Hillside Fields: A History of Sports in West Virginia

14. A History of High School Sports in West Virginia

Chapter 14 344 Later in the season, Wheeling High School got revenge for their first defeat after a little coaching from Professor W. B. Turner, a teacher at the school. They used an innovative “guards back” formation to beat Linsly, 12-0.3 The following day, Wheeling played Cathedral High School (now Wheeling Central), a Catholic boys school founded in 1853. Wheeling made it two in a row, beating Cathedral, 6-0, on an eighty-yard fumble recovery and return for a touchdown.4 Later in the season, Linsly defeated Cathedral , 6-0, and Wheeling lost to St. Clairsville (Ohio) High School, 15-0. All three Wheeling high schools, and nearby Wellsburg High School, played games against the local junior football club teams. A crowd of 150, mostly girls, watched the featured high school game of the 1898 season between Linsly and Trinity Hall, another military academy located in nearby Washington, Pennsylvania. The game was played in rain and snow on a muddy field at the baseball park on Wheeling Island, a location chosen so admission could be charged. Trinity was allowed to play two teachers because the school had only thirteen students; in exchange, Linsly was permitted to use three players who were not students at the school. One Trinity touchdown was scored by a teacher, identified in the newspaper account as “Big Rogers who had played at Washington & Jefferson College.” The larger Trinity players had an advantage on the muddy field and beat Linsly by three touchdowns.5 The Wheeling Athletic Club lost its 1898 Thanksgiving Day game, 110 , to Pittsburgh Catholic College, but finished the season with a 5-1 record.6 With a successful team at the Wheeling Athletic Club, very popular junior football clubs, and three high school teams, Wheeling was the football capital of West Virginia. * * * Between 1900 and the late 1920s, the number of high schools in West Virginia increased dramatically, and with more schools, high school sports grew as well. In 1908, the West Virginia Legislature attempted to expand A History of High School Sports in West Virginia 345 the educational opportunities in the state by authorizing any town with a school of four or more rooms in one building to establish a high school.7 The legislation started a mass movement to build high schools, and within four years, by 1912, the number of high schools had grown from seventytwo to 125. Although there was agreement that high schools were needed, the objectives of a high school education were being hotly debated nationally and in West Virginia. Colleges advocated teaching foreign languages The 1898 Wheeling High School football team. Wheeling played the Linsly Military Institute in the first high school football game in West Virginia. (West Virginia State Archives) Chapter 14 346 and mathematics, but many educators favored offering more vocational and cultural subjects that would help students develop social and occupational skills. Many educators were apprehensive about the growing interest of students in social organizations and athletic activities. Voicing this concern, Joseph Rosier, Superintendent of the Fairmont Public Schools, warned parents not to permit their children to copy the extracurricular interests of college students. His warning went unheeded.8 Parkersburg High School was certainly not listening. Founded in 1867, Parkersburg is one of the oldest high schools in the state. With aggressive leadership, the school has developed innovative and successful academic and athletic programs and has been a major force throughout the history of high school sports in West Virginia. In 1906, it fielded its first interscholastic football team. The team had twelve players and practiced on Saturdays at Park Place, or in Governor White’s cow pasture. On weeknights, the team ran plays under the streetlights at the corner of Eighth Street, Murdoch Avenue, and Ann Street. The team’s lone game in 1906 was played at Grafton High School on Thanksgiving Day. The start of the game was delayed because some of the Grafton players were working late in the B&O shops. As darkness settled on the field, the game was tied and Parkersburg was threatening to score. “A very secret consultation was held,” wrote Milan L. Bartlett, a lineman on the Parkersburg team. “And it was agreed by all of our team members that following the very next down, on which we were sure to score, we would as quickly as possible leave the field and head for the B&O depot for our safety, for there were...