Hobble-gobble, hobble-gobble / Sis, boom, bah / Anderson High School / Rah, Rah, Rah!

—1890s Anderson High School yell

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It took 16 years for Anderson High School to organize a sporting event.

When it finally did, the spectators may not have been sure what sport they were watching because of the nature of the game.

Before 1892, there was “considerable interest” in sports at Anderson High School but until that year nothing had been done about it.

In the spring of 1892, 20 progressive students formed the Anderson High School Athletic Club. The Club’s object was to foster an interest in athletics.

The first sport considered was baseball, but the spring was too far advanced to arrange any games, so the Athletic Club busied itself practicing for football in the fall. They didn’t have much to work with.

The School Board had arranged for them to have a basement somewhere (not at the school itself) for practice work. They had no equipment and probably had to furnish their own uniforms.

There was also the problem of finding opponents. There weren’t very many schools with teams at that time, so they played high school, college and town teams, groups of amateur athletes (not necessarily of high school age) organized to play football. For its 1893 schedule, Anderson High School was to play the Elwood town team, Muncie High School and the prep squad of Butler University.

Considerable excitement surrounded the Anderson-Elwood game on the afternoon of Nov. 11, 1893. The Anderson team, and a crowd of well-wishers, took the 12:43 Interurban up to Elwood. They were met by the Elwood team, given dinner at the Stevenson House and then everyone proceeded to East Main Street Park where the game would take place.

Elwood won the toss and chose the west goal, giving Anderson the ball. On the first play, Anderson’s fullback Frank Pulse made a beautiful, 40-yard run. He was tackled and brought by an Elwood player identified only as Gifford and that’s where the trouble began.

Gifford was primarily a baseball player and may have been older than most of the students. He not only tackled Pulse; he also slugged him “for fun.”

The Anderson team decided that they, too, could have some fun. They “laid for” Gifford and took every opportunity to punch, trip and gouge him. Play continued, but so did the fighting and the game became more like a running prize fight.

Anderson managed to score 22 points, several hits and one TKO. After about a half-hour, Gifford had a banged up chin and a bloody nose. The rest of the Elwood team weren’t in much better shape; they had torn clothes, scratches and bruises that looked like they had been in a railroad wreck. The game was called. Anderson had won.

Who was at fault? It depends on whom you believe. Anderson claimed to be the much smaller team and that the Elwood players were the aggressors.

The Elwood newspapers, which were indignant at the behavior of the Anderson team, claimed that four of the players were not students at all but experienced players brought in to win the game against an inexperienced Elwood team hastily thrown together for the game. Both newspapers decried the brutality of football. The Elwood newspaper hoped that “the Elwood boys will be too manly to offer a return game after such treatment.”

Anderson played two more football games that November, both against Muncie High School. At least one of those games was called after the first half and one of the Muncie players ended up with a broken collarbone, so perhaps the Red and Green didn’t know its own strength.

Not only did the Anderson team win all three of its games its first season, but its opponents didn’t even score against them.

The school’s winning ways continued into the spring. The 1894 baseball team, composed of many of the same players, was so formidable that no one but Marion High School was willing to try to play them. (Marion lost.)

Anderson also sent a team to the State Inter-Scholastic Championships (for track) in the spring and did well enough to come in second to Indianapolis High School.

Anderson High School’s first year of athletic competition was a success, which was not a bad feat for a school without uniforms, equipment, practice facilities or a coach.

Beth Oljace works in the Indiana Room at Anderson Public Library. She can be reached at boljace@yahoo.com.