Ties to Controversial Non-PSU Sports Events
Penn State’s Ties to Historic & Controversial Sports Events—
The 1925 NFL Championship
The 1925 NFL Championship remains in dispute, notably if you happen to be from Pottsville, Pennsylvania… The Pottsville Maroons officially went 10-2 in their debut season in the National Football League and that should have been enough to give them the NFL title over the second place Chicago Cardinals (9-2-1) whom the Maroons had beaten, 21-7 in Chicago in early December of that year… A controversial “exhibition game” in Philadelphia played by Pottsville a week after the Maroons-Cardinals contest resulted in the Maroons being penalized by the league handing the NFL Championship to Chicago (which remains recognized by the NFL to this day, largely no doubt, to the Cardinals franchise still existing)…
The controversy stems from a Dec. 12 game between the Maroons and the Notre Dame All-Stars that was played at Shibe Park. The so-called exhibition game in Philadelphia was “unauthorized” by the league and was deemed to be outside of Pottsville’s home region. The Maroons played at now long-gone Minersville Park from 1925 to 1928… Philly’s territorial rights belonged to the Frankford Yellowjackets (forerunners, sort of, of the Philadelphia Eagles) who were then in their 2nd season in the NFL… Frankford did not use Shibe Park, but claimed its rights were violated… Pottsville beat the Notre Dame stars, 9-7, which despite not drawing many fans, was an impressive win for the fledgling pro league since the All-Stars included the fabled “Four Horsemen” who had won the mythical college national championship in 1924…
NFL President Joseph Carr fined the Maroons $500 and suspended them from scheduling any further games. Carr handed the league crown to the Cardinals who immediately scheduled two more “easy” games (which was common in this era to generate more income) to improve their record to 11-2-1 to make it appear that they finished ahead of the Maroons in the standings… The Cardinals game with Milwaukee reportedly was a match-up against high school players… Some stories suggest that the Chicago owner was unaware of high schoolers playing in the one game and supposedly declined the championship since his team had lost to Pottsville on December 6th… For the record—Pottsville’s 10-2 mark in 1925 does not include their 3 wins over the All-Stars and two other non-league opponents…
The Penn State Connection—
Notably, the referee of the “unapproved exhibition game” with the Notre Dame All-Stars was Bill Hollenback… He was Penn State’s head coach in 1909, 1911-14 and had become a businessman in the coal industry who refereed college games on weekends (interestingly, he officiated a number of Penn State games, as well)… Also, the Maroons head coach and one of the Pottsville players were Nittany Lions… Dick Rauch coached the Maroons from 1925-27 and he played end, center, guard, and kicker for Penn State (1917, 1919-20)… Rauch also served as assistant to Hugo Bezdek at State in 1921… Robert “Duke” Osborn was the other Lion having lettered as a guard/center in 1919… Osborn played for Pottsville from 1925-28 and his is also remembered as one of Penn State’s first “All-Pro” players in the NFL with the Canton Bulldogs in 1922…
Note: A portion of PA Route 901 near Pottsville is known as the “Pottsville Maroons Highway”…
The 1972 Olympics Gold Medal Basketball Game—
At the height of the Cold War, tensions between the USA and the former Soviet Union frequently surfaced at sporting events… In this case, the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal Men’s Basketball game played in Munich, West Germany… The outcome remains controversial to this day in the United States… The US loses for the first time ever in this Olympic event by a score of 51-50 after confusion over rules, timeouts, and the game clock that led to multiple replays of the final 3 seconds which finally allowed the Soviets to score the “winning” basket… The US protested the outcome, but the result stood in an era before the Americans were permitted to use NBA stars against Russian and other Soviet Republics “professional” players… Team USA players refused to accept their Silver Medals and did not attend the medal ceremony…
The Penn State Connection—
John Bach was the PSU Men’s Basketball Head Coach from 1968 to 1978… Bach is remembered as a longtime college and NBA coach, who also happened to be Henry Iba’s assistant coach on the ill-fated ‘72 Olympic basketball team… Bach was the lone Nittany lion with ties to possibly the greatest highway robbery by officials in sports history… Although the Russians might disagree…
Nittany Notes:
It’s Saturday, August 7, 1948, at the Olympic Games in London… The USA Track Team is entered in the 4×100-meter finals… But the Americans have had to make a last minute change to the lineup… Lead-off runner Ed Conwell is sick and cannot compete… Former Penn State track sensation Norwood “Barney” Ewell (PS Track 1939-42, Class of 1947) replaces Conwell, and he will become embroiled in a controversy after the race ends…
Ewell is then 30 years old and is considered over-the-hill having missed his chances in at both the 1940 & ‘44 Olympics which had been cancelled by World War II… But he matched Jesse Owens’ world record of 10.2 seconds in the 100 meters at the Olympic Trials (AAU Championships), and he’s just stunned London with two narrow second place finishes in the 100 and 200 meters… In fact, Ewell’s dead heat finish in the 100 final in London required the first ever use of the new Omega Magic Eye photoelectric cell and slit camera… Barney was determined to have finished second by one-tenth of a second behind gold medalist Harrison Dillard of the USA… Dillard had matched the Olympic record of 10.3 seconds…
Barney Ewell and his teammates (Dillard, Mel Patton & Lorenzo Wright) would win the 4×100-meter relay in a time of 40.6 seconds which was well off the world record of 39.8 set by the American team (led by Jesse Owens) in 1936 at Berlin… Great Britain finished second in this final and they managed to initially get the US disqualified (pending review) when they filed a protest claiming that Ewell and Wright made an illegal baton exchange on the first handoff… Luckily, once films of the race had been processed, they proved the baton pass was completed within the legal zone and the USA’s gold medal victory was restored 4 days later…
Ewell technically became only the third Penn Stater to win Olympic gold in track… He joined Alan Helffrich from the 1924 (Paris) 4×400-meter champion relay team and Larry Shields from the 1920 (Antwerp) 3000-meter team race champions (Shields finished 8th overall and 4th among the 1st place-winning Americans in the final, but did not actually receive a medal as only the top 3 results for each team officially counted)…
Note: a statue honoring Barney Ewell was placed in his hometown of Lancaster, PA in 2022…