A BLAST FROM THE PAST: 1937 COLLEGE FOOTBALL GUIDE
Sevierville, Tennessee (JFK+50) Today while spending some time at an antique mall here in Sevierville, I ran across this 1937 Edition of "Grantland Rice's Cities Service Football Guide*." This little booklet was only $1 so I bought it.
The cover has black and white photos of nine "famous coaches" who each have contributed one of their successful plays. The booklet includes 225 schedules of "the leading colleges in the country" including my alma mater, The University of Tennessee.
Following the introduction is an offering by Grantland Rice**. He says it is virtually impossible to name a national champion in today's game because of so many different teams, schedules and conditions. Mr. Rice believes that success, however, is more due to talent than a "winning system."
He writes, "Any team that can win 60% of its games has done a good job" and he quotes Bob Zuppke of Illinois..."You can lose 'em all and still be good." I'm not sure about that!
JFK+50 NOTE
Coach Robert R. Neyland was just getting warmed up in 1937. UT finished with a 6-3-1 record, but 1938 was to be a national championship year. The Vols were 11-0 defeating Oklahoma 17-0 in the Orange Bowl.
The 1939 team went 10-1 & the 1940 team also 10-1. The year 1941 saw Coach Neyland take a leave from football to lend his services to the United States Army.
Of course, the stadium in Knoxville on the banks of the Tennessee River is known as NEYLAND STADIUM.
*The guide is presented by 16,000 Cities Service dealers. It is the 5th edition.**Henry Grantland Rice (1880-1954) was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee & graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville where he played baseball & football. HGR served in WWI & afterward became the "Dean of American Sports Writers" publishing 3 books of poetry & coining the phrase "its not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game that counts."
SOURCES
"Grantland Rice's Cities Service Football Guide," 1937 Edition, Cities Service Oil Company
"Tennessee: Football's Greatest Dynasty," by Tom Siler, Holston Printing Company, Knoxville, Tennessee, 1962.
