Kansas State Normal Football Season, 1914
from "For the Sport of It", by Fred A. Markowitz 1963

In the photograph Fran Welch is in front, second from the right.

The announcement during the summer of 1914 that Homer W. (Bill) Hargiss had been employed to coach all sports at the Kansas State Normal received an enthusiastic response from K.S.N. athletes and fans. The announcement was a complete surprise to most, because Hargiss had resigned at C. of E. one year before to accept a job as football coach at Kansas University. Confusion among athletic policy makers at K.U. prompted the former Normal star to accept K.S.N. President Thomas W. Butcher's offer to come back to his Alma Mater as head coach.

More than 100 eager young athletes reported for the opening football practice that fall. Every piece of grid equipment that the Normal owned was checked out. Hargiss and his line coach, Henry Belting, who lives in Emporia at 1415 Neosho, had more squad members than they could handle, and many of them had never Played football before. After spending two weeks on fundamentals and conducting several scrimmages, they began the task of selecting the first squad. They were puzzled about what to do with a scrawny 133-pound freshman from Hartford. They were impressed by his fiery spirit, and they could not overlook his courage in not giving an inch to 190 and 200-pound ball carriers in scrimmage. But he was so small, and they did not have a suit his size. The youngster's determination finally convinced them they should buy some equipment for him. The investment proved to be a wise one, because this "mighty mite," named Francis G. Welch, not only starred at quarterback for. four years at the Normal, but he became, along with Bill Hargiss, one of the most successful coaches in the history of Kansas football.

Hargiss fielded a potent lineup in his first year as coach at K.S.N. Along with Welch, he had Ivan Trusler and Harold Culter to handle the quarterbacking. Herman "Heinie" Ladner and Eldon Shupe alternated at left half; George Stevens and "Tiny" Hen- drickson worked at right half; and John Beltin and Delmar Dewey changed off at fullback. At the ends he posted Ralph Colegrove and Claudsley Lockman, at the tackles Team Captain Ira O. Scott and Fred Hartwig, at the guards Andy Buck and Henry Baustian, and at center Clifford Meairs. Reserve linemen were Floyd Ham- ill, Earl Becker, Wallace Parker, and Lloyd Carey, ends; Bill Monypenny and Frank Arbuckle, tackles; and Sam Smith, guard.

The first game of the 1914 season against Haskell, at Lawrence, was an eye-opener. Lawrence football fans came to the game expecting to see the powerful Indians show off their grid wizardry, but they did not expect to see much of a football contest. They saw both. Coach Walter Kennedy's Indians used every trick they knew, but after fifty-seven minutes of football were barely able to hold the hard-nosed Normal eleven to a 6 to 6 tie. A long touchdown gallop by the famous Bill Powell in the waning moments of that game beat the Normal.

Tough Kansas State was next on the schedule. Coach Hargiss' crew fought the Aggies to a 0 to 0 tie. Then followed a 34 to 0 romp over St. Mary's, a 19 to 0 shutout over Washburn, and a 63 to 0 shellacking of Tarkio, Missouri, College.

When the Thanksgiving Day game with C. of E. rolled around, the Normal footballers were a poised, confident group. "Heinie" Ladner remembers C. of E. insisting that the Normal not allow its freshman squad members to compete in that game because of K. S.N.'s larger enrollment. "They didn't stop to consider that 80 percent of our enrollment was female," he adds. Because all the

Normal quarterbacks were freshmen, Hargiss had to choose a veteran from another position to handle the job. He chose Ladner, the "Indian," as his teammates called him.

"C. of E. played hard and rough against the 'Indian,' but I stayed with them every minute of that game," Ladner recalls. "The outcome is a matter of record ( 19 to 0 in favor of the Normal). Hargiss was mighty pleased, and I was quite thrilled that I got the job done for him, the team, and Kansas State Normal."

Ladner, now of Ponca City, Okla., made the all-state team at left halfback that year.

K.S.N. took on Warrensburg State Normal, the Missouri champion, later that season. The Normal belted the Missourians 49 to 0.

Thus ended Bill Hargiss' first season as football coach at Kansas State Normal. His team won five, lost one, and tied one. It scored 190 points to its opponents' 13. It was scored on in only one game, the first of the season against Haskell. It blanked C. of E. It beat the Missouri state champion.

1914 - Summary

KSN                 Opp
 6 Haskell           13
 0 Kansas State       0
34 St. Mary's         0
19 Washburn           0
63 Tarkio             0
19 College of Emporia 0
49 Warrensburg        0

190  5-1-1           13
Coach—H. W. Hargiss