Today's Tidbit... 1908 Huron College Football

Standing (L to R): Hollingsworth, Hager, Weier, Buckley, Osbon, Chamberlain (coach); Seated: York, Kerr, Nelson (captain), L. Small, Weier; Floor: Davis, Salisbury, Blake

Huron College in Huron, South Dakota, closed in 2005, but 97 years earlier, they put a football team on the field. With 290 students, about twenty turned out for football, including thirteen returning from the 1907 team. The schedule was still in flux in mid-September when they published the following slate:

• 10/2: Aberdeen Normal

• 10/13: State University in Vermillion

• 10/27: Mitchell University

• 11/2: School of Mines

• 11/18: Yankton

• 11/26: Brookings College

Although they had a coach, football was less formal today than today. Coach Chamberlain took only a few substitutes for the first game with Aberdeen, and when injuries struck, several had to play positions they had not played or practiced. While we assume they lost to Aberdeen, they competed for the state college championship since the cancellation of the Yankton game meant the title was undetermined.

Notably, the thirteen players in the image were Huron’s lettermen for 1908. Each received their letter at the end of the semester chapel service.

---

Subscribe for free and never miss a story.

Paid subscribers receive a free copy of my new book Hut! Hut! Hike!. Details here.