La Salle College High School Football: in Retrospect
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La Salle College High School Football: In Retrospect NOTE: This is the sixteenth of, I hope, many retrospectives highlighting some unique history of the football program at La Salle. The topics to discuss seem endless at this time. Hope you enjoy these. Bill Wasylenko, ‘69 Issue Number Sixteen: Jersey Boys – La Salle Uniform Numbers I’ve always been a “numbers” person, and have a great memory for uniform numbers. College and professional football have had legendary players with very memorable numbers, like Red Grange’s #77, Tom Harmon’s #98, Sammy Baugh’s #33, Chuck Bednarik’s #60, Johnny Unitas’ #19, Jim Brown’s #32, Lawrence Taylor’s #56, Jerry Rice’s #80, Peyton Manning’s #18, etc. We directly associate those players with their uniform numbers, and many of us “numbers people” treasure our own uniform numbers, too: I know for a fact that many of our football alums use their La Salle College High School uniform number in their email address, their vanity plate, or even their Twitter account! Uniform numbering has evolved over the last century or so. I remember as a kid watching old footage of the great Cleveland Browns quarterback Otto Graham, as he dropped back to pass wearing #60! And two plays later in this film clip, suddenly he’s wearing #14! At some point (turns out to be in 1952), there was a standard put in place for uniform numbering, and It took a little fun out of the numbers game as it was back in the day. Uniform numbers were not used in the early days of football; in fact, even uniforms themselves weren’t… uniform! Many team pictures around the turn of the 20th Century show players in different sweaters in the team picture. At some point, the school colors were used to provide both uniformity and a sense of loyalty that the team was playing for their dear old Alma Mater. For the college game, numbers to identify individual players were not often used until 1915, and it wasn't until 1937 that numerals were required on both the front and back of game jerseys. Till that point, most teams provided numbers on the back, but the front of the uniform was sometimes different for backfield members, with stripes! These stripes were actually strips of felt sewn onto the jersey and sleeves to help a ball carrier grip the ball against his body. The earliest numbering systems were quite different from what we have now. Until the 1920s, it was rare to see player numbers much higher than 25, and numbers had little correlation with positions. The numbering system used today originated in football's past when all teams employed some variation of the single wing formation on offense. When teams switched to the T-formation in the 1930s and 1940s, the numbers were taken with them to whatever position evolved from the old single wing position. The original numbering system based on the single wing offense went as follows: Tailback or left halfback had a number in the 10s. The blocking back, which evolved into the quarterback in the T formation, had a number in the 20s. The fullback had a number in the 30s and the right halfback had a number in the 40s. On the line the center was in the 50s, the guards were in the 60s, the tackles were in the 70s, and the ends were in the 80s. A system of assignment of jersey numbers was initiated in the NFL in 1952; it was updated and made more rigid in 1973. When the more rigid system went into effect in 1973, players who played in the league before then were given a grandfather clause to continue wearing newly prohibited numbers (i.e. many wide receivers wore jersey numbers in the teens and 20s before the rule changes required receivers to wear numbers in the 80s, and many defensive linemen and linebackers wore numbers in the 80s). The NCAA has number restrictions for ineligible receivers on offense (50-79). Informally, certain conventions still hold, and players usually wear numbers in the ranges similar to their NFL counterparts. The lowest numbers are often considered the most prestigious, and they are frequently worn not just by specialists and quarterbacks but also by running backs, defensive backs, and linebackers. Kickers and punters are frequently numbered in the 40s or 90s, which are the least in-demand numbers on a college roster. Lately, so many players are assigned jerseys that duplicate numbers are prevalent. Care must be taken to insure that no two players with the same number are on the field at the same time. And though more research can be done on numbers for both college and pro football, let’s instead turn toward La Salle’s uniform numbers over the years. La Salle College High School: Football Uniform Number History Based on what I’ve researched so far, La Salle seems to have dodged numbers on their football uniforms from the earliest years and into the 1920’s. Team pictures from the teens and mid-1920’s show that the uniforms were indeed “uniform”; there’s no indication of a number on the front of the uniform, but a picture in the 1928 yearbook indicates that uniform numbers were present on the back of the jersey. The first team picture with numbers on the front of the uniforms appears in the 1938 yearbook. A very large smiling sophomore sitting in the front row wearing number 48 is none other than John Flannery, “Tex” or “Mister” to most of us. Harry Bausch (1926) Tex Flannery (1937); He wore 28 in 1938 & 1939 This 1937 team picture showed players with uniform numbers between 30 and 55; don’t know why the lower numbers weren’t used, unless they Gus were for the JV players. The 1938 team has Cifelli numbers in the range from 16 to 56; Flannery (1942) switched to number 28 for his junior year. Flannery is shown in a #47 practice jersey during his senior year of 1939, but the team picture shows him again with number 28. That seems to be a recurring theme for La Salle football players, getting any available number in their sophomore year, but keeping the same number in junior and senior year. Abe By the 1940 season, single-digit numbers were Reilly used, and numbers into the 50’s were a lot scarcer. (1943) Linemen were wearing “random” numbers. Tackle Gus Cifelli of Notre Dame and NFL fame wore number 23 on the 1942 squad, and guard “Abe” Reilly of the 1943 team wore number 9. This “random” numbering scheme with numbers from 1 to 56 changed in 1947, when the lowest assigned Dick number was number 20, and the highest was 59; this Bedesem was a scheme that lasted into the 1960’s. Gone were (1948) the days of single digits; star back Dick Bedesem wore number 37 during his stellar senior year in the 1948 season. It was probable that many of the backs in those years ended up with “back” numbers in the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s, but that wasn’t always true. Jim Ward of the 1954 team wore number 55, and quarterback Hugh Brolly of the undefeated 1955 team wore number 50. Jim Ward (1954) Hugh Brolly (1955) But some of the great linemen of the 1950’s had linemen numbers, including John Osborne (#57) of the 1957 team and Arnie Buben (#53) of the 1958 team. John Osborne (1957) Arnie Buben (1958) The great La Salle backs of the mid to late 1950’s had great “back numbers”, like Bill Dick and Ray Frankson of the 1955 team (#39 and #44, respectively), Paul Aita of the 1957 champs (#27), Scotty Maxwell of the 1958 team (#48), and the great John Herrera, who wore #24 from 1955 to 1957. Bill Dick Ray Frankson Paul Aita Scotty Maxwell John Herrera (1955) (1955) (1957) (1958) (1957) Continuing into the 60’s, many more great players had memorable numbers, like Ed Brennan’s number 42 in 1961, Joe Colistra’s number 48 in 1963, and Frank Bogle’s number 50 in 1964. Up till that point, only one player had received a number higher than number 59 (Bob Strong had number 60 in 1962). But things were changing. Ed Brennan Joe Colistra Frank Bogle (1961) (1963) (1964) 1966 saw not only a return to lower numbers, but the uncharted territory of higher numbers (at La Salle, this change occurred at the start of the season, and rosters and players’ numbers did not initially match up). Quarterbacks were assigned numbers in the 10’s; backs had numbers in the 20’s to 40’s, linemen had numbers between 50 and 79, and ends were in the 80’s, very similar to the NCAA rules. No single-digit numbers were assigned. Some of the great players of the late 60’s included Kevin Meehan, number 65 in 1967, Jim Koller, number 26 in 1968, and Pat McLaughlin, number 86 in 1969. Kevin Meehan Jim Koller Pat McLaughlin (1967) (1968) (1969) This numbering scheme continued through the 70’s and 80’s. Memorable players included Jack Flannery, number 12 in 1972, Eddie Meehan, number 20 in 1979, Eddie George Winslow’s number 84 in 1981, and Pat Meehan Gibson’s number 65 in 1987. (1979) Pat Gibson (1987) Jack Flannery (1972) George Winslow (1982) As the fortunes of La Salle football picked up in the late 80’s, so did interest in the program; more and more students were coming out for the football team, and more were kept on the roster, necessitating some changes in the number schemes.