A forward pass at First Gatton Field in 1921
BOBCAT CALENDAR: Bobcats Finish Disappointing 1921 Season by Bidding Tubby Graves Goodbye
5/29/2020 4:20:00 PM | Football
The 1921 squad helped build a foundation of success that Montana State enjoyed for the next decade
99 Years Ago – 1921
Each day leading to Montana State's 2020 season opener, scheduled for September 5, we will look at the season as many years ago as it is days until kickoff of the Gold Rush game.
99 YEARS AGO – If second-year head coach "Tubby" Graves was hoping to tamp expectations for Montana State's 1921 season in advance, the October 7 edition of The Weekly Exponent must have elicited gratitude. "Football Prospects Not As Bright As Formerly," the headline screamed, with the clarification that a 'monetary slump and injuries to gridiron men slightly reduc(ing) optimism'.
Certainly the nation stood in transition in 1921, with the Great War barely two years in the past, and change was visible on the Montana State College campus. 'Disabled soldiers' were being integrated into campus life as part of a federal program to aid veterans of the World War. The excavation for the school's new gymnasium, which would be named Romney Gym years in the future, had begun. At the time it was "a hole in the ground and a pile of dirt," but even then the anticipation of future greatness was real.
The 1920 Bobcats finished 4-1-1, the program's second-best record of the 20th Century to that point, and Montana State beat Mt. St. Charles (now Carroll College) 21-7. The team fell at Utah State one week later, then beat Montana Tech 26-0. That proved to be the team's final win of the season. The Cats fell 7-2 to a Gonzaga squad coached by Gus Dorais, the Notre Dame quarterback that helped popularize the forward pass with scrappy end Knute Rockne less than a decade earlier. GU's fortunes had fallen and that was a game viewed as winnable at MSC, and the team followed that with a 16-0 loss at Montana Wesleyan and a 14-7 home loss to the University.
The Cats finished the 1921 season 2-4. With Ott Romney's arrival one season later, the 2-4 1921 campaign would be the last losing record posted at Montana State until 1931.
MOST COMMON STARTING LINEUP: Center-Fuhrman Asbury, Guard-Eugene Robertson, Guard-Champ Hannon, Tackle-Frank Knight, Tackle-Pat Morphey, End-John Mashin, End-Arthur Jorgensen, Quarterback-Ray MacCarren, Halfback-Arthur MacDonald, Halfback-Boyd Slawson, Fullback-Ted Cates.
POST-SEASON HONORS: All-America – none. All-Rocky Mountain Conference – (2nd Team) T Pat Morphey. All-State – (1st Team) QB Ray McCarren, G Eugene Robertson. (2nd Team) T Pat Morphey, E John Mashin, C F.A. Asbury. (Selected by Walter Scott, Anaconda Standard)
NATIONAL RANKINGS: None.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE STANDINGS: Although the Bobcats had gained recognition as a Rocky Mountain Faculty Athletic Conference member, the team played only one game that could have been counted as a league game. That tilt was a 30-7 loss at Utah State. The 1922 season would feature the same schedule, but this the beginning of Montana State ramping up into RMC membership.
SIDELIGHT: Montana State coaches commonly held preseason training camps at the Karst Cold Spring Camp somewhere between Gallatin Gateway and the Big Sky area prior to several seasons in the program's early days. The camp evolved from a dude ranch founded by Pete Karst in 1091 when he gained the property as compensation for back pay from the Cooper Tie Company, into an an overnight stop for Karst's two-day trek transporting tourists from the Gallatin Valley to Yellowstone National Park starting in 1913. It also serviced an asbestos mine. According to visitmt.com original cabins still stand, but the rope tow ski lift that was once a main feature no longer exists and the area is classified as a ghost town.
NOTES 'N' STUFF: The 1921 season proved to be the last for head coach D.V. "Tubby" Graves and popular assistant "Woodrow" Wilson, a former at Texas A&M… Montana State's 21-7 season-opening win featured a pair of second-half touchdowns after the teams were tied 7-7 at the intermission… the Utah State team that whipped MSC in week two won the Rocky Mountain Conference by beating Utah on Thanksgiving Day.
Each day leading to Montana State's 2020 season opener, scheduled for September 5, we will look at the season as many years ago as it is days until kickoff of the Gold Rush game.
99 YEARS AGO – If second-year head coach "Tubby" Graves was hoping to tamp expectations for Montana State's 1921 season in advance, the October 7 edition of The Weekly Exponent must have elicited gratitude. "Football Prospects Not As Bright As Formerly," the headline screamed, with the clarification that a 'monetary slump and injuries to gridiron men slightly reduc(ing) optimism'.
Certainly the nation stood in transition in 1921, with the Great War barely two years in the past, and change was visible on the Montana State College campus. 'Disabled soldiers' were being integrated into campus life as part of a federal program to aid veterans of the World War. The excavation for the school's new gymnasium, which would be named Romney Gym years in the future, had begun. At the time it was "a hole in the ground and a pile of dirt," but even then the anticipation of future greatness was real.
The 1920 Bobcats finished 4-1-1, the program's second-best record of the 20th Century to that point, and Montana State beat Mt. St. Charles (now Carroll College) 21-7. The team fell at Utah State one week later, then beat Montana Tech 26-0. That proved to be the team's final win of the season. The Cats fell 7-2 to a Gonzaga squad coached by Gus Dorais, the Notre Dame quarterback that helped popularize the forward pass with scrappy end Knute Rockne less than a decade earlier. GU's fortunes had fallen and that was a game viewed as winnable at MSC, and the team followed that with a 16-0 loss at Montana Wesleyan and a 14-7 home loss to the University.
The Cats finished the 1921 season 2-4. With Ott Romney's arrival one season later, the 2-4 1921 campaign would be the last losing record posted at Montana State until 1931.
MOST COMMON STARTING LINEUP: Center-Fuhrman Asbury, Guard-Eugene Robertson, Guard-Champ Hannon, Tackle-Frank Knight, Tackle-Pat Morphey, End-John Mashin, End-Arthur Jorgensen, Quarterback-Ray MacCarren, Halfback-Arthur MacDonald, Halfback-Boyd Slawson, Fullback-Ted Cates.
POST-SEASON HONORS: All-America – none. All-Rocky Mountain Conference – (2nd Team) T Pat Morphey. All-State – (1st Team) QB Ray McCarren, G Eugene Robertson. (2nd Team) T Pat Morphey, E John Mashin, C F.A. Asbury. (Selected by Walter Scott, Anaconda Standard)
NATIONAL RANKINGS: None.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE STANDINGS: Although the Bobcats had gained recognition as a Rocky Mountain Faculty Athletic Conference member, the team played only one game that could have been counted as a league game. That tilt was a 30-7 loss at Utah State. The 1922 season would feature the same schedule, but this the beginning of Montana State ramping up into RMC membership.
SIDELIGHT: Montana State coaches commonly held preseason training camps at the Karst Cold Spring Camp somewhere between Gallatin Gateway and the Big Sky area prior to several seasons in the program's early days. The camp evolved from a dude ranch founded by Pete Karst in 1091 when he gained the property as compensation for back pay from the Cooper Tie Company, into an an overnight stop for Karst's two-day trek transporting tourists from the Gallatin Valley to Yellowstone National Park starting in 1913. It also serviced an asbestos mine. According to visitmt.com original cabins still stand, but the rope tow ski lift that was once a main feature no longer exists and the area is classified as a ghost town.
NOTES 'N' STUFF: The 1921 season proved to be the last for head coach D.V. "Tubby" Graves and popular assistant "Woodrow" Wilson, a former at Texas A&M… Montana State's 21-7 season-opening win featured a pair of second-half touchdowns after the teams were tied 7-7 at the intermission… the Utah State team that whipped MSC in week two won the Rocky Mountain Conference by beating Utah on Thanksgiving Day.
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