Presbies Invent New Pass (In '10)
April 1954

   An interesting bit of C. of E. history is the subject of a reminiscence by Alfred G. Hill, one-time E-State footballer, writing in a recent Ernest Mehl column of the Kansas City Star.   The article, selections from which were reprinted in the Emporia Gazette, related how the development of the forward pass, generally credited to Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais of the Army - Notre Dame game about 1913, may actually have been due to C. of E.'s 1910-12 coach Bill Hargiss, when he took his team to Topeka for a Washburn game which was won through the forward passing of Arthur Schabinger.
    That was three years before Dorais threw his first pass.  "That College of Emporia victory over Washburn was an upset in our small league," wrote E-Stater Hill. "Hargiss and Schabinger developed two other passers at C. of E., Jimmy Russell (of Dodge City) and Harlan Altman (of Emporia, now living in Wellington), who were far ahead of their time. I can remember the underhand passing prior to 1910 but the College of Emporia passing was overhead in strict accordance with modern procedure.
    "E. T. L.," commenting in the Gazette on Hill's Star article, wrote: "Not mentioned by Hill is the use by Hargiss and his College boys of the standard T formation. And another innovation of this Emporia team was Hargiss' hike play in which the players lined up in wedge formation with the center spearheading the lineup and the others forming two sides of a triangle."