Egg in Your Beer

The recent death of F. J. Johnson, 1921 varsity quarterback, reminded many long-time Crimson followers of Harvard's famous defeat at the hands of Centre College's Praying Colonels. Loyal Crimson supporters have stoutly maintained over the years that the game reliable experts have called "the upset of the half-century" was in reality nothing of the sort.

Nearly everyone knows the story. The Kentuckians from the little backwoods college met the mighty varsity on its home ground and outplayed it, 6 to 0. For Harvard, it was the first loss in five years of football greatness.

The CRIMSON's headline on Oct. 31, 1921, read: "McMillin's Scintillating Dash Sends Crimson to First Defeat Since 1916. Raging Kentuckians Humble University Team by 6 to 0 Before Packed Stadium Crowd--Roberts Outdoes Himself."

After a dull first half, Centre quarterback Bo McMillin, his path cleared by Roberts' devastating blocking, exploded for 32 yards and a touchdown the first time the Praying Colonels had the ball in the third period.

Although the Crimson fought back mightily, the Praying Colonels held fast and preserved their triumph. Newspapers all over the country were quick to proclaim Centre's win as an upset. As years passed, the story of coach Charlie Moran's little country boys who prayed in the locker room before going out onto the field spread, and the 1921 game became a football legend.

Still, the fact remains: Centre's win was not a shocking reversal of form. Although the Praying Colonels had dropped a 31-14 decision to the Crimson a year earlier, they had remedied their main defect--a porous line. In 1921, Centre had already defeated Clemson, 14 to 7, V.P.I., 14 to 0, St. Xavier, 28 to 6, and Transylvania, by the whopping margin of 98 to 0.

The varsity on the other hand, had experienced some rough going. Having staggered through victories over B.U., Middlebury, Holy Cross, Indiana, and Georgia, it had created a reputation for playing in cliff-hangers. And the week before the Centre encounter, the varsity had needed an eleventh-hour comeback to tie a good but not great Penn State eleven.

Those close to Harvard football in 1921 were not ignorant of the Crimson's deficiencies. An open letter from R. B. Wigglesworth, member of the Football Advisory Committee, published in the CRIMSON after the Centre contest said, "Harvard's defeat Saturday at the hands of Centre College demonstrates conclusively the critical condition of the University eleven...."

Wigglesworth's forebodings proved cor-

rect. The Crimson managed only a field goal in losing to a twice-beaten Princeton eleven, 10 to 3. It was the first Tiger victory over a Harvard eleven in ten years. One week later, a nonchalant varsity, with seven first-string players watching Yale play in New Haven, barely edged a powerless Brown squad, 9 to 7.

Only a superlative, emotion-packed effort by the entire team allowed the Crimson to eke out a 10-3 triumph over Yale in the season's final game. The battered and exhausted Crimson was relieved to see one of its roughest campaigns draw to a close.

A one-line filler at the end of the CRIMSON'S acocunt of the Yale game is worth noting. At the end of a season when mighty Harvard had to struggle to score 101 points, the filler had this to say about the frightened little Praying Colonels: "Centre scored 246 points in 1921.