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About University of Pittsburgh Football
In 1889, a spindly, 130-pound lad named Burt Smyers graduated from Bucknell Academy and went on to Western University of Pennsylvania. That autumn, along with a senior named John D. Scott, Smyers gathered a small, curious, group of students together into the first organized football team at the University.
Only three members of what Smyers later called "our motley crew" had ever even seen a football contest before enlisting their services. Smyers installed himself as the quarterback. Scott, also a baseball pitcher, became a center. Frank Rhea and John McGrew were the guards; Harry Calvert and A.B. McGrew were the tackles. Calvert's brother, George, was an end, along with E. C. Shaler, an opera singer. Joe Griggs and Billy Gill were the halfbacks. The fullback was John Hansen.
That group played a game against Shadyside Academy, which it lost. "We had a long way to go before we could tear down any goal posts," Smyers recalled years later.
Pat Hartrich and Albert Marshall replaced the original ends for the first true "season" of play in 1890, and George Neale took Hansen's place at fullback.
"We started out with one football each fall and used it in every game and every practice,'' Smyers said. "We furnished our own uniforms and paid our own traveling expenses.
"Our equipment really was thrown together. In my own case, I had no money to spend recklessly, so I wrote home to mother and told her I needed a pair of football pants. She made them by cutting off the legs of an old grey pair and putting rubber elastic around the knees.
"The stockings were contributed by my sister. The girls wore heavier stockings than they do now. Football players also wore jackets, and I tried to describe in a letter to my mother that they were made of canvas. But the only canvas she had was from some old oat sacks around the barn. So she made me a vest of that with laces from an old corset, and I was all ready to play.''
The uniforms were primitive, and it was a different game as well.
"Those were days of the flying wedge and every five-yard advance meant a first down,'' Smyers said. "We had four plays: end run, line buck, punt, and a lateral pass. We played our games at Expo Park and our crowds ranged from 50 to 100 people."
Many games in the early years involved high schools and athletic clubs; in fact, only 27 of the school's 56 games in the 1890s were intercollegiate.
The inaugural season's first game, Oct. 11, 1890, actually was something of a fluke. When a game scheduled between the Shadyside Academy and Allegheny Athletic Association was canceled because Shadyside failed to show, Western's team was summoned to Expo Park. Allegheny AA won the game, 38-0.
Western also began the first of many long-standing rivalries in 1890 when it lost, 32-0, to Washington and Jefferson. The game between Western and Washington and Jefferson the following year was a rough affair, with game accounts describing Harry Calvert's head being split open, and Smyers having his nose broken. The final score added insult to injury: W & J 40, WUP 6.
The two schools enjoyed a great rivalry through the years, meeting 33 times before the series ended after the 1935 season.
Joe Trees, a talented 210-pound tackle, became Pitt's first subsidized athlete in 1891.
"We had played a few practice games with Indiana Normal (now Indiana University of Pennsylvania),'' Smyers recalled, "and Trees was the biggest man on the Indiana team. I asked him if he'd like to come and play at Pitt. He said he would, but he didn't have any money.
"I arranged for the various classes at Pitt to take care of him. One class paid his tuition, another his room, and another his board.''
Trees, who later made millions in oil, never forgot his alma mater and maintained close ties with the University until his death in 1943. "Call on Joe" became a byword at Pitt, and he always came through for his alma mater. If the band wanted to make a trip to a big game but lacked funds, he would be there with his checkbook. He donated $100,000 to Trees Gymnasium, deeded the practice field to the school, gave $75,000 to the building of Alumni Hall, and bought $200,000 worth of stadium bonds.
After finishing 2-5 in 1891, WUP posted its first winning record in 1892, ending with a 4-2 mark. The following season Western hired Anson F. Harrold as its first true coach, but the team slipped to a 1-4 record.
Dr. Fred Robison, a former Penn State player, took over as head coach in 1898 and guided the team to a 5-2-1 record, and followed that up the next year with a 3-1-1 mark.
Dr. M. Roy Jackson succeeded Robison in 1900 and led WUP to a 5-4 record. Then Wilber D. Hockensmith coached the team in 1901, posting a 7-2-1 record.
Hockensmith also played in the late 1890s. The following are some of his recollections from the period around the turn of the century:
"In the fall of 1897, about 16 boys enrolled in the Western University of Pennsylvania who had played football in their hometowns or for preparatory schools. A student in the School of Law named Thomas Trenchard, who had graduated from Princeton, coached the varsity team. He had been quite famous as an end and was known to players and fans as "Doggie" Trenchard. The varsity, in those days, was composed mostly of seniors and graduate students; only upper-classmen and postgraduates were considered physically strong enough to play football as it was played at that time.
"The freshmen entering in 1897 organized a class team and began to play teams whenever they could be scheduled. Each player purchased his own nose guards, shin guards, shoes, and moleskin vests, which were then in vogue, and all contributed to a fund to buy a football for the first game."
"We played some of our games in the late 1890s at Recreational Park, but in 1901 we obtained the Schenley Oval for our games, introducing football to the Schenley district for the first time. The games were free to all who wished to attend.''
The 1904 campaign began a string of eight consecutive winning seasons, including a 10-0 record under Arthur St. L. Mosse that year and a 10-2 mark in 1905; a 6-4 mark under E. R. Wingard in 1906, and 8-2 under scholarly John Moorhead, a Yale product, in 1907.
In 1908, Joe Thompson, a member of the undefeated 1904 squad and the captain of the 1905 team, took over as head coach through the 1912 season. Thompson was followed by Joseph Duff, who coached the Panthers until 1915, when Pop Warner took over.
About the Stadium
In Heinz Field, the Pittsburgh Panthers have one of the finest football stadiums in the country to call home.
- Situated just north of Pittsburgh's Point State Park, the horseshoe shaped stadium seats 65,000 people and provides a stunning view of the city's breathtaking skyline and three rivers. Among its amenities are 122 luxury suites.
- Heinz Field has a grass surface that stretches over two acres. One of the interesting features of Heinz's grass field is its underground heating system. The heating system (24 heat sensors monitor temperature) is activated when the root zone (surface below sod) drops below 60 degrees. Approximately 35 miles of tubing runs in loops underneath the field. This aids in maintenance and growth.
- The Coca-Cola Great Hall is a 40,000-square feet showpiece for Western Pennsylvania football, both past and present. It features memorabilia, interactive display columns and huge murals depicting the rich history of football in the region and at the University of Pittsburgh.
- The Panthers have their own expansive, private locker area at Heinz, the Duratz Locker Room. The plush dressing area spans nearly 5000 square feet and has custom-made oak lockers for 125 players.
- The sightlines for fans are tremendous. On the sidelines, the field is just 60 feet away from the first row of seats. In the end zones, the distance is just 25 feet.
- Hungry? No problem. There are 32 concession stands at Heinz Field. Additionally, there are seven team stores and 15 novelty stands to pick up your favorite Pittsburgh football gear.
- There are over 400 television sets in Heinz Field and two video walls. The scoreboard video display measures 48 feet by 27 feet at a minimum. It has a 96-feet by 27-feet expansion capability.
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