Today's Tidbit... The Albert Russel Erskine Trophy
About two weeks ago, I wrote about the mid-1920s to early 1930s Bonniwell Trophy, an early attempt to name and award a trophy for college football's national champion. Named for the president of the Veteran Athletes of Philadelphia organization, they awarded the Bonniwell Trophy only in the years the club members unanimously voted on a deserving winner.
As I wrote in How Football Became Football, experts or groups of experts, mathematical formulas, or play on the field have determined football national championships. More recent versions decide the champion on the field after qualifying based on expert polls and formulas.
The Bonniwell Trophy fell into the expertise category, though the level of the VAP's expertise is questionable. The Russell Erskine Trophy also falls into the expertise category since it resulted from a nationwide poll of sportswriters and editors.
Who was Albert Russel Erskine? He was the president of the Studebaker Corporation, a South Bend, Indiana, auto manufacturer that merged with Packard in 1954 before disappearing in 1963. Erskine's son attended Notre Dame in the 1920s when Knute Rockne was the coach. Embracing the excitement of college football and new stadiums rising across the land, Mr. Erskine put some skin in the game by organizing the sportswriter poll and trophy in 1929.
He had an honorary committee that helped promote the process and trophy. The 1931 version included such luminaries as Avery Brundage, Robert T. "Bobby" Jones, Jr., Douglas MacArthur, Connie Mack, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., and William Wrigley, so some studs backed him up.
Following the 1929 season, the sportswriters nominated fifteen teams, and an initial vote by 250 writers narrowed the pool to Notre Dame, Pitt, and Purdue, so the State of Indiana made a pretty good showing. Of the three, only Pitt played a postseason game and was blown out by USC in the 1930 Rose Bowl 47-14.
Eighty-five percent of the 250 writers and the 11 committee members voted for a championship team, with Pitt getting 41 votes and the State of Indiana teams earning 181. Unfortunately for Purdue, they received 2 votes while Notre Dame earned 179, so the Golden Domers added the Erskine Trophy to the trophy case that already held the 1925 Bonniwell.
Since Rockne was in Florida recuperating from surgery, AAU President Avery Brundage presented the trophy and a scroll to Notre Dame assistant coach Tom Lieb at the Notre Dame-Pitt basketball in January 1930. Rockne, a great coach and ardent believer in amateurism in college sports, happily accepted a top-of-the-line brand new Studebaker President Eight in absentia for his efforts.
A similar process occurred for the 1930 season, with a slightly expanded pool of voters. Notre Dame came out on top again, with 261 votes, to Alabama's 5, and zero for USC, the third finalist. Rockne received a second new car with his trophy, reassuring the New York banquet audience that the mythical national championship did not represent an overemphasis on football. Of course, he did not get much opportunity to enjoy his car since he tragically died in a plane crash on March 31, 1931.
The Russell Erskine Trophy continued in 1931. That time, USC, who spoiled Pitt's chances in 1929 and finished third in 1930, took the title after beating Tulane 21-12 in the 1932 Rose Bowl.
USC was the last team to earn the Albert Russell Erskine Trophy due to other tragic reasons. In his role at Studebaker, Erksine ignored the impact of the 1929 stock market crash and pushed through cash dividends in early 1930, draining the company's treasury and putting it in peril. Ousted from leadership, he took his own life in 1933.
A Rockne-Erskine Trophy or two went to teams over the next several years. However, the emergence of the Associated Press poll, which they voted on at the end of the regular season and before the bowls, ended that, so the Erskine Trophy is long forgotten today.
Thanks again to reader Northwest Purple (@NorthwestPurple on Twitter) for suggesting these trophies as topics worth covering.
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