The Opening Kickoff by Dave Revsine

The Opening Kickoff by Dave Revsine

Author:Dave Revsine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2014-07-28T16:00:00+00:00


Chapter Fifteen

A Premature End

Upon returning home from New Haven, Pat O’Dea dropped a bombshell. This would be his last year playing for the Badgers. Though, under the rules of the time, he was still eligible to participate in intercollegiate athletics for another season, he had decided to call it a career.

Today’s sportswriters would call it a “quality of life” decision. “Every year I have worked hard in the interests of Wisconsin, keeping in training steadfastly,” O’Dea told the Milwaukee Sentinel. “Now I am tired of it and desire to enjoy my last year in the university prior to graduating instead of working hard to condition myself for athletic contests.”

O’Dea outlined the many sacrifices he had made to participate in football—everything from eschewing pastries and sweets to missing out on the social aspects of college life. A Milwaukee Journal reporter, oblivious to O’Dea’s reputation as a ladies man, noted sympathetically that the football star “had no time to call on girls.” The story of the impending retirement of “the greatest punter and drop-kicker college athletics has ever known” made national news, appearing in newspapers as far-flung as Dallas, New Orleans, and Boston.

Though the Sentinel reported that O’Dea planned to practice law in either Milwaukee or Madison after graduation, speculation began that he would succeed King, who, several papers reported, might step down from his position as Wisconsin’s coach. “In all these years,” the Minneapolis Journal said of O’Dea, “he has not drawn any pecuniary benefit from his labors in helping to bring Wisconsin into the foreground of western football history, and now there is an opportunity to, in a measure, recognize his services in giving him a remunerative position it seems that that should be done, if he desires it.” O’Dea shrugged off talk of succeeding his coach, saying respectfully, “all I know now I have learned from Phil King.” He did note, however, that he would like to help the team in some capacity, perhaps as a kicking coach.

There was still the matter of finishing his final season, though. It was a season that seemed unlikely to include a showdown with archrival Chicago. Tired of Stagg’s heavy-handedness on financial issues, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois announced a joint boycott of the Maroons in March of 1899. The three state universities said they would not resume relations with Chicago unless the school agreed to an even split of gate receipts and gave its opponents the right to choose the location for half of their matches with the Maroons. In other words, the schools demanded financial equality with Chicago. “We decline to compete with universities of our own rank which are unwilling to admit the principle that intercollegiate contests are established primarily for the sake of sport and not for financial gain,” Wisconsin manager John Fisher said.

O’Dea articulated a similar position. “I should like to play Chicago before my football career is ended,” he said, “but a game cannot be arranged unless Stagg accedes to the conditions comprised in Manager Fisher’s statement.” But



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