San Diego State Professors — not Aztecs — played first football game 100 years ago

Eleven men took the field that day to represent San Diego State, although you wouldn’t know it to look at them.

The school colors were blue, white and gold.

They wouldn’t be changed to scarlet and black for seven more years.

Although the student newspaper wanted them to be called “Wampus Cats,” the local media referred to them as “Staters” or “Professors” (it was, after all, a teachers college).

They wouldn’t be called the Aztecs for four more years.

It was Oct. 1, 1921 — 100 years ago Friday — that San Diego State played its first football game.

School historians have it recorded as a 6-0 win over Army and Navy Academy JC, the first contest in a 10-game schedule.

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A newspaper account did not include a score and said the “workout consisted of scrimmage practice” in a three-paragraph write-up the following day.

There was no mention of who scored for the San Diegans.

As today, defense dominated.

Someone cracking wise would say the run/pass ratio then was probably similar to what it is now.

The article did provide some insight, noting that although the team “experienced little difficulty in advancing the ball on the lighter Army and Navy team, their work showed the need of a deal of polishing and still much hard scrimmage work.”

Nevertheless, coach C.E. Peterson was predicting a championship for his squad.

SDSU football wasn’t exactly front-page news a century ago.

In fact, the San Diego Union made no mention of the game the day it was played.

What was in the news?

“San Diego to Be ‘Home’ of Pacific Fleet” was the headline that caught most readers’ attention that day.

News from New York detailed an imminent operation by “eminent and experienced surgeons” would transplant a monkey gland into a human.

“The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” starring Rudolph Valentino, was playing at the Rialto. Any of four daily showings could be viewed for 50 cents.

Arrow Market at 822 Fifth St. advertised Fancy Rib Steaks for 18 cents each and Picnic Hams starting at 80 cents. Pure lard was 12 1/2 cents a pound.

Dr. H.L. Young advertised “Teeth as low as $10” and “Best sets $15.”

On the sports page, the New York Giants played a benefit game at the Polo Grounds for former star pitcher Christy Mathewson, who was battling tuberculosis (brought on by gas poisoning during a training exercise in France while serving in World War I).

Bowling scores crowded a corner of the page, although space was carved out to report that duck season opened that day throughout San Diego County.

The most popular location for hunters was reported to be Sweetwater Lake, where “more birds have been killed on this lake than any other lake of like size in Southern California.”

Much of the county — including the field on the Normal School campus at Park and El Cajon boulevards (the school didn’t move to its present location until 1931) — looked like lakes.

The area was watered by the wettest September in 50 years, with 1.1 inches falling over a 24-hour period the day before the game.

Many of the game details are lost to history.

No box score appeared with the game recap in the San Diego Union, which termed the game a workout.

It was the first in a series of what then were called practice games against service teams in preparation for a four-game Southern California Junior College Conference schedule.

In SDSU’s media guide, the 1921 team is credited with a 4-6 overall record and 1-3 mark in the SCJCC.

The conference losses were to Santa Ana, Fullerton and Riverside.

The lone conference win was a 14-0 home victory over Chaffey. Second-half touchdowns by “Hi” Dillin and quarterback Herman Harris provided the offense for the San Diegans.

San Diego Junior College and Chaffey Junior College players mix it up during the local team’s 14-0 win on Nov. 11, 1921.

(San Diego Union, 1921)

The athletic program was starting to attract more male students to the former Normal School, a teacher training institution.

Enrollment was 421 in 1916, but male students gradually left during World War I. In 1918, enrollment had dropped to 172, with only one male student.

In July 1921, President Edward L. Hardy announced the college had hired “men teachers in subjects of special interest to male students” including chemistry, mathematics and commercial studies.

Charles E. Peterson was named director of athletics. He originally came to the school in 1916 as a P.E. teacher, then served in World War I before Hardy convinced him to return.

Peterson was responsible for getting athletic fields and locker rooms in order so the school could offer boxing, wrestling, baseball, football, track and rowing.

Hardy, who had a coaching and playing background, was said to routinely join Peterson to provide instruction at practice.

In the school’s 1922 yearbook, Del Sudoeste, it was noted that 25 players tried out for the team.

“Although the season was not one that ended in a blaze of glory,” read a mention in the yearbook, “it was the foundation of college spirit and athletic activity.”

Halfback John Hancock and guard Alfred Tarr, the team’s captain, earned all-Southern Junior College recognition.

Harris was called a “shifty” quarterback. Sam Russo and Alvin Morrison were declared “demons” at fullback. Halfbacks Dillin and Hancock “went through the line for long gains.”

“The material that came out had the makings of a world-beating team,” according to the yearbook write-up “and with more experience and training would have startled the northern camps.”

Indeed, Peterson’s squad showed marked improvement in 1922, winning the first of three straight SCJCC championships.

Peterson served as the school’s football coach from 1921-29 (going 43-31-4) as well as its basketball coach from 1921-26 (going 70-30) and track coach. He later became Dean of Men and Associate Dean of Students before retiring in 1953.

Peterson Gym was dedicated in his honor when it was built in 1961, two years after Peterson’s death.

Peterson was a member of SDSU’s inaugural Hall of Fame class in 1988, some 67 years after getting the football program off the ground.

Of that 1921 season, it was summed up in the yearbook this way: “Truly, the school is proud of its pioneers, who labored under difficulties and were faithful to the end.”

Union-Tribune research director Merrie Monteagudo contributed to this report.

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Pictured atop this article in the 1921 team photo are:

Lower row, left to right: Herman Harris, Harry Stuart, Joe Varney, “Dit” Mott, “Hi” Dillin, “Doc” Gorham,

Middle row: Lyman Scheel, Walt Bryant, John Hancock, Wilfred Knudtson, Everett Wise, Carl Wise, Alvin Morrison, Thomas Hester.

Top row: C.E. Peterson (coach), “Jonas” Hathaway, “Tiny” Wilson, “Tilden” Van Ransselaer, Arthur Heilbron, A. Tarr, Sam Held, Ross Bond.

Members of San Diego State’s 1921 football team were pictured on page 72 of Del Sudoeste, the school’s 1922 yearbook.