Jump to content

1924 Georgia Tech Golden Tornado football team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MisterCake (talk | contribs) at 09:11, 6 May 2016 (Schedule). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

{{{year}}} [[{{{team}}} football]]
1924 Southern Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Alabama $ 5 0 0 8 1 0
Florida 2 0 1 6 2 2
Georgia 5 1 0 7 3 0
Tulane 4 1 0 8 1 0
Washington and Lee 4 1 1 6 3 1
South Carolina 3 2 0 7 3 0
Sewanee * 3 2 0 6 4 0
Mississippi A&M 3 2 0 5 4 0
Virginia 3 2 0 5 4 0
Georgia Tech 3 2 1 5 3 1
Vanderbilt * 3 3 0 6 3 1
VPI 2 2 3 4 2 3
VMI 2 3 1 6 3 1
Kentucky 2 3 0 4 5 0
North Carolina 2 3 0 4 5 0
Auburn 2 4 1 4 4 1
Maryland 1 2 1 3 3 3
NC State 1 4 1 2 4 2
LSU 0 3 0 5 4 0
Ole Miss 0 3 0 4 5 0
Clemson 0 3 0 2 6 0
Tennessee 0 4 0 3 5 0
  • $ – Conference champion
  • * – co-member of SIAA

The 1924 Georgia Tech Golden Tornado football team[note 1] represented the Georgia Tech Golden Tornado of the Georgia Institute of Technology during the 1924 college football season. The Tornado was coached by William Alexander in his 5th year as head coach, compiling a record of 5–3–1 record. Doug Wycoff was All-American.

Schedule

September 27Oglethorpe*

W 19–0  October 4VMI

  • Grant Field
  • Atlanta, GA

W 3–0  October 11Florida

  • Grant Field
  • Atlanta, GA

T 7–7  October 18Penn State*

  • Grant Field
  • Atlanta, GA

W 15–13  October 25Alabama

  • Grant Field
  • Atlanta, GA

L 0–14  November 1at Notre Dame*South Bend, INL 3–34  November 8LSU

  • Grant Field
  • Atlanta, GA

W 28–7  November 15Vanderbilt

  • Grant Field
  • Atlanta, GA

L 0–3  November 27Auburn

W 7–0 

Template:CFB Schedule End[3]

Season summary

V. M. I.

V. M. I. at Georgia Tech
1 234Total
V. M. I. 0 000 0
Ga. Tech 0 300 3

Tech edged VMI with an Ike Williams field goal.[4]

The starting lineup was Merkle (left end), Usry (left tackle), Godwin (left guard), Poole (center), Carpenter (right guard), Gardner (right tackle), Nebelle (right end), Wilton (quarterback), Williams (left halfback), Reeves (right halfback), Wycoff (fullback).[4]

Florida

Florida at Georgia Tech
1 234Total
Florida 0 700 7
Ga. Tech 7 000 7

Tech and the Florida Gators fought to a 7–7 tie, the second Florida-Tech tie in two years.

Within the first few minutes, Tech scored when Gus Merkle launched at Edgar C. Jones, causing him to crash into the approaching Cy Williams and fumble. Doug Wycoff picked it up and ran 35 yards for the score.[5] Florida once fumbled at Tech's 1-yard line. Again the Gators drove to the goal, and a Jones to Ark Newton pass tied the game.

The starting lineup was Merkle (left end), Usry (left tackle), Godwin (left guard), Poole (center), Carpenter (right guard), Gardner (right tackle), Nebelle (right end), Wilton (quarterback), Williams (left halfback), Connelly (right halfback), Wycoff (fullback).[6]

Alabama

Coach Wallace Wade's Alabama Crimson Tide defeated Tech 14–0, handing coach Alexander his first loss to a Southern team.[7] Tech drove the ball to the Alabama 6 in the third with a chance to tie the game up but was stopped on 4th and 1.

Notre Dame

Tech lost to Knute Rockne's national champion Notre Dame Fighting Irish with the Four Horsemen 34–3.

Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt at Georgia Tech
1 234Total
Vanderbilt 3 000 3
Ga. Tech 0 000 0

The Vanderbilt Commodores traveled to Atlanta followed by the largest crowd ever to accompany Vanderbilt on a trip, with five special sections.[9] The lone score of the game could largely be credited to halfback Gil Reese. Vanderbilt elected to start the game with the wind at its back, hoping for an edge in punts which would lead to good field position early. Reese caught one of these punts in these exchanges on the fly and, noticing both of Tech's ends blocked to the ground, raced to within striking distance of the end zone. From there, Hek Wakefield made a drop kick.[8] Wakefield was the star of the game; "He was death on returning punts and when he started around the ends the Tech stars groaned," recalls one account.[10]

Georgia Tech's one chance to score came when fullback Douglas Wycoff missed a kick low, partially blocked by Vanderbilt. Hendrix attempted to recover but missed, and Georgia Tech retained possession at the 4-yard line. On first down, a snap from center missed Wycoff, and Vanderbilt fullback Tom Ryan recovered the ball at the 15-yard line, and later punted it away to safety.[9] The game was a defensive scrap the rest of the way.

Gil Reese gained −15 yards rushing, and Wycoff was stopped all game. Bip Farnsworth was the Tornado's lone consistent ground gainer.[10] The punting battle between Douglas Wycoff and Tom Ryan was one of the few noted features of the game.[8] It was the first win for Vanderbilt in Atlanta since 1906.

Postseason

Doug Wycoff was selected first-team All-American by Lawrence Perry.

Notes

  1. ^ Although Georgia Tech's teams are officially known as the "Yellow Jackets", northern writers called the team the "Golden Tornado" in 1917; the name was commonly used until 1928 and for many years afterwards as an alternate nickname.[1] It may have been coined by Morgan Blake.[2]

Endnotes

  1. ^ Van Brimmer & Rice 2011, p. 147
  2. ^ "Golden Tornadoes". Retrieved January 28, 2015.
  3. ^ "1924 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Schedule and Results".
  4. ^ a b "Georgia Tech Wins From Flying Squadrom By Field Goal". The Cadet. October 6, 1924.
  5. ^ Associated Press (October 12, 1924). "Yellow Jackets Tie With Gators". The Index-Journal. p. 6. Retrieved September 1, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  6. ^ "Missed Field Goals Cost Each Team Win". Miami Tribune. October 12, 1924. p. 11. Retrieved September 2, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  7. ^ http://grfx.cstv.com/schools/alab/graphics/docs/24-m-footbl-recaps.pdf
  8. ^ a b c "Strategy of Commodores Defeats Tech". Atlanta Constitution. November 16, 1924.
  9. ^ a b Russell, Fred, and Maxwell Edward Benson. Fifty Years of Vanderbilt Football. Nashville, TN, 1938, p. 42-43
  10. ^ a b Georgia Tech Alumnus. Atlanta, GA. December 1924. p. 79.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

References