1915 College Football All-Southern Team
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Irbycurry.jpg/150px-Irbycurry.jpg)
The 1915 College Football All-Southern Team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-Southern Teams selected by various organizations in 1915. Josh Cody and Baby Taylor were selected third-team All-Americans by Walter Camp, and Bully Van de Graaff was selected for his second-team. Van de Graaff was Alabama's first ever All-American. Buck Mayer of the 8–1 Virginia Cavaliers was the south's first consensus All-American, selected first-team All-American by Frank G. Menke and Parke H. Davis. The "point-a-minute" Vanderbilt Commodores won the SIAA.
Composite eleven
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/BullyVandeGraaff.jpg/150px-BullyVandeGraaff.jpg)
The composite All-Southern team selected by ten sports writers and coaches included:
- Josh Cody, tackle for Vanderbilt, inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1970, only three-time All-American in Vanderbilt football history. Third-team Camp All-American. He was selected for the Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869-1919 era.[1] Later a prominent football coach at many institutions.
- Rabbit Curry, quarterback for Vanderbilt, unanimous selection. During the First World War, he was killed in aerial combat over France. He was a beloved player of Coach McGugin, described by one writer as "the player who has most appealed to the imagination, admiration, and affection of the entire university community through the years."[2]
- Russ Cohen, end for Vanderbilt, later an assistant under Wallace Wade at Alabama and head coach at LSU and Cincinnati.
- Wooch Fielder, halfback for Georgia Tech, later an influential veteran of the Second World War.
- John G. Henderson, center for Georgia, the head of a group of three men, one behind the other with his hands upon the shoulders of the one in front, to counter Georgia Tech's jump shift offense utilized by John Heisman.[3] The game ended 0–0. He also played baseball and was later Georgia baseball coach.
- Bob Lang, guard for Georgia Tech, the first guard selected for the Heisman era All-Era Tech football team.
- Walter Neville, fullback for Georgia, made All-Southern in his first year on the varsity.
- David Paddock, quarterback for Georgia, the only player in school history to have a petition circulated by the student body requesting that he play for the Bulldogs.
- Baby Taylor, guard for Auburn, unanimous selection. Weighing just under 200 pounds, Taylor would be a small player today, but he was then considered quite large, "worth three ordinary men."[4] Miss Virginia Gilmer, an Auburn fan of some 13 years of age once told Taylor that “if she were a boy and as big as he and had any sense at all she would be an all-southern tackle.”[5] Third-team Camp All-American
- Charlie Thompson, end for Georgia, captain-elect but ruled ineligible for next year.
- Bully Van de Graaff, tackle for Alabama, unanimous selection. He was selected for the Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869-1919 era.[1] Alabama's first All-American, and brother of the inventor of the Van de Graaff generator which produces high voltages. Second-team Camp All-American.
Composite overview
[edit]Bully Van de Graaff, Baby Taylor, and Rabbit Curry were unanimous selections.
All-Southerns of 1915
[edit]Ends
[edit]- Charlie Thompson, Georgia (C, DJ)
- Russ Cohen, Vanderbilt (C, NT)
- Neil Edmond, Sewanee (C, TC, NT, SP)
- Jim Senter, Georgia Tech (C, TC, H, SP)
- Roy Homewood, North Carolina (C, H)
Tackles
[edit]- Bully Van de Graaff†, Alabama (C, TC, H [as fb], DJ, NT, SP)
- Josh Cody, Vanderbilt (College Football Hall of Fame) (C, TC, H, DJ [as e], NT, SP [as g])
- Phillip Cooper, LSU (C)
- Ted Shultz, Washington & Lee (C, DJ)
- Tom Thrash, Georgia (C, H)
Guards
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Babytaylor.png)
- G. E. "Baby" Taylor†, Auburn (C, TC, H, DJ, NT, SP)
- Bob Lang, Georgia Tech (C)
- Bob Taylor Dobbins, Sewanee (C, TC, NT, SP [as t])
- Pryor Williams, Vanderbilt (C)
- C. M. Hamilton, Vanderbilt (C)
- George Steed, Auburn (C, H)
- Kirby Lee Spurlock, Mississippi A&M (DJ)
Centers
[edit]- John Henderson, Georgia (C, TC, NT, SP)
- Yank Tandy, North Carolina (C, H, DJ)
- Carey Robinson, Auburn (C)
- R. McArthur, Mississippi A & M (C)
Quarterbacks
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/DavidPaddockUGA.png/130px-DavidPaddockUGA.png)
- Rabbit Curry†, Vanderbilt (C, TC, H [as hb], DJ, NT, SP)
- David Paddock, Georgia (C, TC, NT [as hb], SP [as hb])
Halfbacks
[edit]- Wooch Fielder, Georgia Tech (C, TC, H)
- Froggie Morrison, Georgia Tech (C, H [as qb], NT)
- Everett Strupper, Georgia Tech (College Football Hall of Fame) (C, SP)
- Paul Squibb, Chattanooga (C)
- Johnny Barrett, Washington & Lee (C, DJ)
- Buck Mayer*, Virginia (C, DJ [as fb])
- Homer Prendergast, Auburn (C)
- Clyde Littlefield, Texas (DJ)
Fullbacks
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Buckneville.jpg/130px-Buckneville.jpg)
- Walter Neville, Georgia (C)
- Charles C. Schrader, Kentucky (C, SP)
- Hal Hunter, Transylvania (C, NT)
- Pete Mailhes, Tulane (C)
- Bedie Bidez, Auburn (C)
- Hubert Wiggs, Vanderbilt (TC)
Key
[edit]Bold = Composite selection
* = Consensus All-American
† = Unanimous selection
C = received votes for a composite All-Southern eleven selected by ten sports writers and coaches, including those from Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chattanooga, and New Orleans.[6] Votes for multiple positions are combined.
TC = Another composite, using eleven sportswriters, published by the Tennessean.[7]
H = selected by John Heisman, published in Fuzzy Woodruff's A History of Southern Football.
DJ = selected by Dick Jemison in the Atlanta Constitution.[8]
NT = selected by the Nashville Tennessean.[9]
SP = selected by the Sewanee student newspaper, the Sewanee Purple.[10]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "All-Time Football Team Lists Greats Of Past, Present". Gadsden Times. July 27, 1969.
- ^ Edwin Mims (1946). History of Vanderbilt University. p. 285.
- ^ Alabama vs. Tulane (PDF). November 6, 1937. pp. 5, 11.
- ^ "A Lip-Reading Football Star". The Volta Review. Volta Bureau: 102–105. 1925.
- ^ Jeremy Henderson (May 21, 2014). "To the eternal glory of Miss Virginia Gilmer, maybe the biggest Auburn fan ever".
- ^ Dick Jemison (November 30, 1915). "Composite All-Southern Of Ten Of The Dopesters". Atlanta Constitution. p. 10. Retrieved March 5, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Blinkey Horn. "Composite All-Southern Shows Wide Range of Opinion and Place". The Tennessean. p. 10. Retrieved September 21, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Dick Jemison (November 21, 1915). "All-Southern Pick". Atlanta Constitution. Retrieved March 4, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Blinkey Horn (November 28, 1915). "Three Commodores Are Given Places On All-Southern". The Tennessean. p. 42. Retrieved September 21, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Purple's Pick For An All-Southern Team". The Sewanee Purple. December 2, 1915.