Irish Echoes: 1921 Notre Dame-Illinois ‘proxy game’ caused a stir
A century ago, Notre Dame officially concluded its 1921 football season with a Thanksgiving Day pasting of Michigan Agricultural College, 48-0, before a record crowd of 15,000 at Cartier Field. Coach Knute Rockne’s squad finished with a 10-1 mark, including shutout victories over rivals Purdue (33‑0), Nebraska (7-0) and Army (28‑0).
But a game played three days later in a Central Illinois town created a buzz that lasted through the winter and had major repercussions in the college football world. In the end, it would serve as a cautionary tale and a pivot point for rooting out the creeping challenge of professionalism in the college game.
Throughout the 1910s and early 1920s, college football was plagued by a trend in which players would head out on Sundays, usually under an assumed name, and be paid a few dollars to play for a pro or semi-pro team.
Rockne himself, while an assistant Notre Dame coach in 1914-17, had made several appearances for the town team of Massillon, Ohio. But he publicly denounced the pro game and its effect on college athletes.
In two coal-mining towns in central Illinois — Carlinville and Taylorville — football fever was raging. On Thanksgiving Day 1920, Carlinville defeated its archrival, 10-7, in a game that, typical of the time, made numerous Taylorville supporters poorer than when the day began.
As the 1921 season unfolded, anticipation grew for the teams’ annual battle, set for Nov. 27, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. In Carlinville, there were whispers around town that the team would be sporting something of a “new look” this time around, and that it might be advisable to go a little deeper into one’s savings to put money down on the local eleven.
Before long, it became common knowledge on the streets that “the Notre Dame team” was going to show up and play for Carlinville. A lad who had grown up and played high school ball in Carlinville, Si Seyfrit, was now a backup end for the Irish.
It didn’t take much convincing for the local folks to believe that Notre Dame’s stars were going to show up in Taylorville and bring it home for Carlinville.
As the excitement in Carlinville grew, more and more folks found the dollars to put money on the game. Eventually, word spread to Taylorville about Carlinville’s planned imports, and before long, a representative of Taylorville had contacted several University of Illinois players to represent the town in the big game.
Two of them — Roy “Dope” Simpson and Vern Mullen — were Taylorville products. In almost no time, seven others agreed to join them, including star halfback Laurie Walquist and quarterback Joe Sternaman.
Rockne and his counterpart at Illinois, the estimable Bob Zuppke, were never able to agree on a meeting of the Irish and Illini in football. Illinois played very few games outside their Western Conference schedule, and they were usually against lesser opponents. Now, though, it appeared something of a “proxy game” would match players from the two schools in Taylorville.
Residents of Taylorville, alerted to the Illini stars headed their way, began emptying their wallets to place bets on the local squad. Folks in both towns, it was reported later, “went to the bank, the family stocking and the cupboard to bring forth, in some cases, the savings of years.” By game day, an estimated $100,000 was in play.
On a chilly Sunday afternoon in Taylorville, in front of 10,000 spectators, the two faux squads took to the field. Taylorville coach Grover Hoover decided to keep most of the Illini players on the bench for the first half and to use them as needed to take over the game in the second half.
Carlinville came out with four regulars from the Notre Dame line — ends Eddie Anderson and Roger Kiley, tackle Buck Shaw and center Harry Mehre. There was less Irish firepower in the backfield since fullback Chet Wynne was the only Notre Dame starter on hand.
So, Anderson switched to quarterback and tried to run the “Notre Dame” offense, with little success. The remaining three imports were Notre Dame subs — backs Bob Phelan and Earl Walsh, and the hometown end, Seyfrit.
After the Illinois players poured into the Taylorville lineup in the third quarter, Carlinville’s offense had an even harder time of it, only crossing midfield once in the second half. Taylorville, meanwhile, launched three long drives. The final: Taylorville 16, Carlinville 0, and there were a lot of celebrating, instantly richer fans from Taylorville.
News of the game was only an undercurrent until January reports in Chicago newspapers about the “$100,000 Football Scandal.” Players from both schools were suspended from further athletic competition, and while the eight Notre Dame players had completed their football eligibility, the punishment severely affected the Irish basketball and track teams.
A contrite Shaw spoke for the Irish players: “We are the goats and will take our medicine. We thought the game would be a small-town affair, which would attract no attention.
“We didn’t know Illinois was to play, and when we got to the town and found how big the affair really was, we were going to back out. We had a meeting and decided to play when we were told the people of Carlinville had bet considerable money, which they would lose if we did not play.
“We were sick of the entire business before we went into the game. We never stopped to think how the affair would reflect on the university.”
Father William Carey, CSC, head of the Faculty Athletic Board, wanted to take a strong stand against the growing allurement of pro ball. He sent a letter to 70 Midwest colleges, calling attention to the threat of professionalism entering the college ranks.
“The only salvation for the colleges is to meet the threat of professional football fairly and squarely,” he wrote.
Rev. Carey advocated for a number of new policies, including “soliciting a pledge from each man in college eligible for athletics not to play pro games while still in college. Expel violators.” Further, he said, schools should “remove the belief that it is unfriendly for one college to notify another concerning its players.”
He also called for colleges to “publish each fall the name, hometown and high school of each athletic prospect entering college,” which hadn’t yet become standard practice in a sport where prospects sometimes hopped from school to school in the fall before settling on a team.
“It is hoped that this communication will rouse the Middle West colleges and universities to concerted action against the promoters of professional football,” Rev. Carey concluded. “Our cooperation with any such effort may be relied upon.”
Jim Lefebvre is an award-winning Notre Dame author and leads the Knute Rockne Memorial Society. He can be reached at: jlefebvre@blueandgold.com.
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