page_title: Jess Neely
section_title: 1922
hierarchical_section_title: Jess Neely / Playing career / Vanderbilt / 1922
caption_attribution_description: English: Jess Neely, captain of 1922 Vanderbilt Commodore football team.
context_page_description: Jesse Claiborne Neely was an American football player and a baseball and football coach. He was head football coach at Southwestern University from 1924 to 1927, at Clemson University from 1931 to 1939 and at Rice University from 1940 to 1966, compiling a career college football record of 207–176–19. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1971.
  Neely was also the head baseball coach at the University of Alabama, at Clemson and at Rice, tallying a career college baseball mark of 109–108–5.
context_section_description: Neely was captain of the undefeated 1922 team. In the second week of play Vanderbilt shut out Henderson-Brown 33–0, with Neely scoring a third-quarter touchdown. Despite an injured left arm, he started in the scoreless tie with Michigan at the dedication at Dudley Field. Vanderbilt was forced to punt from its seven-yard line early in the first quarter.  The Wolverines completed their first pass (from Doug Roby to Paul Goebel), setting in motion a change in field position which placed them inside the five-yard line. The Commodore punt was partially blocked, giving Michigan the ball at Vanderbilt's 25-yard line. Two end runs, two line bucks and a forward pass brought them to first and goal after six minutes. The Commodore defense stiffened, repelling four touchdown tries; three runs up the middle were stopped before the goal line. Franklin Cappon gained a yard, Harry Kipke lost one and Cappon drove to within a foot of the goal; Neely was heard shouting, "Stop 'em!" On fourth down, Michigan faked a field goal and ran with Harry Kipke off tackle to the right. Kipke was tackled inches from the end zone. A Vanderbilt player pushed himself off the goal post to generate a greater backwards push as the crowd cheered. Vanderbilt's only noteworthy offensive play occurred soon afterwards. The Commodores punted out of the shadow of their goalpost after a goal line stand; Neely tackled Kipke (or Irwin Uteritz) hard on the punt return, causing a fumble which he recovered. He then connected on a 20–plus-yard pass to Tot McCullough. This gave Vanderbilt the ball at Michigan's 20-yard line, but subsequent Vanderbilt plays saw runs stopped with little gain and a pass intercepted by Uteritz. The tie was reportedly preserved when Neely recovered a fumble near the Commodore goal. He and Lynn Bomar were acknowledged as Vanderbilt's players of the game, and Neely wept tears of joy by the game's end. Bomar spent much of his day tackling Michigan runners, and Neely was a battered, bruised captain playing hard despite his injuries. Franklin Cappon said after the game, "What sort of a crazy man is this Neely? He played like a fiend and when he tackled me I thought I was broken in two. When I got up he was crying and cussed me out. I was the one who should have been crying".
  At the Texas State Fair game in Dallas against the Texas Longhorns, an early surge saw Texas at Vanderbilt's 18-yard line. McGugin sent in Neely, his injured captain. It worked to some extent, with Texas losing yards and ending up at the 17-yard line; Franklin Stacy then kicked a field goal. After a Vanderbilt touchdown, the offenses exchanged punts before Neely ran back a 30-yard punt return. The 60-yard drive which followed was capped by a 46-yard touchdown run by Gil Reese. In the fourth quarter, Neely hit Bomar with a 23-yard pass and Bomar ran for 20 yards more, close to the goal. Reese ran it in on the next play and the field goal was good, giving the Commodores a 20–10 victory.
  Vanderbilt defeated the Tennessee Volunteers 14–6, with both touchdowns on passes from Neely. The first was in the second quarter, on a 31-yard pass to Doc Kuhn; in the fourth quarter, a five-yard pass to Lynn Bomar also scored a touchdown. Neely-to-Bomar is considered one of the best pass-receiver combinations in Vanderbilt history. In the game against the Georgia Bulldogs, Neely connected with Bomar on a long pass thrown from a few yards behind the line of scrimmage at the 45-yard line. Bomar caught it around the seven-yard line before being tackled by Georgia halfback Loren Chester (Teany) Randall at about the three-yard line. The next series of downs produced a touchdown by Gil Reese on his second run at the left tackle. Although Neely was sidelined by injury in the second quarter, Vanderbilt won 12–0. At the end of the season, he was on Walter Camp's list of players worthy of mention, and Vanderbilt compiled an 8–0–1 record. The season was among the best in school and Southern football history; according to a number of publications, Vanderbilt's season was the best in the South.
  One of the hig
caption: Neely in 1922
exif: {"Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint.NET v3.5.10"}