Stout Institute 1909-20 Win/Loss Record |
Early Coaches
The following is part of a 10-week series on the history of UW-Stout football. The series, which will run every Wednesday in The Dunn County News, is a collaboration with the The News, the Dunn County Historical Society and UW-Stout Athletics. The Stout football program will mark the centennial with a reunion celebration on Homecoming, Saturday, Oct. 1.
By Chuck Backus
Dunn County Historical Society Executive Director
In the early years of the 20th century, college football was a violent and all too often deadly game. Between 1905 and 1910, there were 113 fatalities associated with college football.
In May of 1910, sweeping rule changes were instituted to reduce injuries. The game would be divided into four 15-minute quarters, teams were required to advance the ball 10 yards to earn a first down, a neutral zone was created and seven players from the offensive team were required to line up on the line of scrimmage. Teammates could no longer push or pull a ball carrier forward and a player leaving the game through substitution would be allowed to return. Banned from the game were the “flying wedge” and “flying tackle.” No longer could a line of blockers interlock arms and head down field like a scythe. The new rules also allowed an offensive player to pass the ball from anywhere on the field (provided he was five yards behind the line of scrimmage), to any point on the field. These rule changes would change the game of American football forever.
Injuries suspend football before team is formed
In spite of this massive restructuring of the game, Stout Institute still did not have an intercollegiate football team. A rash of serious injuries in Stout's first ever practice game in 1907 led to a suspension of the sport on campus. However, at the meeting of the Athletic Association, on Oct. 14, 1911, students decided to again take up the game and ultimately won the consent of school President Lorenzo D. Harvey to lift the ban and field Stout Institute's first intercollegiate football team.
The official beginning
Stout's first game was held Nov. 4, 1911, at River Falls, against River Falls Normal School. Although the game ended in a 13-11 Stout defeat, cheering fans saw Walter (Andy) Anderson, a Jr. from Elk River, Minn., score the first touchdown in Stout history on an 85-yard punt return.
The first decade of Stout football produced only one winning season (1912). However, it was not without its notable players. Among them, Raymond M. Bradshaw (1914-15) from Topeka, Kan. Bradshaw was the first African-American student to attend Stout. Playing right end, he also was a member of the Stout Glee Club, band and quartette.
The decade also witnessed the arrival in 1917 of Coach George “Bud” Miller, Stout's first “professional” football coach. After the school suspended football again in 1918 due to the First World War, Miller returned his team to the gridiron in 1919 and remained as coach until 1927. He tallied a 20-28-6 record during that time and called for the construction (in the Stout woodworking shops) of the school's first tackling dummy and charging sled.
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