page_title: 1924 Vanderbilt Commodores football team
section_title: Week 3: Quantico Marines
hierarchical_section_title: 1924 Vanderbilt Commodores football team / Season Summary / Week 3: Quantico Marines
caption_attribution_description: English: Frank Goettge playing football with the Marines circa 1921, from the United States Marines Corps Museum.
context_page_description: The 1924 Vanderbilt Commodores football team represented Vanderbilt University in the 1924 Southern Conference football season. The 1924 season was Dan McGugin's 20th year as head coach. Members of the Southern Conference, the Commodores played six home games in Nashville, Tennessee, at Dudley Field and finished the season with a record of 6–3–1. Vanderbilt outscored its opponents 150–53. Fred Russell's Fifty Years of Vanderbilt Football dubs it "the most eventful season in the history of Vanderbilt football."
  Highlights of the year include Vanderbilt's first win over a Northern school, defeating Minnesota 16–0, and its first win in Atlanta over Georgia Tech since 1906, from a single drop-kick by consensus All-American Hek Wakefield. Georgia also beat Vanderbilt for the first time in twenty-seven years, as did Sewanee for the first time in ten as well as last time. On November 9, Vanderbilt played the schools 279th game and defeated Mississippi A&M 18–0 for the 200th win in the schools football program.
context_section_description: The Vanderbilt Commodores and the United States Marine Corps "Devil Dogs" football team from the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia, "one of the finest, best-trained group of football players ever to appear in Nashville" battled to a hard-fought tie of 13–13 in week three.  The Marines got the upper-hand for three quarters.
  In the first quarter, the Quantico Marines' halfback Boots Groves fumbled the ball at the 16-yard line, picked up by Lynn Bomar who ran the 84 yards for the touchdown.
   
  A newspaper account describes the play, "It was Lynn Bomar's gigantic figure that broke up what looked like a Marine cakewalk. After receiving the kickoff, the Marines drove steadily to Vanderbilt's 10-yard line as Goettge repeatedly completed short passes. At the 10, Groves dropped back. The pass from center was low. He missed it. He reached for the ball. It trickled off his fingers. The Commodores were boring in. Wakefield was in there. Then Bomar came charging through. He picked up the ball and with a twist was out of Groves' grasp. He came out of the bunch with a long, charging run. Then he seemed a little undecided. One fleeting glance behind him and he struck out. Up came his free arm to brush off his headgear. His thin, yellow hair stood out. On he swept like a thundercloud of vengeance across the goal. Bedlam broke loose."
  The Marines gained from an exchange of punts after this, and started a drive from their own 25-yard line which ended in a touchdown. Quantico captain and quarterback Frank Goettge and fullback Orville Neal starred on the drive.  On fourth down, a pass to end Lawson Sanderson got the score. Vanderbilt then gained on a 59-yard drive of its own with a flurry of forward passes; as well as runs from Tom Ryan through the line and Gil Reese around it. Reese eventually ran into the end zone.  The point after was good.
  To open the second half, Nig Waller fumbled the kickoff. The Marines recovered and were already near the goal.  The Commodores' line held the Marines scoreless inside the 10-yard line on three separate occasions, mostly due to Hek Wakefield, Bob Ledyard, and Jess Keene. In the final period, the Marines got their touchdown. Goettge completed a long pass to Clarence Kyle, and then ran it himself down to the Commodores' 6-yard line. After a line play failed, a pass from Goettge to halfback Tom Henry scored a touchdown. Willis Ryckman kicked goal, and the game ended as a tie.
  The Marines had two whole other teams worth of reserves, unlike Vanderbilt; namely from the Navy Scouting Reel and Mohawk Athletic Club, one of which played in the second half of this contest. Commodore captain Tuck Kelly was injured in this game. He sat on the bench the rest of the year except for five minutes of the Tulane game the next week.
  Starting lineup for Vanderbilt against Quantico Marines: Wakefield (left end), Rives (left tackle), Lawrence (left guard), Keene (center), Kelly (right guard), Walker (right tackle), McKibbon (right end), Waller (quarterback), Reese (left halfback), Bomar (right halfback), Ryan (fullback).
caption: Frank Goettge.
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