Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-09-28

WIFI 4OObO1AAo AAAAAE tAAL t---~
fans filling the stadiums, with the for
ward pass acclaimed as a Spectacular
and deadly weapon of modern gridiron
1 warfare, the time is at hand to delve
| into Montana sports history and learn
when the forward pass first was used
In this state.
It was in the Butte-Livingston game
! of 1906, played in Butte. It resulted IN
/ knocking Butte'S northwest champion
| shin aspirations into a cooked hat" as
the Butte papers Of that day put 1t.
\ Butte was very confident that year
I It had q former Cornell man as a
coach and had won all its opening
games by big scores. On the strength
OF its superior play 1t had scheduled
games with Spokane and Salt Lake
AS a practice game 1t had scheduled
Very Few Teams
The football situation in the state
was very different then from what 1t
is now. Only Butte, Great Falls, Boze-
man, Livingston, Helena and Billings
had teams capable of putting on exhi-
billions. And, In all cases coaching was
the key factor in success.
In most of the schools the coaches
were interested men from town who
had played football and came out after
school and ran the boys through sig
mails or showed them a few simple
plays and then let them run their own
show. There were no regular schedules,
no conferences and no paid coaches
with the exception Of Butte.
Butte, always a good sporting town.
wanted winner. So, it hired coach,
the aforesaid Cornell man. And, fuii-
time coaching showed results In the
early victories The trained men, going
against others who had part-time
coaching or only were dependent on
what they could do by themselves,
were far superior. That Is, until they
met Livingston.
Livingston had had team in 1905.
Jay Sell, once yell leader at the Uni
versity of Indiana, had coached them
a little in his spare time. He was not
a player but, he loved the game and
wanted to make 1t go.
Through a woman working In the
store in which he worked, he discovered
that an old friend and schoolmate OF
his. Hugh Sherman, now an insurance
agent in Great Falls, was teaching In
Wapeton, North Dakota. He contacted
Sherman and the contact resulted in
Sherman coming to Park county high
school to teach mathematics.
Comes to Park
Sherman had played fullback for In
diana. Sherman knew football. 1t is
logical to suspect that Sell had more
of this in his mind than mathematics
when he suggested Sherman come TO
Livingston. Shortly after Sherman came
there he suggested that the former
fullback "just run the boys through a
few signals
Sherman took one look at the rangy
huskies from the ranches and decided
that here was material worth training
more than casually. He obtained ala
from other former football men in
the district and went to work on the
boys. He won a few small games and
then came the invitation from Butte.
The forward pass was new, even in
eastern circles that year. The old
fashioned football was not as stream
lined a Job as the one now used. 1t
was fatter, more rotund. The only
way to toss that, as some of you may
was to get it flat on the
palm of your hand with the laces down
and then skid it off the palm. Many
boys could kick much more accurately
to a point than they could throw the
ball" Sherman said.
However, Leon Davis, later Butte !
playing center, became |
fairly accurate with the ball and Sher- |
man worked on pass play as his best !
weapon.
Bet Is Placed
Little was known of Livingston by /
Butte when the day for the game came. /
Some part-time math prof" was their I
coach. The team looked strong when /
1t ran on the field but, SO had other