man version. The season opener was a loss to Schoolcraft, 46-19, but the team managed a 3-6 record in games with the Hastings reserve team, Parnell, Rogers, Gaines and Sand Lake. (Freeport jumped to 11-man football in 1951). Schoolcraft, Mendon and the rest of the Southwestern Michigan league also played eight-man football in 1950, and then moved to the traditional 11-man game in 1955. In the Upper Peninsula, Bessemer and others districts experimented with eight-man ball at the junior high level.
The 1952 season saw six-man competition continue to drop off around the state. Still, in northern Michigan, the game remained. At Sault Ste. Marie Loretto, the Little Eight Conference six-man schedule called for six contests with the other Class D membership, as games were scheduled with Grand Marais, DeTour, Brimley, Cedarville, Rudyard and 1951 league champion Pickford. Loretto hoped to arrange an 11-man game against St. Ignace, also a member of the Little Eight, late in the season. According to Herb Levin of the Sault Ste. Marie Evening News, St. Ignace, with a Class C enrollment, was the first league member to attempt a move to the traditional game, scheduling a slate of opponents comprised of “reserve teams from Class C and Class B in Upper Peninsula and lower Michigan. If the venture into the ranks of 11-man ball is successful, several other conference schools may follow within the next few years.”
It appears most of the Little Eight moved to eight-man ball in 1959, then 11-man in 1961.
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Cheboygan Catholic earned at least a share of the Northern Michigan six-man football league crown in 1952 as well. The sole winner of the league in 1950, the team shared the league championship with Bellaire in 1951 and with Elk Rapids in 1952.
An attempt to move to six-man ball by Class D schools from Pentwater, Freesoil, Holton, Custer and Ludington St. Simon in western Michigan lost steam before the 1954 season.
Thanks to the baby boom and increased enrollments, the resulting growth of the suburbs, and the expanding consolidation of smaller rural schools around the state, the coming years would see rapid decline in both six and eight-man squads. With the 1960 season, the Northern Six Football Conference operated as the last six-man league in the state. Bellaire won the conference, comprised of Central Lake, Ellsworth, Frederic, Indian River Inland Lakes, Mackinaw City and Vanderbilt, all Class D schools.
That lasted until 1964, when the league moved to eight-man ball, then to 11-man in 1968.
The Wolverine Conference, comprised of Rock, Carney, Bark River-Harris and Powers-Spalding, switched from regulation 11-man football to 8-man football in 1961, and was the last in the U.P. to play that style of ball. In 1962, Carney dropped from the league for financial reasons, as football was not paying for itself. It was replaced in the league by Pembine, “a Marinette County school in Wisconsin.” The league continued playing eight-man through the 1971 season.
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Like in Michigan, the six-man game had died out in Nebraska in the 1960s.
In October 1991, “as the last rays of sunlight disappeared across the plains, the mighty starting six of the Chester-Hubbell-Byron Consolidated High School Bulldogs squared off against the starting six of the hated visiting Campbell Cardinals,” penned Los Angeles Times staff writer Bob Sector. Describing the resurgence of the game, rediscovered thanks to dwindling enrollments across the country, he discussed its origins with Epler, who had returned at age 82 to be honored at a special halftime ceremony.
“The six-man game gave the high school students something to do,” said Epler to Sector, “and they could stay at their own schools and they could have all the bands and pep rallies just like the big schools.”
Chester junior Thad Mumm started the game with a highlight, returning “the opening kickoff for a 78-yard touchdown.” Mumm was the “grandson of Garald Van Winkle, who played in Epler’s groundbreaking six-man game,” back in 1934. Unfortunately, the home team fell this time, 26-20 in overtime.
Those dwindling enrollments have brought six-man to five states according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, including Texas, where it was first played in 1936 and has continued uninterrupted. More than 130 schools play Epler’s game in the Lone Star state today.
The 8-player game is now played in 18 states, including Michigan. It returned to the MHSAA-sponsored high school sports menu in 2010, with its first playoffs in 2011. Michigan 8-player football now is played by more than 60 schools, with the first two-division Finals scheduled for Nov. 18 at the Superior Dome at Northern Michigan University.
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) Bellaire's six-man offense lines up for a photo in 1960. (Middle 1) Stephen Epler, from a 1935 newspaper report. (Middle 2) A poster announces the “first six-man football game in the U.S.A.” to be played in Nebraska. (Middle 3) The Lansing State Journal advertised a “state championship” game between Laingsburg and Burr Oak in 1946. (Middle 4) Bath High School displays its championship trophies won during the six-man heyday. (Middle 5) The Schoolcraft 1948 six-man team. (Middle 6) The Bellaire yearbook celebrated its 1960 Northern Six Football Conference championship team. (Below) Stephen Epler, from the Nebraska Hall of Fame. (Special thanks to Tom Townsend, Bath schools’ Denise Wahrer and library staff at Central Michigan University for providing background, photos and resources used in this piece.)
Detroit's Goodfellows Game Pioneered Playing for Good Cause
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
August 31, 2021
Among the many benefits that come from a football game is the ability to use the gathering for the greater good.
Football games for charity are still played. In Michigan, Lowell High School is well known for its annual Pink Arrow game, created in 2008 to raise money and awareness for all types of cancer. Since that time, numerous schools across the state have done the same, bringing consciousness and much needed financial support to a variety of charities.
Beginning near the end of the 1930s, Detroit’s “Goodfellow Game” set the standard for such contests while becoming a classic of the Detroit sports landscape for 30 years.
The cast of characters fortunate enough to feel a connection to the game — students, coaches, and spectators — is impressive. But, with the final game played in 1967, and the passage of time, those with ties to the game are slowly disappearing.
The season-ending battle was built around a simple concept and became a huge fundraiser for the city’s “Goodfellow” organization, or Old Newsboys as they are often identified. Today, the group is perhaps best known for the yearly tradition of volunteers, stationed on city streets and street corners, selling special edition newspapers near the holiday. The Detroit edition of the organization was founded in 1914, and it still works to make sure no child is forgotten at Christmas.
Football and the Goodfellows
The connection between Detroit’s Goodfellows and football harkens back to at least Nov. 18, 1934, when, according to the book, “The Story of the Goodfellows,” written by Ernest P. Lajoie and published in 1938, “the Detroit Lions, a professional football team, staged a benefit game for the Old Newsboys” with the St. Louis Gunners.
George Albert Richards, radio station owner and the football club’s president, gave the charity the receipts from the game, played before 13,000 at University of Detroit stadium, then tacked on a personal check for an additional $1,000, “as a manifestation of his keen interest in the work of the Old Newsboys.”
The Kelly Bowl, played in Chicago and designed to raise money for charity, triggered the idea of mixing the fundraising efforts of the Goodfellow group with high school football. That game, first played in 1934 as well, “pitted the champion of Chicago’s public schools against that of the area’s Catholic League.” According to the Chicago Tribune, this “post-Thanksgiving match between private and public school squads was the only football game that really mattered at the end of the season.” Initially administered under the guidance of Mayor Edward J. Kelly, it was renamed the Prep Bowl during the 1940s.
An estimated crowd of 75,000 packed Soldier Field in 1936, and Detroit attempted to replicate the idea in 1937. Built around the concepts of “bragging rights” and civic pride, the contest would pit the champions of the Detroit Metropolitan League (later known as the City League and/or Public School League) and the Detroit Parochial League (or Catholic League). The winners, of course, could then legitimately call themselves Champions of Detroit.
A committee of the Old Newsboys, headed by Lajoie and two other past presidents of the group, pitched the idea to the officials of both high school leagues. The committee had hoped to arrange a contest between Detroit Catholic Central and Hamtramck high schools, “the only unbeaten or untied elevens in the metropolitan district.” According to the Detroit Free Press, it was estimated that with “favorable weather conditions, more than 15,000 would turn out for the contest.” However, the attempt failed when the committee was unable to get the idea past “Metropolitan League officials because of an iron-clad rule prohibiting post-season contests.”
The potential for good was far too great to drop the idea, so Detroit’s Goodfellow’s organization was back with its pitch in 1938. The Chicago game, according to reports, drew an unimaginable 120,000 football enthusiasts to the 1937 showdown, and this single game generated over $100,000 for the Windy City’s Christmas Fund, designed to help the needy. The colorful press clippings and imagery describing the contest and pageantry from the Chicago media must certainly have been impressive ammunition when arguing the case for trying to duplicate the concept.
In July 1938, Lajoie, representing the group, met with Frank Cody, superintendent of public schools; Rev. Father Carroll F. Deady, superintendent of schools in the Detroit archdiocese; and various other conferees, and he managed to successfully bring the parties together in agreement.
Detroit’s Goodfellow Game
The contest would be “staged on the plan adopted in Chicago for the annual classic in Soldier Field” and feature the champions from the two leagues. Thanks to the generosity of Detroit Tigers owner Walter Briggs, the match-up was scheduled for play at Briggs Stadium, home to both the Major League Baseball Tigers and the National Football League Lions.
“Our aim is to make the meeting an annual one, on the same basis as the Chicago game,” said Lajoie. “(T)he title game is certain to become a sporting fixture in Detroit and one of the classics of the year.”
Scheduling conflicts within the two leagues in that first year meant the contest would have to be played after the normal end of the prep season. Because the Michigan High School Athletic Association regulation barred teams engaging in a game after Thanksgiving Day, special permission was needed to play. A waiver was granted, and on Saturday, Nov. 26, an announced crowd of 30,000—the most ever to watch a prep game in Michigan—gathered at Briggs Stadium for the showdown between heavily favored Hamtramck and Detroit Catholic Central. Special jerseys were ordered to add vivacity to the event.
The Cosmos “will wear blue sweaters with gold numerals, instead of (their normal) maroon with white numbers and (Catholic) Central players will sport gold jerseys with blue letters instead of blue with white,” noted the Detroit Times.
Both teams were again undefeated, with Catholic Central carrying a 25-game win streak into the game, while Hamtramck “a 3-1 favorite before the opening kickoff” carried an 18-game win streak into the contest. Players and fans were greeted by “falling snow and penetrating cold,” but the action on the field quickly cast the weather conditions aside.
The 19-13 victory by Detroit Catholic was, according to John Sabo of the Free Press, “the most spectacular and certainly the most interesting high school football game in Detroit history.
“Outplayed from the start from scrimmage, Catholic Central turned two intercepted passes and an end sweep into three long touchdown gallops which left the powerful Hamtramck team stunned almost before the game was underway.”
“All of Catholic Central’s scoring came in the first half,” noted Bob Murphy of the Times. “John McHale, Catholic Central’s center, supplied the first touchdown on a 52-yard gallop with an intercepted pass early in the game.”
The Cosmos blocked the extra point attempt then responded with their own 54-yard touchdown drive. With a successful point-after attempt, Hamtramck held a 7-6 lead.
Hamtramck had driven to the Shamrocks’ 11-yard line in the second quarter, before the game’s second pass attempt was snatched by 142-pound Rudy DeFrank, the “smallest back in the game,” who “streaked 97 yards down the sidelines to score.”
“The piece-de-resistance,” said Murphy, “was supplied by the swivel-hipped Tony Groth who cut through the heart of Hamtramck’s famed defense for 85 yards and a touchdown.” The score came in the last two minutes of the first half. The Shamrocks “only made one first down in the first half when it was running up its 19 points,” added the Free Press. With the win, Detroit Catholic made a claim to the state’s mythical state championship.
This inaugural battle for city bragging rights netted $22,000 for the Yuletide fund. The span between 1938 and 1967 was filled with thrillers (and a few blowouts) as the annual game generated “some $1.4 million (well in excess of $11 million in 2021 dollars) for the needy at Christmas time” during its run. The chase for the chance to play before a super-sized audience includes a roster of some of the greatest coaches and athletes in metro Detroit athletic prep history.
Goodfellows Game Grows
The 1939 interleague rivalry game, initially planned for Thanksgiving Day, was also a challenge to schedule and was one of two games in the series that were ultimately played in December. The newspapers in the days leading up to the contest between University of Detroit High and Detroit Catholic Central were filled with side stories, helping to build the pomp and circumstance that surrounded the affair. Tickets for the game were available for purchase at local bank branches, pharmacies, and retailers in a variety of locations, including establishments in Motor City architectural gems like the Penobscot Building and the General Motors Building (today known as Cadillac Place).
Biographies on the head coaches appeared in print. Hamtramck’s 114-piece band took on the halftime duties for U of D High, as the school did not have a marching band. Both U of D and DCC were all-boys schools. While Catholic Central High for Girls, a separate institution, aligned and cheered for the Shamrocks, there was no such association for U of D. According to the Times, female students from Detroit Cooley chose to adopt the team and cheer it on.
The University of Detroit High Cubs scored a 20-0 win over Detroit Catholic before 23,120 spectators. The victory ended the Shamrocks’ 34-game win streak that dated back to 1934.
Installation of a new drainage system at Briggs had prompted the need for a different location for the 1940 game. Detroit Cooley and Detroit St. Theresa finished in a 6-6 deadlock before a crowd of 14,861, in one of three Goodfellow games that was played at University of Detroit stadium, located at McNichols and Livernois at the northeast corner of the college campus. It marked the first of three ties contained within the results of the 30 contests.
Detroit’s Lions first played on Thanksgiving Day in 1934. However, with the NFL decision to avoid Thanksgiving Day contests between 1939 and 1944 due to World War II, and the MHSAA’s requirement that the football season end no later than that holiday, Goodfellow organizers took advantage of the opportunity. The 1941 game was moved back to Briggs with a scheduled 11 a.m. kickoff. The early start was selected so as to not interfere with traditional celebration dinners. Fire stations were added to the list of locations where tickets could be purchased.
The move was a roaring success, as a new record crowd of 30,714 fans showed up for a repeat of the 1940 match-up. The rematch was tight for the first half, with Cooley grabbing a 14-6 lead over St. Theresa at the break before the Cardinals blew it open, winning 47-6.
“The seven-touchdown parade that Cooley staged could not be considered an upset, and the score and the game’s statistics give a fairly accurate comparison of these two teams, both the tops in their own class, but definitely not in the same class,” said Marshall Dann in the Free Press.
Detroit Catholic Central won back-to-back titles in 1942 and 1943. The ’42 contest, the second, and last, played on Thanksgiving, was a 46-0 mismatch with Hamtramck. The ’43 game, moved back to U of D Stadium due to a pre-scheduled reconditioning at Briggs Stadium, was an 8-0 surprise victory upset over Cooley. Two long spiraling kicks by DCC’s Ed Burgess pinned Cooley deep inside its 10-yard line, leading to Shamrock scores. In comparison to previous years, the reduced crowd of 17,500 spectators was a disappointment.
In the week prior to the game, LaJoie had noted that tickets sales were moving slowly. Underscoring this area of concern was the fact that the Kelly Bowl game in Chicago, played on the same day, attracted 80,000 fans. Detroit News sports editor H.G. Salsinger expressed his opinion that proper promotion of the game by organizers in Detroit was at fault. Other sportswriters concurred.
“What is needed, noted the Free Press, is a group of workers of the type of the New Orleans Sugar Bowl Committee, who will devote time and energy to putting across not only the sale of tickets but the staging of the game as a civic proposition.”
Locally, citizens responded, and for the 1944 match-up, refocused efforts were made to ensure success of the game’s amazing ability to raise significant funds earmarked for the greater good. The Detroit Police Department took over the sale of tickets, improving distribution. Tickets could still be purchased at various locations throughout the city, but now, under the direction of Senior Inspector Samuel J. Throop, they could also be bought directly from any police officer.
The game that fall was moved back to Briggs and dedicated to the memories of four former Goodfellow Game stars, each who had given their lives while serving in World War II. In a battle of previously unbeaten squads, a 13-yard field goal in the last 18 seconds of play by Jerry Wood gave Detroit Mackenzie High a nail-biting 3-0 victory over Holy Redeemer before a throng of 30,054 onlookers.
“Although beaten, Redeemer staged one of the most courageous battles ever witnessed in Briggs Stadium. Four times the Lions halted the Stag’s offensives inside their 15-yard line,” noted the Free Press. It was Wood’s first field goal attempt on the season, although his accuracy on extra points earlier in the year had ensured two other Mackenzie wins.
The public schools won three in a row between 1946 and 1948, including two consecutive by Detroit Denby. A record crowd of 39,004 was on hand for the 1948 game at Briggs, the first played at night on a Friday, when Denby trounced St. Mary’s of Redford, 28-0.
U of D fumbles set up an upset 19-13 victory by East Side underdog St. Anthony in 1949 before 34,038.
Power Begins to Swing
During the 10-game span of the ’50s, the right to brag was equally divided.
In 1950, Detroit Redford squeezed out a 7-6 public school win over little Detroit St. Gregory. The single point win would stand as the thinnest margin of victory in the three-decade run of games.
“I’m sure that at the end most of the fans wished there was no such thing as the extra point in football,” wrote Murphy, now sports editor of the Times. “St. Gregory deserved a tie.”
A few days later, a true list of Detroit sports legends attended the annual football bust designed to honor members of both teams.
“The Big Guys paid the Little Guys a visit Tuesday night,” said Hal Schram of the Free Press. “Never before in the 13-year history of the event have so many guest stars attended. “Doak Walker, Leon Hart, Thurman McGraw, Jack Adams, Red Kelly, Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Ted Gray, Harry Heilmann and Bo McMillin all took a bow while several offered brief congratulations.”
Van Patrick, sports director for radio station WJR and play-by-play man for the Tigers and Lions, served as toastmaster.
The St. Mary’s Rustics of Redford, coached by Al Chesney, won consecutive games in ’51 and ’52, then the public schools won three straight between 1953 and 1955.
“The slashing runs of halfback Fred Julian, Pershing High’s finest back since the days of Harry Szulborski (Purdue), enabled the Doughboys to claim their second City football championship in three years,” Schram told his readers in 1955. “Julian scored one touchdown — a brilliant 57-yard spring — and set up the other as Pershing conquered St. Mary of Redford, 13-7 before 29,830 fans in Briggs Stadium Friday night.”
(Julian would later play at the University of Michigan, then for a year in the American Football League for the New York Titans. As head football coach at Grand Rapids West Catholic for 16 years, he guided his team to the MHSAA Class B runner-up finish in 1979.)
Closer Look
Further examination shows that between 1946 and 1955, the City League won seven of 10 games. But as the parochial schools began to draw in more students from across the metro area, fortunes started to shift. The arrival of the 1956 season saw Detroit DeLaSalle down Denby, 26-20. The next 12 years illustrated the growing strength of the Detroit Catholic League in metro Detroit as parochial squads won eight of those showdowns, against three for the city league teams. One game, the 1965 match between Harper Woods Notre Dame and Denby, ended in a 14-14 deadlock.
Coach Dan Boisture of St. Mary of Redford and his younger brother, Tom, coach at little Grosse Pointe St. Ambrose, showcased their coaching chops in the Catholic League and before huge audiences in the Goodfellows Game. (Dan would later assist head coach Duffy Daugherty at Michigan State, then guide Eastern Michigan University’s gridiron squad for seven seasons. Tom would coach at Holy Cross before moving on to the NFL, first as a scout for the New England Patriots, then as director of player personnel for the New York Giants.)
Dan guided St. Mary of Redford to four of five Goodfellow Games, between 1954 and 1958, defeating Southeastern in 1957. Tom led St. Ambrose to, arguably, the greatest upset in the series in 1959, when his team took down top-ranked Cooley behind the running of Joe D’Angelo.
Tied 7-7 with less than 90 seconds remaining, the 5-foot-6, 150-pound “streak of lightening” took a fourth down handoff and “ducked into a “cluster of humanity,” wrote Rick Gosselin in his 2009 book, Goodfellows: The Champions of St. Ambrose.
Seemingly stopped at the line of scrimmage by three Cooley linemen — or was it four — D’Angelo kept his feet moving and “squirted loose.” In the play of the game, his 22-yard run gave the Cavaliers a stunning 13-7 lead.
“Cooley would get the ball back with 1:20 remaining,” Gosselin continued. “But like St. Ambrose, the Cardinals were built to win games by running the football, not throwing it. … The biggest upset in Goodfellow history was sealed.”
(D’Angelo would later coach teams at St. Ambrose and Erie Mason, win two MHSAA football titles at Detroit Country Day, then finished his career at Birmingham Hills Cranbrook Kingswood. He retired with 239 victories.)
Gosselin, who graduated from St. Ambrose and Michigan State University and has covered the NFL for 49 years for some of the nation’s largest media outlets, recaps the story of the school without a home field succinctly in Chapter 1 of his publication:
“Over a nine-year period from 1959 through 1967, the Cavaliers would post a 64-8-3 record, winning six conference titles, five Catholic League titles with a perfect 5-0 record in Goodfellow Games, and four state championships. Little St Ambrose would enjoy four 9-0 seasons during that stretch with two other seasons ending with a single loss.”
The 1960 battle at Briggs, a 21-18 come-from-behind victory by Denby over Catholic Central, featured an all-time Goodfellow attendance record of 39,196.
St. Ambrose won consecutive titles in 1961 and 1962 with a pair of shutout victories. Tom Boisture’s ’61 team downed Pershing, 20-0. Boisture’s replacement as coach for the 1962 season was George Perles, who had played in the 1951 game for Detroit Western and would later guide Michigan State’s football squad. Perles guided the team to triumph, 19-0 over Cooley. Each game hosted at the ballpark located at Michigan and Trumbull — by then named Tiger Stadium — drew over 37,000. The 1962 game marked the sixth in a row in which attendance exceeded 30,000.
TV & Tragedy
In 1963, a pair of teams with 6-1 records squared off in the Soup Bowl — the nickname for the Catholic League championship game — for their first-ever chance to play in the Goodfellow Game. Harper Woods Notre Dame and Royal Oak Shrine battled for 48 minutes to a scoreless tie before 17,500 fans at U of D. To determine a winner, league rules awarded the game to the team with the greatest yardage gained. Over the game’s final minute and 26 seconds, Notre Dame had picked up 21 yards during the final series of downs and finished with 163 yards to Shrine’s 159. Hence the Irish scored a “four-yard victory” over the Knights.
One week later, Denby dumped Cooley, the No. 1-ranked team in the state according to the Free Press, 26-13, in the 1963 public school championship game played before another crowd of 17,500 at U of D to earn its third trip to the Goodfellow Game in eight years.
This time, plans were made for a television broadcast of the City Championship game. Game chairman I.A. Capizzi said he didn’t know what effect televising the game might have on gross receipts, but he thought the experiment made sense. WWJ-Channel 4 in Detroit was cancelling the airing of the Bob Hope show and planned to air a 30-minute pregame show, which would “carry the (Goodfellow’s) message of charity work to thousands of viewers.” The hope was that loss in attendance at the gate would be minimal, and that the group might see an increase in revenue during the annual Goodfellow newspaper sales on the streets of Detroit.
The transmission would certainly bring the organization’s message before a new audience. Unfortunately, the impact of the test would not be known. Events of the day meant the broadcast would be cancelled.
At 1:30 p.m. Michigan time on November 22 — the scheduled day of the 26th Goodfellow Game — President John F. Kennedy was killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Goodfellow officials, faced with an immediate decision, considered rescheduling, but the contest went on as planned, “in spite of the national tragedy.”
“The purpose of the game is to provide help for needy children,” Capizzi told the media. “(C)anceling it would have deprived thousands of these children of a visit from Santa. We believe President Kennedy would have concurred in the decision since he held so much love for humanity, especially little children.”
“Both schools also decided it would be unfair to ticket holders to cancel on such notice,” added the Free Press.
To no surprise, attendance suffered with a crowd of 23,500 reported.
Denby won the game, 7-0, beneath a cloud of sorrow as a light rain fell. The win was the Tars’ ninth on the year and 36th in the previous 37 games. With the victory and a No. 1 ranking by the Free Press, they staked a claim on the state’s Class A mythical title.
Attendance Sinks
Fundraising took another hit in 1964. The game, played on a sloppy, slippery Tiger Stadium field, was scheduled for a Thursday night — a school night — as the National Football League restricted use of the field based on the days before a Lions game. Adding to the challenges, a newspaper strike affected publicity for the game. And, this time, the game was televised.
“Only 15,104 fans braved the winter’s first measurable snow (a blizzard) to see St. Ambrose beat Southeastern, 20-0, the smallest crowd ever, the worst weather ever,” reported the Free Press. “(Cavalier Coach) Perles had a nine-inch television monitor at the sidelines. ‘All I could see was snow — on the set and on the field,’ Perles laughed.”
“Television gave us a half hour (before the broadcast) to tell the history of the Goodfellows and their work at Christmas,” noted the group. This time, there was no need for crunching numbers. There was little question that the airing of the game hurt attendance.
Reported gross income of $63,000 from the contest was off significantly from the past averages of $75,000-$80,000. St. Ambrose’s fourth appearance in six years, combined with its fourth victory over City League competition, prompted conversation about adding suburban schools into the mix when determining teams that would meet the parochial champion.
“Extensive grade school, even freshman and reserve programs, give the Catholic League a decided superiority the City League can’t match,” said Dr. Robert Luby, Health and Physical Education Supervisor of the Detroit Public Schools to the Free Press, discussing possible solutions to sagging interest in the game. “(M)aybe it would help to allow suburban schools to take part in the championship."
The crowd was back up above 25,000 for the 1965 game, a 14-14 stalemate between Denby and Harper Woods Notre Dame played on a Friday night. Officials looked at playing the 1966 game on a Saturday night at Tiger Stadium, however NFL requirements related to prepping the stadium before a Detroit Lions game again created challenges. When combined with the fact that the Detroit Board of Education had banned night football because of rowdyism and disturbances, the contest was moved back to the University of Detroit and scheduled with a 10:30 a.m. kickoff Saturday, Nov. 19. The early start was designed to avoid competition with the Michigan State-Notre Dame game scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
“There would be little sense … to try to compete,” said a spokesman. “(Otherwise) we would probably wind up with 20 people.”
As it turned out, only 12,337 fans showed up — less than half the crowd size from the year previous — to watch St. Ambrose win its fifth city championship, 33-19 over Denby. With the triumph, the series was now evenly split, with 13 wins for each league against three tie ballgames.
Reduced costs meant the charity still netted around $45,000, but it was a fraction of past years.
Goodfellow Game’s Clock Hits 0:00
“With Michigan, Michigan State, the Lions, the Red Wings and the Pistons playing away this weekend,” stated the Free Press, “the Denby-Divine Child struggle in the (30th) annual Goodfellow game at Tiger Stadium rates as the top local attraction."
“The game lived up to advance predictions of a knockout,” wrote another newspaper.
Tied 7-7 at the half, a costly fumble gave Dearborn Divine Child a 14-7 upset of Denby. Ed Puishes, the Falcons’ all-state back, scored Divine Child’s first touchdown and would go on to play at the University of Texas at El Paso. Divine Child’s Gary Danielson, a future NFL quarterback, scored the game’s last TD on an eight-yard rollout midway through the third quarter.
Despite the return to the large facility, and a strong matchup, only 15,186 made the trip to Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. In August 1968, officials announced the end of the annual contest. Sagging interest and attendance figures were mentioned at the forefront, but Free Press coverage also stated that athletic directors from both leagues had “long urged that the game be dropped since it impressed a harsh handicap in scheduling for the entire season.”
Difficulty controlling crowds in recent years was also cited as a concern.
Occasionally, conversations surface about resurrecting the game, but times have changed. With the consolidations and closings of schools within both the Catholic parishes and the Detroit Public School system, the establishment of the MHSAA football postseason, and the influences of Michigan’s school of choice program, it would be nearly impossible to recreate.
Still, the impact of the game on the lives of those who participated in the game, as well as the lives of those who saw Christmas boosted by the work of the Goodfellows, should always be remembered.
The MHSAA is always on the lookout for memorabilia from Michigan’s school sports past. Please contact historian Ron Pesch at the email address below if you have photos, programs, trophies or similar items you’d like to share or donate.
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) Members of the Detroit Redford and St. Gregory teams receive their trophies after Redford’s 1950 Goodfellows Game win. (2) The Old Newsboys’ Ernest P. Lajoie sells newspapers on the streets of Detroit. (3) University of Detroit High plays to a 20-0 win over Detroit Catholic Central in 1939. (4) The Detroit Tribune advertises the 1955 Goodfellows game. (5) The 1956 trophy was set to split the year between schools after Denby and Notre Dame tied. (6) The 1959 and 1963 programs reflect the name change at the Goodfellow Games’ home field, Briggs Stadium-turned-Tiger Stadium. (7) Nationally-acclaimed journalist Rick Gosselin tells the Goodfellows story of his alma mater. (Photos gathered by Ron Pesch with courtesy to the Detroit Tribune and local yearbooks.)