Today's Tidbit... A Small School, A Top Official, And Other Cool Stuff

I've gathered all of you here today so we can share our favorite stories about the 1909 St. Mary's of Kansas team. I will tell a few tales but jump in whenever you want to share.

Let's start at the beginning when the postcard below arrived in my mailbox.

1909 St. Mary's Kansas football team fantasy postcard (Personal collection)

The postcard shows 1909 as its copyright date, so I assume the picture shows the 1909 team as well. While there are interesting stories about the team, the fantasy background and stadium attracted me to the postcard. It shows the goal posts on the goal line on a field without an end zone, so that's correct. The play started closer to the sideline than would occur today, and several players in the pile are upside down, apparently having jumped over the pile.

More interesting is the pennant-waving crowd at the closed end of the stadium since Harvard, Syracuse, and perhaps one or two other stadiums had such a feature, and St. Mary's of Kansas did not play those teams. Their biggest game of 1909 came at Kansas before a crowd of 1,000 diehard fans, and a dozen years later, the St. Mary's home field still did not approach the stadium seen on the postcard.