State

Players of Bygone Days Mr. .Murpliy dismisses some of the grealesl players llial ever have appeared on a North Carolina gridiron. See if you agree with Ии» selections he makes. Kff WAI/l'KIt (“Pete”) Ml III* II V 1IIAYE often been requested to name an all-time team from North Carolina colleges, and just as often I have refused. Now. just after the close of the season of 1941. my mind reverts to the past and as I envision the teams from 1SS9 down to the year just closed, T feel moved to say a few words about two teams which to my mind were the best of all time in North Carolina; two teams which played for ninety minutes in every game, with no substitution and a few minutes of rest at intermission, and often engaged in contests as frequently as three games or more per week. To pick an all-time team would in¬ vite gome criticism and much dissent, so I will, in the main confine my re¬ marks to the two teams suggested above. These two teams were the Trinity (now Duke) of 1S91, and Car¬ olina's team of 1S92. I have seen in action every team that Carolina, Trinity, Wake Forest, State and Davidson have ever had on the field, nnd in some small degree 1 am qualified by observation and ex¬ perience to present my views. I am rather pressed to do so, in fact, after reading a clipping from a newspaper sent me by a former groat athlete now living in Eastern Caro¬ lina, which proclaimed that, “the old- time teams would be helpless in con¬ test with the modern teams, which could lick them by any score which they saw fit to impose.” Expressing it Mildly Such n statement is the opinion of юте clabber-brained ass who spouts his wisdom on the natives ns if it. were an indisputable fact, and should he dismissed as the vaporings of an idle brain. Both Trinity ’91 and Carolina '92 made their records within the space of three years after football had been introduced in North Carolina. Either of these teams could lick the bloomin’ boots off of any team which has been on the field in the years since. Taking them in order, let us look at Trinity : I knew each man on this team; some of them are still with us; many have passed on. The roster of the squad was as follows: Rolwrt I-ee. Stonewall Jackson, and Plato Dur¬ ham (brothers), Erwin Avery, Fred Harper, Tom Daniels, Billy McDow¬ ell, Jake Hanes, Jesse James (not the bandit), Luther Hnrtsell, M. T. l'lv- lor, D. W. Caviness, Will Flowers, Bon Black, Pink Turner, Carl" Bandy and W. S. Whitaker. Of these Plato Durham, Erwin Avery, Will Flowers, Pink Turner and Whitaker have answered the last summons. Fred Harper was the finest of all the quarterbacks I have ever seen. Torn Daniels was the fastest haekfield man ever on any gridiron in North Caro¬ lina, ami Bob Durham was the finest punter and general toe artist of all. Capable Players All of these men were finished play¬ ers, capable of playing a much more strenuous game of ninety minutes than one sees in the modern game, and this modern game, to uiy mind, is a combination of football, basket¬ ball and tag, in no wise requiring tin? iron men of bygone days. At the pres¬ ent time one often sees a statement to the effect that "Slugger" Jones has played as much as a hundred and fifty minutes during the present - a- son. In the olden days most of the teams, intact, played that time in two games; in fact the Trinity team of '91 played the whole season for ninety minutes in each game. There are ninny men now living who were in many games for ninety minutes of service each. Several played as much as live years of varsity football. A JEFFERSON STANDARD POLICY Isa Declaration of Independence for the Font ily I think that Tom Daniels of Trin¬ ity played seven full years of sched¬ uled games without ever leaving the field during a single game. In my opinion, one could pick a team from those old teams and put a team on the field that would Ik? in¬ vincible. The Carolina team of 1892 was as follows: Michael Hoke, Crawford Biggs, William A. Devin. Alfred Barnard, E. M. Snipes, W. I>. Mor rill, J. T. Pugh, Boscoe Little, II. B. Shaw, David Kirkpatrick, Charles Baskerville, N. M. Gibbs. Pat Stanly, Louis Guion and myself; W. P. Wooten, sub-Center. The team lined up with Hoke as captain, Barnard, quarter. Bigg, and Gibbs, ends; Pugh and Little, tackles; Snipes and Kirkpatrick, guards; Dev¬ in, Hoke. Baskerville. in the bark- field; and Murphy, center. Barnard was the best extra-point player I ever saw. In 1892, by his toe, lie added fifty-eight extra points to Carolina's score. At that time the ball was brought out ou the field from the point from which the touchdown was made, and the try for extra point was made from that place which very often was an acute angle and not directly in front of the goal as it is at present. There are a few positions on an all- timo team I would name: at center, “Mink" Cunninggim of Carolina or Dan Hill of Trinity-Duke; in the haekfield, Boh Durham of Trinity, ami Arthur Bolden of Carolina (these two were the most skillful toe-artists ever on a Carolina gridiron); at quarter. A If Barnard of Carolina, or Fred Harper of Trinity. Thus far 1 go. An All-Time Team However, I can name a sound from which an all-time team could he eas¬ ily pieked and it would be as follows: Haekfield, Tom Daniels, Bob Durham, Fred IIar|M«r, Alf Barnard, George Stevens, Arthur Bolden. Mike Hoke. Hunter Carpenter, Boy Ahcrnathv. and Bill Jacob. Take’ any four of ( Continued on page hrenlg-fire)