This is from Amos Alonzo Stagg's book, Touchdown: Our '98 team was distinguished for a number of things, the least of which was that it was Chicago's first wholly smooth-shaven squad. Burchard, at guard in 1896, a graduate student, fat and well beyond the normal college football age, had rubbed the dirt of many a field in a coal-black and bushy beard that would not have dishonored a Russian muzhik. Our last mustache bloomed in 1897. When Harvey Fox arrived on the squad that season, bringing with him a pair of burnsides, the tide had turned forever against such manly adornments. Failing to persuade Fox that his burnsides were a blot on an otherwise pleasant landscape, some of his mates enticed him one night to the home of his cousin, Henry Adkinson. As he entered the door, Harold L. Ickes, a Bull Moose leader in 1912, tackled him smartly, while Adkinson and one other leaped upon his shoulders. They trussed him up to an ironing board and shaved off the right burnside, Adkinson wielding the razor.
Great to see the name Bob Odell in the news clipping. Odell coached my hometown Bucknell Bison from 1958-64 where he twice won the small college Lambert Cup. Of personal note: Odell returned to Bucknell as a special assistant after his retirement from Williams, and was the guest speaker at my senior year football banquet in 1987 at Lewisburg H.S.
This is from Amos Alonzo Stagg's book, Touchdown: Our '98 team was distinguished for a number of things, the least of which was that it was Chicago's first wholly smooth-shaven squad. Burchard, at guard in 1896, a graduate student, fat and well beyond the normal college football age, had rubbed the dirt of many a field in a coal-black and bushy beard that would not have dishonored a Russian muzhik. Our last mustache bloomed in 1897. When Harvey Fox arrived on the squad that season, bringing with him a pair of burnsides, the tide had turned forever against such manly adornments. Failing to persuade Fox that his burnsides were a blot on an otherwise pleasant landscape, some of his mates enticed him one night to the home of his cousin, Henry Adkinson. As he entered the door, Harold L. Ickes, a Bull Moose leader in 1912, tackled him smartly, while Adkinson and one other leaped upon his shoulders. They trussed him up to an ironing board and shaved off the right burnside, Adkinson wielding the razor.
That is a great find!
Great to see the name Bob Odell in the news clipping. Odell coached my hometown Bucknell Bison from 1958-64 where he twice won the small college Lambert Cup. Of personal note: Odell returned to Bucknell as a special assistant after his retirement from Williams, and was the guest speaker at my senior year football banquet in 1987 at Lewisburg H.S.
There are so many former coaches out there that I don't recall coming across his before, but will pay attention for the future.
Truthfully, I wouldn't have known about him either except for his Bucknell connection. He was a great player at Penn, too, winning the Maxwell Award.
Interesting!