A 1909 photograph of the football team of Millersburg High School, Millersburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. This was the first sports team to represent the school.
None of the individuals in the photo are identified, but the school newspaper, “The School Tatler,” on December 3, 1926, published an article by H. L. Rubendall which gave the school’s early history of football and named the members of the 1909 squad.
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The first athletic teams to represent Millersburg High School were organized in 1909 during the principalship of J. F. Adams. The football squad that year consisted of
Backfield: Brown Bradenbaugh; Harry Messner; Monroe Miller; Guy Motter; Mark Hemminger.
Linesmen: George Wingard; William Feidt; Ralph Moyer; Paul Reber; Julius Blasser; Merle Johnson.
The first game was with the strong Lykens High team. Our warriors journeyed to Lykens on C. J. Snyder‘s feed deliver wagon and went down to a 21-0 defeat. About the biggest accomplishment that season was the stealing of a barrel of hard cider from a farmer while the team was on its way home from Lykens, which ended in the temporary disbanding of the team. They played one more game with the Tech Scrubs, holding them to a scoreless tie. The outstanding star of the season was Guy Motter, a fearless, line-cracking halfback.
After the year 1909 there was no football until 1913 when the school produced the greatest eleven of its existence. It will take a remarkable team to equal the record of this famous squad. The team was coached by Rev. W. C. Skeath, a Methodist minister, who always took an interest in boys and their activities. The varsity was as follows:
Ray Kepner, qb; Ralph Strong, fb; Frank Lawley and Robert Kerr, hbs; Karl Bashoar and Mark Messner, ends; John Snyder and Russell Novinger, tackles; Allen Gilbert and Richard Miller, guards; Merle Johnson, center. The substitutes were Marcus Kerr, George Michaels and William Zimmerman.
The most cherished victory was a 7-0 triumph over a strong team of Tower City men, who were above the school age, and who had not been defeated in five years. Hummelstown was also beaten, 44-0; Harrisburg Tech Scrubs, 33-0; Lykens High, 13-6; and Elizabethville, 35-0 and 14-0; 35-0 and 14-0; New Bloomfield Academy, which is still [in 1926] a gridiron rival, was defeated by a score of 35-0. On Thanksgiving Day, 19131, the Maroon and Gold waved triumphantly over the Penbrook All-Scholastics to the tune of 21-0.
The 1913 team was light, fast and resorted mostly to trick plays and forward passes. Their winning factor was their ability to score points in the first few minutes of play. In one instance they received the kickoff, returned the ball to midfield, executed one play, and scored a touchdown in the first minute of the game. The open field running of the backfield was unequalled in this section, and their ability to pick out holes and wiggle through the line was a thorn in the side of their opponent’s defense.
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Photo and football history from the Facebook page of the Historical Society of Millersburg and Upper Paxton Township. Follow and receive regular postings of photos of items from its vast collection of local history items as well as news on activities and information about membership.
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