1924 COLLEGE FOOTBALL YEAR-IN-REVIEW

The 1924 season was one of the best the sport had ever seen. No fewer than seven teams could have made a good case for themselves as the national champions. Ultimately the AIAA's long-standing policy of not awarding titles, but retroactively recognizing legitimate claims leaves Thomas Potentas as part of his 1938 review of college gridiron history the lone man bold enough to award the title - and he hands it the St. Blane Fighting Saints. It's hard to argue with Potentas; the Fighting Saints went 10-0-0, won the East-West Game over a very strong Redwood squad and placed three of their four backfield members on the First-Team All-American squad. Still, there are adherents of Pierpont (11-0-0), Coastal California (11-0-0), Western Florida (10-0-0), Huntington State (9-0-0), Alabama Baptist (8-0-1) and Lincoln (8-0-0) who would beg to differ.

St. Blane, according to Potentas, was the best team in the country because of their outstanding backfield (the fourth member would likely have been a First-Team All-American in any season in which Lincoln's superb junior back Urban Dane wasn't playing) and because they played solid teams like Rome State (25-7 on 10/18), Sadler (38-10 on 10/25), Georgia Baptist (49-7 on 11/1) back-to-back-to-back and also played other quality opponents, which was not the case for most, arguably all, of their co-candidates. What is unquestioned is the quality of the four backfield members: quarterback Casper Wilson, an undersized ball of energy who was the leader of the quartet; halfbacks Ben Montgomery and Roger Cass, and fullback Frank Oliver. All were outstanding. All four would go into coaching, though all four would also briefly play professional football as well.

The aforementioned Urban Dane was still the best player on any team that year. He led the nation in yards from scrimmage and drew massive crowds wherever he played in leading Lincoln College to an 8-0-0 mark. Dane was again the difference in several contests - including one played in Chicago against Chicago Poly on November 8th. Poly, coached by the legendary John Thomas Wesley, featured a stellar back of its own in Danny Barrell, brother of professional footballers Joe and Jack as well as several pro baseballers (Dan would himself become one down the road). Dane got the better of Barrell, as he normally did, and Lincoln needed every ounce of his talent to eke out a 10-9 victory that concluded with the normally stoic Coach Wesley snapping his clipboard over his knee at the gun.

Mott's All-American Team for 1924:

QB Casper Wilson (SR) St. Blane
HB Urban Dane (JR) Lincoln
HB Ben Montgomery (SR) St. Blane
FB Frank Oliver (SR) St. Blane
E Jim Hewitt (SR) Redwood
T Freeman Bender (JR) College of Omaha
G Waldo Pope (JR) Grafton
C Fred Dartin (SR) Northern California
G Cy Cline (SR) Chicago Poly
T Rufus Gill (SR) Pierpont
E Buck Cook (SR) George Fox