COACH "BILL" HARGISS IS NATIVE OF KANSAS IS WELL-KNOWN MENTOR
Article written ca. 1925

The K.S.T.C. Director of Physical Education Has Experience with Athletics

    When a person thinks of a championship athlete in Kansas, when he hears of a National or World's title holder in Kansas, when he reads of championship football teams, when he sees championship track teams in action-in the western United States, he thinks of "Bill" Hargiss because the name of "Bill" Hargiss is synonymous with championship athletes and teams.
     Coach Homer Woodson Hargiss, "Bill" as he is familiarly known everywhere that athletics are known, producer of championship teams and athletes, director of physical education, Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, is a native Kansan, born on a farm near Cherokee, Crawford County, Kansas in 1887.
     Neighbors of the Hargiss family tell nerve-racking tales about the young fellow while he was in his infancy and young manhood. While yet a baby, he would spurn every known plaything except a ball and for that he would cry as a duck quacks for water. As he became older and deserted the cradle for a pair of overalls and blue shirt, he was known to have a peculiar idea of play, in tackling chickens, coons, hogs, and even cows, or any animal that the young chap could handle.
     His adaptability for football and coaching was early noticed although his actions were not then recognized by parents and neighbors as holding such wide possibilities. Strange guttural and nasal sounds interspersed with loud whoops and yells were his favorite vocal activities. The story goes that he was continually running signals with the cows and chickens or any other available form of life. Naturally enough these were only necessary gyrations that afterward made him adept at yelling signals and giving athletic directions as a coach.
     Since he was born within a stones throw of Pittsburg, the Teacher's College to the south made the mistake of her life by not searching among the cows and chickens, and through the high-ways and by-ways for her future athletic director, and picking up this strange sound-emitting youth, who was destined to reach the pinnacle of success in the athletic world.
     At the age of eighteen, Hargiss, a tall, lanky, rangy youth entered the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia in 1905. His first year at the institution found him going out regularly for football and succeeded in doing what many freshmen cannot, do; make the team during their freshman year. He played on the team every year that he was in school, developing into one of the best fullbacks the school ever produced.
     Coach "Bill" Hargiss' first coaching work was done at Marion, Kan., in 1909 where he taught in the high school and coached athletics. It was at this time that he started upon a career of coaching that has continued, with the exception of one year, for sixteen years and has heaped laurels upon the head of the veteran Bill.
     After spending a year teaching in Marion, he resigned to study in Kansas University and assist in the department of physical education. From the university, after a year's study, he went to Harvard University and continued his study in physical education.
     Coming back to Kansas, he accepted a position as coach of athletics at the College of Emporia in 1911. He remained in this capacity for three years, all the time turning out strong football teams at the hill school.
     The call of his Alma Mater was heard in 1914 when he was made director of athletics at the Emporia State Normal. For four years he retained that position when he deserted the fold and went to the Oregon Agricultural College as Director of physical education in 1918. Staying there two years, he again came to Emporia and accepted a similar position at the State Normal where he has since remained.
     "Bill" Hargiss' career as a college football coach commenced with his acceptance of the position of coach at C. of E. in 1911. His three years at the hill school were records of achievement of which any coach might view with pride. The greatest achievements of his teams were the two defeats administered to the Normals with one loss only.
     Changing back to his Alma Mater in 1914, "Bill" Hargiss rose to heights of fame with his athletic teams of the next four years, when he defeated C. of E. four consecutive years, thus winning six of the seven annual contests between the two rival teams of which one or the other of them he had coached for seven years.
     His first year at the Normal found his team winning every game it played in the Kansas Conference, but since the Normals were not then a member of the conference, the title was not officially awarded to them. His team furthermore tied the Kansas Aggies, a Missouri Valley team, and held the all-powerful Haskell Indians, was the only team to cross the Normal goal line, to a low score.
     The Emporia Gazette in the fall of 1914 made the following comment on football prospects in the Kansas conference: "Washburn will dominate the Kansas conference football this year, though Coach Bill of the Normals will play an important part. The Icabods have all their team back but one member and should tear through the conference in comparatively easy fashion. No other school seems to have the general-all-round strength of the Topekans. Washburn is the best bet."
     But the Gazette reckoned without the hosts because the Normals trounced the Icabods soundly, not allowing them a score. The crack team of 1914 won five conference victories, tied the Aggies, and let the Haskell Indians across for two touchdowns only, for a total score for the year of thirteen points for the opponents to 190 for the Hargissites.
This same year of 1914 saw Hargiss develop such sturdy men as "Fran" Welch, "Bill" Moneypeny, "Cudge" Cutler, "Shorty" Maeirs, Fritz Hartwig, and John Bilting into a football machine that was soon to make history for the college. His uncanny method of control of athletics both on and off the field makes a sturdy player out of an ordinary individual.
     The next year, 1915, saw another ever-victorious team going through the Kansas conference without a defeat. But again the Normals were not title awarded the Kansas conference title due to the refusal of Baker to play a post-season game, since she, too, had gone through the season without a defeat.
     Since it was becoming a habit with "Bill" Hargiss to turn out championship teams, the 1916 aggregation was equally as brilliant as the two preceding ones had been. Again the team was undefeated in the Kansas conference, and it further distinguished itself by defeating the Haskell Indians on their home field, the second time it had ever been done by any school during the history of Haskell.
     Five men from the 1916 crew were placed on the all-state team and another one developed that made the all-state team for the succeeding three years. Roy Williams, "Bill" Moneypeny, Guy Cross, "Cudge" Culter, and Earl Kaiser were the ones who were honored in 1916. "Tubby" Vaughn, a recruit of the same year made the mythical team for the next throe years and developed into one of the greatest tackles the Normals ever produced.
     In 1917, the first year of the war, "Bill" Hargiss' team was again successful, although it lost one game during the season, which cost the championship. It proved to be the noted coach's last year at the Normal as the next year found him with the Oregon Aggies.
     A review of the four seasons reveals the fact that twenty-one conference games were played with but one defeat. The Kansas Aggies were beaten once and tied once. Haskell was defeated once and won once. Tarkio and Warrensburg of the Missouri conference were both defeated by overwhelming scores. This made twenty-seven games played with twenty-four victories, two defeats, and one tie game. It was an impossible feat, indeed.
     Coach "Bill" Hargiss' two years with the Oregon Aggies were highly successful. Besides producing a strong football team, he copped the Northwest Track Meet in the spring of 1920 by a handsome margin. There, as more recently at the Teachers College, he produced star track men, and furthermore succeeded in placing several men on the Pacific Coast All-Star football team.
     Although the football record has not been so consistently imposing since Hargiss' return to the Teachers College in 1920, it is not to be viewed with regret. The teams have been far from failures, having won seventy-five per cent of their games. Not only has he produced in the past five years good football teams, but champion track, basketball, and baseball teams as well.
     In fact "Bill" Hargiss has produced more championship teams, has placed more men on the all-conference teams, and has developed more noted athletes than any other athletic director in the state of Kansas. His success has been phenomenal.
     Coach Homer Woodson Hargiss is a real man. Not a self-centered, bigoted individual, he is the type of man who shoots straight from the shoulder. A pleasing conversationalist, he explains thoroughly his methods to his men and never fails "to get the point over" in an understandable language. His men revere him. The fans respect him. He is a real man.