{"id":157229,"date":"2023-09-15T13:12:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=157229"},"modified":"2023-09-15T15:06:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T19:06:10","slug":"11-new-catfacts-the-2023-bates-football-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/15\/11-new-catfacts-the-2023-bates-football-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"11 new CatFacts: the 2023 Bates football edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This edition of CatFacts<\/em> \u2014 our occasional collection of fun tidbits about Bates, then and now, here and there \u2014 gives a nod to the gridiron, as Bates football opens its season tonight<\/a> (Friday, Sept. 15) vs. Wesleyan University, in a game moved from Saturday due to impending effects of Hurricane Lee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. The First Game: \u2018Gracious Juggernaut!\u2019<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This inscribed stone rests near the southern entrance to Garcelon Field, commemorating Maine\u2019s first college football game, played on bygone Rand Field on Nov. 6, 1875, between Tufts and Bates. The stone was installed in 1975 on the 100th anniversary of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This inscribed stone rests near the southern entrance to Garcelon Field, commemorating Maine\u2019s first college football game. (Jay Burns)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOccasionally 10 or 12 men got into a promiscuous scramble for the possession of the ball,\u201d the bemused Lewiston Evening Journal<\/em> reported in its game story, \u201cand came forth rubbing their shins and using such phrases as, \u2018Gracious juggernaut.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The Bates ‘Marriners” of World War II<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The official records say that Bates fielded no varsity football team during the World War II years of 1943 to 1945. But that doesn\u2019t mean there was no football played on Garcelon Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter the Bates \u201cMarriners.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Lewiston Evening Journal of Oct. 4, 1943, announced that the Bates “Marriners” would play an Army team from Camp Edwards the following Saturday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By summer 1943, Bates had welcomed the Navy to campus, in the form of an officer-training program known as V-12. These sailors mostly came from the ranks of other colleges, including Bowdoin, Colby, and the University of Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Lewiston Daily Sun published this photo of the football game between the Army team from Camp Edwards, located on Cape Code, and the Bates team, comprised of Navy sailors stationed at Bates. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So in fall 1943, Bates (or the Navy, more correctly) was able to fill a football roster and the team, dubbed the Marriners by the local press, played a limited schedule of games, including one vs. a much heavier and favored U.S. Army team from Camp Edwards, a bygone Army base on Cape Cod. Bates won that game, 13\u20137.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Bates in Sports Illustrated<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Taken four years before Garcelon was fitted with artificial turf, this iconic image from the Bates-Colby football game on Oct. 28, 2006, appeared across two pages in Sports Illustrated<\/em>\u2018s special issue, \u201cFootball America\u201d (Dec. 4, 2006).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Four
Taken four years before the advent of artifical turf on Garcelon Field, this image of Jamie Walker \u201907 of Needham, Mass., moving a pile of Colby defenders during a game in October 2006 later appeared in Sports Illustrated. (Daryn Slover for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The photograph shows Jamie Walker \u201907 of Needham, Mass., moving a pile of Mule defenders, one of his 43 carries on the day. Some 4.62 inches of rain fell on Garcelon Field that day. Daryn Slover, a staff photographer for the Sun Journal<\/em> newspaper on freelance assignment for Bates, took the photo, persevering in his work despite the wind and rain, only calling it quits after several lenses became too wet to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Garcelon’s First Touchdown<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 14, 1899, the first touchdown was scored on new Garcelon Field<\/a> by Frederick Harold Stinchfield, Class of 1900.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He graduated and attended Harvard Law School, became president of the 30,000-member American Bar Association, and from there helped defeat President Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s controversial \u201ccourt packing\u201d scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Bates’ First and Only Bowl Game<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Following an undefeated 7\u20130 regular season in 1946, Bates accepted a bid to face the University of Toledo in the first Glass Bowl,<\/a> believed to be the only bowl game for a NESCAC team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of half-time festivities, an 18-pound Maine lobster was presented to Ohio Gov. Frank J. Lausche, and a Bates Manufacturing bedspread was presented to his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flanked by cheerleaders, Ohio Gov. Frank Lausche (left) accepts an 18-pound lobster from Bates athletic director Monte Moore, Class of 1915, on behalf of Maine Gov. Horace Hildreth at halftime of the Glass Bowl between Bates and the University of Toledo on Dec. 7, 1946. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Held on Dec. 7, 1946, the game was won by Toledo, 21\u201312, in a game attended by \u201c12,000 fans, five bands, a host of flags \u2014  traditional trimmings of a post-season football extravaganza,\u201d the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. The Famous 0-0 Tie with Yale<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Then as now, larger schools schedule smaller schools early in the season, looking for an easy win. Such was the case in the early 1900s, when Ivy League teams often hosted Bates and other Maine schools, and the result was often lopsided loss for Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not in 1932, the year Bates held Yale to a scoreless tie<\/a>, in New Haven on Oct. 1, making national news. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 1932 Bates football team held Yale to a scoreless tie in New Haven on Oct. 1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScarlet-clad gridiron warriors from Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, furnished one of the early football surprises of the season here Saturday in holding Yale to a nothing to nothing tie in the opening game of the season for the Elis,\u201d reported a wire story that appeared in newspapers as far away as Miami, Fla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. When Training Camp Was at a Camp<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In the late 1930s, Bates football held its training camp at real camp: Camp Wonalancet<\/a>, a now-bygone boys camp in Eaton Center, N.H. Classes didn\u2019t begin until late September, so the month was open for teams to get away for practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bates
Bates football players do preseason drills at Camp Wonalancet in Easton Center, N.H. The year is likely 1939. (Photograph by Richard Bowers Oliver)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When the Hurricane of 1938 swept through New England that September, the Bates team was at Camp Wonalancet.\u00a0 The cabins had tin roofs, and as the wind blew and branches rained down on the cabins, \u201cit sounded like mortar rounds,\u201d the late Al Topham \u201941 recalled a few years ago. He would have known, having served as a Marine in the Pacific during the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the hurricane, practice the next morning was postponed because \u201cthere were big timbers on the fields,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had to move all that trash off the fields before we could practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. When the \u2018Popular Halfback\u2019 Fooled Maine<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In 1961, head football coach Bob Hatch surprised the heavily favored University of Maine with an innovative spread formation that made national news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dubbed the \u201cPopular Halfback\u201d formation, it had speedy running back Paul Planchon \u201864 line up as if a wide receiver, but not alone. With him went an armada of four other players. Quarterback \u201cSwift\u201d Hathaway took the hike, pitched to Planchon, who headed downfield with his escort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During the 1960 season, Paul Planchon ’64 takes a pitch, perhaps from quarterback Skip Hathaway (No. 40). (Bates Mirror)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The play worked well, helping Bates to a surprise 15\u201315 tie. The name “Popular Halfback” was a reference to Army’s “Lonesome End,” Bill Carpenter, who always lined up near a far sideline and never even came into the huddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t think we could beat Maine with an orthodox offense,\u201d Hatch told the newspapers. It was an era when Maine, getting bigger every year, still competed against Bowdoin, Colby, and Bates in the State Series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hoped this way to provoke some defensive miscues and also to \u2018psych\u2019 our own kids into believing they had something extra going for them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. When a Circus Grounds Was Home Field<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Before Garcelon opened in 1899, Bates played its football games at Lee Park, a combination athletic and circus grounds close to campus, near what is now the Armory. (Buffalo Bill\u2019s Wild West show appeared there in June 1900.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This illustration in the Lewiston Saturday Journal<\/em> captures the style of late 19th-century college football, as played by Bates and Bowdoin on Oct. 29, 1898, at Lee Park near campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
10. Charles Ray, Class of 1927, First Black Captain<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In 1926, the election of a Black player, Charles B. Ray, Class of 1927, of West Chester, Pa., as captain of the Bates team was reported in newspapers around the country, as far away as California.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWithout a powerful build or great weight \u2014 he stands 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs only 150 pounds \u2014 Ray has qualified as a triple threat through his kicking, forward passing, and carrying of the ball,\u201d The Boston Globe<\/em> reported. \u201cLikewise he has distinguished himself on the defensive, particularly through his ability to break up forward passes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Bates, he was the first Black sports captain, of the football team, in 1926. Later an educator, he integrated the all-white faculty at Freehold (N.J.) High School in the 1950s, becoming a beloved mentor and coach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. Tom Carr \u201866, Patriot Draft Pick<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Bruising fullback Tom Carr \u201866 is the only Bobcat football player to get drafted by a professional team<\/a>, by the then-Boston Patriots in the 13th round of the 1966 draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fullback Tom Carr ’66 is only Bobcat to get drafted by a professional football team. (Bates College Mirror<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That summer he competed for a spot on Boston’s roster, playing in exhibition games, including one in Quincy, Mass., against the New York Jets. The team put Carr on what was then known as the “taxi squad,” the equivalent of today’s practice squad. He didn\u2019t get a call to the Patriots that season. He suffered an injury during the 1967 training camp and pivoted away from pro football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This edition of CatFacts gives a nod to the gridiron, as Bates football opens its season tonight vs. Wesleyan University, in a game that was moved from Saturday due to impending effects of Hurricane Lee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":103264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[7,24,1],"tags":[12318],"class_list":["post-157229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-athletics","category-batesnews","tag-catfacts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157229"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157259,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157229\/revisions\/157259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}