Time Machine: Undefeated

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Tigers of Washington High School in Cedar Rapids had built a strong reputation as a good football team in the 1920s. The team of 1923 was one game shy of the mythical national championship.

When the 1924 season began, there wasn't much hope for another winning season. A rebuilding year was expected.

Coach Leo Novak started training the team at Camp Wapsie-Y in August. He told reporters he was pleased with the boys' progress and their attitude, but added that his charges were inexperienced.

The team began practice on Franklin Junior High's field. Coaches began holding intensive workouts before the first game against Bowen High of Chicago. Novak had focused on fundamentals with his young team, followed by offensive tactics, but by mid-September, he was adding in defense. For ten days, the Tigers were put through hard drills, preparing them for a strong Bowen team. There still was a question of where the game would be played a week before kickoff, but the lineup was nearly solidified.

Five days before the game, the Coe field was chosen. The game was scheduled at noon with a Coe-Monmouth game following at 3 p.m.

The Tigers ended up beating Bowen 15-6 in 'a mud battle which made good football impossible.” Cedar Rapids scored two touchdowns and a safety. The team repeatedly threatened the Bowen goal line, but also repeatedly fumbled. In an analysis of the game, a pessimistic Novak said the Tigers had performed fully up to expectations. He had little else to offer.

As the team began drills for the following Saturday's game against Spirit Lake, the Tigers' opponent for game 3, Oskaloosa, sent word that the game was off. Athletic manager Maurice Carlson immediately issued a challenge in a variety of newspapers to find an opponent to fill the open date.

Novak's Tigers met Spirit Lake on Coe's field at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 4. The teams had the field to themselves since Coe was away at Dubuque. This time the Tigers scored a lopsided 32-6 victory. Only in the last few minutes, with the second and third string in the lineup, was Spirit Lake able to score.

Without a contest on Oct. 11, Novak arranged a fierce scrimmage between his first and second teams to prepare them for their next game against Moline. Word came that a special train would carry several hundred fans to Cedar Rapids from Illinois and football enthusiasts in surrounding towns were planning to make the trip.

Again the Tigers shared Coe's field, playing at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 18, while Coe faced Dubuque immediately afterward. In light of the double attraction, a general admission of $1.50 was charged. An additional 50 cents got a reserved seat.

Again the game was one-sided.

'That Leo Novak has another eleven comparable to the great machines of the past two years was demonstrated when the Tigers crushed the highly touted Moline team 32-7. Coach Senneff's team was completely outplayed, the Orange and Black piling up 26 points in the first half and skipping about as it pleased during the entire party.”

Next up was Ottumwa, the halfway point in the Tigers' season. Ottumwa was successful in keeping the Tigers from scoring until the third quarter. Washington found a head of steam in the fourth to win the game 34-0.

The next series of games was expected to test the novice team to the limit. Three would be away games. The only one at home was on Nov. 8, against Stillwater, Minn.

Sioux Falls was expected to be the biggest challenge. 'It is no dark room secret ... that the Washington mentor regards the Dakota conflict as the turning point of the season,” reported The Gazette. 'If the Orange and Black succeed in conquering the northerners, Novak will look ahead with clearer vision than he is doing today.”

Even though the first half score favored the home team, 10-7, the Tigers handed South Dakota's state champions a 38-7 defeat on Nov. 2.

Visions of the national prep championship were much clearer around the Tiger football camp, although no one was allowed to talk about it. 'Said championship is more or less a mythical affair, but each year some team or other usually is regarded as the ‘class' and the (Washington) team is determined to annex this honor,” wrote a Gazette reporter.

After a 26-6 victory over Stillwater, Minn., Novak began drilling his team on the passing game and defending against Louisville's du Pont Manual High School's overhead attack.

The Tigers boarded a special railcar on Nov. 13 at Union Station, headed for Kentucky by way of Chicago. Advance sales for the game in du Pont's new stadium were heavy.

The Tigers won the Nov. 15 game in Louisville, 6-0.

One game remained: Harrisburg Tech on Thanksgiving Day.

'With Harrisburg Tech the only obstacle between them and a solid claim on the national prep championship, 22 husky Tigers boarded an Eastbound rattler at 10:10 this morning en route to the Quaker City,” said a Nov. 24 report in The Gazette. The Tigers missed their train connection in Chicago and had to wait until 8 that night for another train to Harrisburg. Once there, they traveled to Hershey by car and dressed for the last hard drill before their holiday game.

The report from Harrisburg on Nov. 28 read, 'A little band of westerners, labeling themselves Tigers of the corn country and hailing from Cedar Rapids, gave 11,000 Harrisburg fans an exhibition of their football prowess yesterday when they defeated Tech High in a spectacular game, 19 to 0. The Iowans were too fast and too smart for Coach Beck's aggregation, holding the upper hand at all times except for one brief period in the second quarter.”

The Tigers stayed in Pittsburgh for another day, taking in a Notre Dame-Carnegie Tech game, before heading home to a heroes' welcome at Union Station.