When
the Wolf Pack was truly Nevada's team
By Joe Santoro, Nevada Wolf Pack Examiner
October 6, 2011
There
was no Fremont Cannon trophy to fight over, no Nevada Southern University,
no North versus South civil war to split the state’s loyalties.
The WAC was the Women’s Army
Corps and not the Western Athletic Conference. The mountain to the west was
Mt. Charleston and not the Mountain West Conference.
It was the era when the entire
state was painted silver and blue from top to bottom and the Nevada Wolf Pack
was truly Nevada’s team.
“Las Vegas gives Wolfpack
big welcoming” screamed the headline in the Nevada Evening Gazette in
October 1944 as the Pack got off the bus for “its first game ever in
the southern tip city of Las Vegas.”
Yes, a lot has changed between
1944 and this Saturday when the Wolf Pack and UNLV Rebels will meet at Mackay
Stadium for the rivalry’s 37th game in the Battle for the Fremont Cannon.
Wolf Pack is no longer considered
one word in this state, the University of Nevada is no longer the only university
in the state, Las Vegas is no longer merely Nevada’s “southern tip
city” looking up at its big brother in Reno and the Pack no longer gets
official welcomes, friendly or otherwise, by the residents of Las Vegas when
it arrives in town for a football game.
But that certainly wasn’t the case in the 1940s when the Wolf Pack football
team hosted three games in the Silver State’s southern tip city in an
effort to build a fan base at both ends of the state, reward the southern
Nevada players on its roster and help its opponents with travel costs.
A look at the only three times
in Wolf Pack history when the Pack was the home team in a regular season game
in Las Vegas . . .
1944: Wolf Pack 25, Northern
Arizona 6
The 1944 Wolf Pack prepared for
its first game in school history in Las Vegas in desperate need of some good
news. Coach Jim Aiken’s Wolf Pack were -1 after a 35-0 loss in its home
opener at Mackay Stadium to the Alameda Coast Guard Sea Lions.
The Pack scheduled the game in
Las Vegas for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was to help build good
relations in the southern end of the state. Just days before the game against
Northern Arizona, university president John O. Moseley announced the
publication of a booklet “designed to promote goodwill between the school
and residents of the state.”
Forget “One Community, One
Pack.” The Wolf Pack in the 1940s wanted “One State. One Pack.”
And a football game in Las Vegas
was certainly a good way to promote goodwill between the school and the state’s
residents, even if there were only 110,247 residents of the state (30,000
in Reno, 20,000 in Las Vegas) when the last census in 1940 was taken. The
Pack wanted all 110,247 to be Wolf Pack fans and there was no reason (the
birth of Nevada Southern University was still two-plus decades into the future)
it couldn’t happen.
The Pack, though, would head down
to Las Vegas with less than 30 players. The war was still raging in Europe
and, well, at times it seemed like the Pack’s biggest opponent was the
United States military.
One player -- Bob Wardle -- telegraphed
Aiken from Salt Lake City in the week before the Northern Arizona game to
tell him he was leaving the team because he was joining the “army air
forces.” Running back Paul Zaehringer told Aiken that week that he would
have to leave the team after the game in Las Vegas so he could go back home
to Clinton, Iowa and then enlist in the army.
The Wolf Pack roster in Las Vegas
was going to be about a dozen players short of what it was just two weeks
earlier when it opened the season on the road against the Tonopah Air Base.
Tackle Phil Corrigan would miss
the game “for reasons best known to him and Coach Aiken,” according
to the Gazette and end Jack Dorr had to quit the team that week to take a
job at Sears Roebuck. Dorr, a war veteran who already had a purple heart to
his credit, hurt his leg in the game against the Alameda Coast Guard and decided
a year off from football would be the best way to give his leg a rest.
The Pack, though, was in good spirits
as it prepared to head down south.
Aiken, in an effort to keep his
star players healthy, turned select starters (Buster McClure and Zaehringer
among others) into coaches early in the week and gave them the first three
days off from practice.
The Pack climbed aboard its bus
for Las Vegas two days before its game against Northern Arizona. The game
would be played on Sunday night (Oct. 8) at Las Vegas High School’s Butcher’s
Field near downtown Las Vegas.
The stadium, which could cram as
many as 7,000 fans inside (most of them standing), was named in honor of Las
Vegas High‘s first football coach and athletic director, Francis “Frank”
Butcher, who tragically died at the age of 26 in a house fire in 1930. When
Butcher created the Wildcats athletic department and started the football
program in 1927, the school had 24 graduates.
The Pack, despite its 1-1 record,
was confident heading down south. A shipment of new royal blue jerseys with
white lettering had just arrived by parcel post four days before the team
would leave for Las Vegas.
“The Pack will carry bruises
from a hard week of practice scrimmage sessions and a grudge which they will
remove from their shoulders when they defeat Arizona State,” reported
the Gazette. “Reports from the Wolfpack scouts about the Arizona team
state that Nevada’s chances are favorable and with the prevalent thought
of victory already entrenched in the squad’s mind, betting odds favor
the Pack.”
All of the positive thoughts seemed
to work.
The Las Vegas Elks and the University
Alumni Club of Clark County met the Pack’s bus and the rest of the long
weekend was just as enjoyable.
The Pack, in front of an estimated crowd of 6,000 fans, jumped all over Northern Arizona with three touchdowns in the first quarter. Zaehringer, who would leave for Iowa the next day, scored on runs of 27 and 10 yards.
Quarterback Bill Mackrides also
scored on runs of 11 and two yards.
After the game the Pack enjoyed
a team dinner at the Hotel Last Frontier hosted by the Nevada Alumni Club.
And after the dinner they climbed back on board the bus and headed back home
to Reno.
1946: Wolf Pack 53, Loyola Marymount
0
With a return
visit to Las Vegas still three weeks away, the Wolf Pack’s 1946 schedule
was suddenly reduced by a game.
The Wolf Pack decided to cancel
a game at Mississippi State (scheduled for Nov. 16, 1946) because Mississippi
State refused to play against the Wolf Pack if the Pack insisted on playing
its two black players, Bill Bass and Horace Gillom.
“Southern college doesn’t
want negro players in football game,” read a headline in the Gazette.
Mississippi State sent a series
of letters and telegrams to Nevada objecting to Bass and Gillom playing on
their home field in Starkville, Miss.
“It is not the custom in the South for members of the Negro race to compete in athletics with or against members of the white race in athletic contests. I am sure you understand this traditional custom which Mississippi State college cannot under any circumstances violate,” a letter by Mississippi State officials informed the Wolf Pack.
“An unfortunate commotion
would ensue if colored stars were allowed on the Starkville Field.”
The Wolf Pack not only didn’t
understand it, they refused to play without Bass and Gillom.
The University of Nevada board
of athletic control sent a telegram to Mississippi State athletic director
C.R. “Dudy” Noble which read, in part, “it is impossible for
us to reach a mutual agreement.
The Pack didn‘t hesitate to
cancel the game.
Noble told the Gazette, “they
(Nevada) insisted on playing (Bass and Gillom) so I sent them another telegram.
When we made the contract to play the game (the year before) those boys
were not on the team.”
The racial incident was certainly
not rare in 1940s college football. Just a week later Penn State announced
it was cancelling a game at the University of Miami (Florida) because Miami
wouldn’t allow two black Penn State players (Wallace Triplett and Dennis
Hogard) to play in the game.
The Pack now had two weeks with
which to prepare for its game against Loyola Marymount at Butcher’s Field.
Aiken’s Wolfpack were 5-2 after a 48-13 win over Santa Barbara at Mackay
Stadium on Nov. 9. The day before a young man by the name of Chris
Ault was born east of Los Angeles and about 225 miles from Las Vegas in
San Bernardino, Calif.
The week before that the Pack beat
Montana State 38-14 during a Homecoming week of festivities which involved
the reunion of the 1906 team, the first of nine Pack teams that played the
sport of rugby when the Pack dropped football after 1905.
“The 1906 team played the
rough and physical game of rugby in the good old days compared to the padded
sissy game of today,” reported the Gazette.
There was nothing padded (the helmets
still didn’t have facemasks) and sissy about the 1946 Wolf Pack, a team
made up of many World War II veterans.
The Pack of 1946 were thrilling
the nation with the T Formation, led by Mackrides and end Tommy Kalmanir.
Mackrides led the nation with 13 touchdown passes -- seven to Kalmanir --
as the Pack prepared to play Loyola in Las Vegas.
In the week leading up to the game
the northern Nevada community was treated to a 45-minute film at the Tower
Theater in Reno of the Wolf Pack’s 13-12 loss at St. Mary’s a month
earlier. “The color movies are one of the best action scenes ever filmed
of a grid contest,” wrote the Gazette.
The news from the practice field
wasn’t so exciting. “A new scourge -- academic standing -- has threatened
the Wolves,” reported the Gazette. “Lloyd Rude, a 200-pound fullback,
and a blocking wheelhorse, may be lost for the Loyola game unless favorable
reports are submitted this afternoon by two of the plunging fullback’s
professors.”
Mackrides reinjured his left shoulder
in practice on Monday and end Scott Beasley had to learn the T formation’s
“pitching duties” at quarterback in practice. The coach’s son,
backup quarterback Jimmy Aiken Jr., was also being pressed into duty.
All those problems, though, cleared
up by game time. Rude got those favorable reports from his professors and
Mackrides was deemed fit to play as the Pack boarded two separate flights
to Las Vegas the day before its Nov. 22 game (a Friday night) with Marymount.
An estimated crowd of 7,000 pushed
and shoved its way into Butcher Field on Nov. 22, a week before Thanksgiving.
“The paid attendance, which did not include the Blue Peppers band or
the knot-hole gang, was 5,498,” reported the Gazette.
The Wolves chewed up the Loyola
Lions, 53-0.
The Wolf Pack defense never allowed
Loyola to get past the Wolf Pack 35-yard line. Kalmanir scored on a 70-yard
run off a lateral from Mackrides for a 6-0 lead. Rude scored from 15 yards
out to make it 13-0 and Mackrides found Beasley on a pass for a 20-0 lead
and the rout was on.
Gillom scored on a 4-yard run for
a 26-0 lead and Mackrides and Kalmanir hooked up for a 79-yard touchdown pass
for a 32-0 lead. Even Jimmy Aiken Jr. got into the fun, scoring on a quarterback
sneak as the Pack reserves got into the game.
1947: Wolf Pack 33, Arizona
State 13
The 2011 Wolf Pack has just survived
a rough stretch of four consecutive road games to open the year. The current
Wolf Pack, though, has nothing to complain about when it comes to time spent
on the road when compared to the Pack teams of the late 1940s.
The 1949 team also opened the year
with four road games and played eight of its 10 games on the year away from
home. The 1948 team played four of its first five games and nine of its 11
games overall on the road. The 1947 squad played seven of its 11 games away
from Mackay Stadium.
The 1947 team, coach Joe Sheeketski’s
first in Nevada, played back-to-back weeks on the road in late September and
early October, at San Francisco and at Oregon. They headed back on the road
in the middle of October to St. Mary’s and then spent a tiring, wild
two weeks on the road at St. Louis and at Detroit in early November.
The trip to St. Louis began with
a flight from Reno to Chicago and was also supposed to include a connecting
flight from Chicago to St. Louis. After arriving in Chicago, though, the Pack
learned that bad weather had closed the St. Louis airport so the Pack had
to take a bumpy, eight-hour bus ride from Chicago to St. Louis in order to
arrive in time for the game the next day.
The tired and road-weary Pack would
beat the Billikens 27-21 as a Stan Heath-to-Dick Trachock touchdown pass opened
the scoring.
The Wolf Pack then spent a couple
days sightseeing in St. Louis after the game. A few of the Wolf Pack war veterans,
namely Carmel Caruso, Duke Lindeman, Dan Orlich, Milan Grevich and assistant
coach Dick Evans, posed for a photo with Major Fraser E. West, a former Wolf
Pack ski team member, who was now the officer in charge of the St. Louis Marine
Corps office.
Grevich was the star attraction
for Major West since the Wolf Pack player, according to the Gazette, was credited
as a marine as the solider who invented the “stinger,” a light machine
gun that he “conceived under fire on one island, built on another island
and whose potency he proved under fire on Iwo Jima,” reported the Gazette.
The tired Pack then headed straight
to Detroit to prepare to face the Titans and were beaten easily 38-6. The
loss would hurt them later in the year.
A trip to Las Vegas a couple weeks
later, though, was no problem for the Pack’s bunch of road warriors.
One reason was because the Pack was to face Arizona State, a team they humiliated
74-2 the year before at Mackay Stadium.
That threat of overconfidence worried
Sheeketski.
“They are definitely not the
ball club Nevada beat 74-2 last year,” the Pack coach said.
The Sun Devils, though, weren’t
exactly first on the Pack’s minds as they prepared to head down south
to Butcher’s Field for a third time in four seasons.
A new bowl game, the Salad Bowl
in Phoenix, reportedly was considering the Pack. The loss to Detroit had knocked
the Pack out of consideration for more established and prestigious bowl games,
opening the door for the Salad Bowl.
The Wolf Pack, though, wasn’t
sure they’d even accept a bid to play in the new Arizona bowl. The 1946
Pack, after all, had turned down a bid from the Harbor Bowl in San Diego because
the Pack players didn’t want to play on New Year’s Day. The Salad
Bowl was also to be played on New Year’s Day.
First on the Pack’s agenda,
though, was a game on Nov. 29 in Las Vegas against Arizona State.
The Wolf Pack was more than happy
to allow Arizona State to play its two black players (Morrison Walker and
George Diggs) in Las Vegas against the Pack. The Sun Devils had played two
games earlier in the year in the state of Texas where both were not allowed
to play.
The Pack would crush Walker, Diggs
and the rest of the outmanned Sun Devils 33-13 despite, as Sheeketski said,
being “uninspired and giving a lackadaisical performance.”
Quarterback Mike Mirabelli tossed a 61-yard touchdown pass to Carl Robinson as the Pack took a 20-13 halftime lead. John Subda’s 7-yard TD run had given the Pack a 7-0 lead and Robinson’s touchdown made it 14-0.
Beasley scored on a 3-yard run
for a 26-13 lead in the third quarter and Ernie Zeno had an interception and
later scored on a short run for the final Pack score.
Trachok rushed for 77 yards, Kalmanir
had 68 yards and Ted Kondel contributed 57 yards and an unenthusiastic and
disappointing crowd of 330 fans showed up at Butcher’s Field to see the
contest.
It would be the Pack’s last
game in the state’s southern tip city until Nov. 21, 1970, the second
game of the current Pack-UNLV rivalry and the first when the Fremont Cannon
was the grand prize.
The game in Las Vegas had obviously
lost its luster but that didn’t matter to the Pack. All that mattered
in late November of 1947 was where and if they would go to the Salad Bowl.
The day after the victory in Las
Vegas, the Pack learned they would play North Texas in the Salad Bowl. The
news disappointed most everyone in northern Nevada.
“The reaction is not favorable
since Nevada wanted a bigger, more known opponent,” the Gazette reported.
The Pack was told the Salad Bowl
was considering TCU, Wichita and, yes, even Mississippi State. Schools like
Kansas, Missouri and Baylor were also mentioned as possible Pack opponents.
The day after receiving notice
that North Texas would be their foe on New Year’s Day the Pack players,
with Sheeketski still in Los Angeles after watching his alma mater, Notre
Dame, play USC, voted to not play in the new bowl game.
Sheeketski immediately flew back
to Reno from Los Angeles to have a talk with his team. The next day it was
announced the Pack would, on second thought, accept the Salad Bowl invite.
The Pack would beat North Texas 13-6 in the school’s first bowl game,
rallying from a 6-0 deficit as Kalmanir caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from
Stan Heath and Zeno scored on a short run.
The players said they changed their
mind about playing in the game after Sheeketski assured them that they could
go back home for the Christmas holidays and return in time for the Jan. 1
game. Some players were even allowed to travel from their homes and meet the
team in Phoenix for the bowl game.
“The vote shows the Nevada
players are good sportsmen,” Salad Bowl committee chairman Dave Wynne
said.
The Nevada Wolf Pack football team
played three games as the host school in Las Vegas in the 1940s.
By Joe Santoro
Nevada Wolf Pack Examiner
Joe Santoro is an award-winning sportswriter with over three decades of experience.
Joe is the dean of Northern Nevada sports reporters...
Back to—>
UNR
Follyball in Mississippi West
Bigotry
cloaked in womens' right drag
Barbwire by Andrew
Quarantino Barbáno
/ Expanded
from the
Sparks Tribune 10-23-2024
Copyright © 1982-2024
Andrew Barbano
Andrew Barbano is a 55-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He was the longtime executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and has been a quarter-century member and 10-year officer of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.
The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.
Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.
Betty J. Barbano
2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
1947-2023Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory
Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins