Today’s Tidbit… The 1918 Case Institute and Western Reserve Seasons

Case Western Reserve in Cleveland resulted from the 1967 consolidation of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University. Now a world-class university that competes at the DIII level, the separate schools competed at higher athletic levels in the past, as they did during WWI.

The 1918 college football season was the oddest in the game’s history. WWI was in full swing, and many collegians volunteered to serve, leaving the campuses and athletic fields behind. However, Uncle Sam had plans for those remaining on campus through the Student Army Training Corps (SATC). Conceived as a program the colleges and students opted into, a last-minute change of direction made the program mandatory for all able-bodied male students at participating universities. The announcement came in late September 1918, within days of the college football season’s start.

Under the program rules, male students received Army pay, wore uniforms on campus, took military courses and regular classes, and were allowed to leave campus only from sunup to sundown on Saturdays. The late announcement sent schools scrambling to revise their schedules, seeking games with nearby opponents where the travel and playing time fit in the Saturday window.

Season results for Case and Western Reserve (1918 Case-Reserve Football Program)