Talk:1936 Slippery Rock Rockets football team

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1936 Slippery Rock Football Season

Latest comment: 4 months ago3 comments2 people in discussion

The scenario that Slippery Rock could have been national champions may be flawed. In 1936, Slippery Rock did play and beat Westminster, but Westminster did not beat West Virginia Wesleyan as they never played. WVW lost that year to St. Vincent and WVU and did beat Duquesne 2-0 208.38.246.38 (talk) 15:28, 11 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

1990 quote about the claim:

'Backtracking scores from 1936, the writer used the following logic: Slippery Rock beat Westminster, which beat West Virginia Wesleyan, which beat Duquesne, which beat Pitt, which beat Notre Dame, which beat Northwestern, which beat Minnesota. Conclusion: Slippery Rock was No. 1.'

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1990/11/04/rock-of-ages-in-1900-a-small-school-now-known-as-slippery/

You're right that the football schedule in their 1937 yearbook does not show Westminster playing West Virginia Wesleyan. WVW lost to St. Vincent and West Virginia.

Note that St. Vincent definitely was named as national champion by the Associated Press in the same manner as the supposed Slippery Rock championship, and we have been able to find that newspaper column.

I'm searching for more delails about the 1936 Slippery Rock national championship as well. I posted similar queries here:

I'm especially looking for the original wire service story about Slippery Rock, which was apparently widely distributed and noticed across the country but I have been unable to find.

PK-WIKI (talk) 16:48, 11 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

I've been investigating a seemingly unknown/unreported/forgotten aspect of the national championship for the 1932 college football season and 1933 Rose Bowl.

Jack F. Rissman, sponsor of the original (and by then retired) Dickinson System trophy, announced that USC would top that ranking with a win vs. Notre Dame.

Professor Dickinson evidently didn't agree, and the same day as USC's win awarded the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy to Michigan.

Rissman, peeved, announced that he would be awarding a new Rissman national championship trophy to the victor at the Rose Bowl.

This prompted UP's George H. Beale to pen a Sports Parade column covering the feud.^[1] Published December 17, 1932. In the column, Beale notably mentions the 1932 Colgate Red Raiders football team (9–0), 1932 Slippery Rock Rockets football team (3-5-1), 1932 Knox Old Siwash football team (0–8), and 1932 Bucknell Bison football team (4–4–1) (along with Michigan, USC, and Pittsburgh) as all deserving national championship systems and trophies.^[1]

This column is perhaps the origin of the Slippery Rock national championship story. Slippery Rock was named as national champion by a national wire service columnist... but 4 years earlier than the oft-reported story, and without any mention of transitive property wins over the string of traditional football powers. Those details evidently came from the 1936 AP story naming the 1936 Saint Vincent Bearcats football team discussed above.

PK-WIKI (talk) 07:52, 4 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

References

^ ^a ^b Beale, George H. (December 17, 1932). Written at Los Angeles. "Sports Parade — Champions, Trophies and Systems — What This Country Needs Is More Sportsmen Willing to Donate Cups to Grid Champions". The Lincoln Journal. Lincoln, Nebraska. United Press. Retrieved July 4, 2024. All that is needed now to make the football season a complete success is for someone to figure out a system to declare Colgate the undisputed national champion and to give the Red Raiders a trophy indicative of the same. [...] More national champions, more systems of picking them and more trophies to give them have long been the crying need of football. [...] It might even be worked out so Slippery Rock and Knox could have very fine trophies for their Y.M.C.A. trophy rooms. [...] Under the Beale system, I hereby award the national football championship to Bucknell (dear old alma mater)

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[UP1932Beale-1] Beale, George H. (December 17, 1932). Written at Los Angeles. "Sports Parade — Champions, Trophies and Systems — What This Country Needs Is More Sportsmen Willing to Donate Cups to Grid Champions". The Lincoln Journal. Lincoln, Nebraska. United Press. Retrieved July 4, 2024. All that is needed now to make the football season a complete success is for someone to figure out a system to declare Colgate the undisputed national champion and to give the Red Raiders a trophy indicative of the same. [...] More national champions, more systems of picking them and more trophies to give them have long been the crying need of football. [...] It might even be worked out so Slippery Rock and Knox could have very fine trophies for their Y.M.C.A. trophy rooms. [...] Under the Beale system, I hereby award the national football championship to Bucknell (dear old alma mater)

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