Ohio State Football by Roman Robert J.;

Author:Roman, Robert J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Akron Press

The rule of the Ohio State faculty allowing only one hour of football practice a day was a handicap, but Dick Ellis used every minute of that hour to build the endurance of his men. Ellis’s efforts were helped by the return to campus of Mike Kennedy. The charismatic Kennedy embraced Ellis’s new discipline and he helped drive the others. Hugh Fullerton especially admired Kennedy and the ferocity of his playing. He gave Kennedy the nickname “Dirty Mike.”46 Soon the entire team was practicing with the same reckless spirit and unflagging enthusiasm as Dick Ellis himself.

After the Otterbein game Ellis decided that he would fill the day’s allotted hour of practice with a short scrimmage. His original plan had been for the first team to practice against the second, but after the Otterbein embarrassment he decided to shuffle the players and re-test them all against teams of approximately equal strength.47 Charlie Powell, from the second team, outperformed Mortimer Lawrence and took over at center. In the backfield, Frank Haas and Clarence Withoft, the players with experience with the Dayton Y.M.C.A., also played well enough in the scrimmage that Ellis added them to the first-team lineup—Haas at quarterback and Withoft at fullback. Ellis himself had played fullback against Otterbein but for the upcoming O.I.A.A. games he moved back to left end. Among all the players in the backfield, only Hobart Beatty held onto his position.

The fiercest battle of the day was for the halfback position opposite Beatty. Mike Kennedy had been a halfback eighteen months earlier, in the very first game against Ohio Wesleyan, and he wanted the position back. Kennedy’s primary competition was Fred Patterson. Patterson, at this time, had been elected president of the junior class.48 In the scrimmage Patterson was credited with “several fine runs”49 but “Dirty Mike” Kennedy scored the game’s only touchdown and grabbed the open spot.

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