Today's Tidbit... The School Of Hard Knox

(1903 Northwestern yearbook)

Players now transfer in and out of schools, especially when the cash is greener on the other side of the fence, and it seems like college football as we know it is disappearing. That might be, but if it is any comfort, the pay-for-play atmosphere existed long ago, with some teams earning reputations as playing loose with the law.

Consider the case of the 1902 Knox College football team. For those with the misfortune of living outside the Midwest, and even for some who live here, Knox is a private liberal arts school of 1,050 students in Galesburg, Illinois. Their most famous alum in today's football world is Todd Monken, the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator. Since they now play DIII football, they do not inspire awe in most.

But their 1902 team was different. That year, they drilled several small colleges and beat Northwestern 15-0, Kansas 5-0, and Notre Dame 12-5 while losing to Chicago 5-0 and Nebraska 7-0. However, casting a shadow over those achievements were claims that Knox operated on the unethical side of the tracks, playing fast and free with the eligibility rules.

Whatever liberties Knox took, they did not violate NCAA eligibility rules because the NCAA did not yet exist in 1902. Schools generally allowed players four years of eligibility, and some, like the Western Conference, now the Big Ten, required transfers to be on campus for one full year before playing intercollegiate football. Not everyone followed those rules, and teams generally negotiated player eligibility terms when contracting to play one another.

Nevertheless, Knox was accused of roster chicanery in several games in 1902. Knox’s coach was John R. McLean, who played football at Michigan from 1897 to 1899, earning a spot on Walter Camp's third-team All-American team as a halfback. He was also Michigan's track captain and was a silver medalist in the 110-meter hurdles at the 1900 Paris Olympiad. McLean was a fine athlete.

Portrait of McLean in his Michigan sweater. ('Coach John F. McLean,' Knox Student, December 5, 1902.)

One of his football and track teammates at Michigan was Richard "R. R." France. He left Michigan in 1900 and enrolled at the Indianapolis College of Dentistry, where he studied for a year or two.