Grady Dreaming of Heroes

America and the Golden Age of College Football
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5439-8743-0
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 274 Seiten

When Cyril Letzelter's family moved to the small Ohio mill community of Martins Ferry, just across the Ohio River from Wheeling, West Virginia, they figured out quickly the city had a love for football bordering on obsessive. And it's not hard to understand why. Success in football and the path it offered out of the coal mines and steel mills to the promise of higher education and opportunity was the stuff of dreams. He emerged as one of the Ohio Valley's most prominent stars when the sport was exploding into the public consciousness like never before. The 1920s are rightly considered the golden age of college football, and his path out of the valley into the national elite offers a unique window into the evolution of the game and the changes in the nation that occurred between Reconstruction and post-WWI America. Long forgotten over the years, Cyril starred in some of the biggest games of the era. His talent was recruited by major teams from Stanford on the west coast to Army in the East. His playmaking ability was feared by giants of the game like Knute Rockne. And in the end, his sometimes rocky path out of the Ohio Valley mill towns to a better life involved taking risks to get ahead and sometimes being manipulated by stronger forces beyond his reach. This is a story of America and college football, as seen through the eyes of a forgotten star, Cyril Letzelter, who deserves to be remembered again.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Grady, Michael

Leseproben

From the Black Forest to the Ohio Valley
    Long before the sport of football reached the Ohio Valley, the immigrants came. Many of them German and Swiss, they settled in the region in part because its rolling green hills and valleys reminded them of the Black Forest of central Europe they had once called home. Monroe County, Ohio, located in the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, was created by the Ohio state legislature in 1813, early in the presidency of James Madison. Legend has it that the small community of Woodsfield was founded not long after by one Archibald Woods, who supposedly purchased a keg of brandy and offered free drinks to any man willing to help him remove trees from the main street. Within an afternoon, so they say, the road was clear. True or not, the story reflected the spirit of the new, tight-knit community that primarily provided the goods and services necessary for the farmers cultivating the surrounding countryside. The German immigrants that helped settle Woodsfield came in a series of waves that began around 1820, a little more than a decade after the final collapse of the creaky Holy Roman Empire. The fall of the Empire had launched a period of large political upheaval in the Germanic states that reached its peak in 1848, during the March Revolution. Originally an attempt by the middle and lower classes to liberalize and nationalize the Germanic states, the rebellion ultimately failed, leaving the aristocracies in Austria and Prussia ascendant and liberal reformers fleeing the land. The Grand Duchy of Baden had been one of the most liberal states during the revolution and was one of the last areas to be brought under control in 1849. After the defeat, the flight of the reformers launched the biggest wave of German immigrants to America between 1848 and 1880. Known as the “Forty-Eighters,” it was this wave of immigration that brought the Letzelters to the United States from their homeland in the tiny Village of Schonau, tucked away in the hills of the Black Forest, not 30 miles from where the modern-day boundaries of Germany, France, and Switzerland all meet. It was not long after the revolution was crushed that Michael Letzelter made his first trip to America near the middle of the century. He stayed for two years until, confident he could build a life in the New World, he returned home for a time to arrange the relocation of his family. He returned to America for good in 1866—probably later than he had originally hoped, and no doubt delayed by the long American Civil War. His return brought not only himself and his wife but—for the most part—his children and their families as well, settling in Woodsfield. Like most working-class Germans, Michael had learned a trade that he passed on to his sons. Upon arriving, the family set up a wagon-making and blacksmith shop in the local foundry on the east side of Woodsfield, where they advertised their skills in the complete manufacture of both farm and spring wagons, and their skill in the shoeing of horses. More importantly, they became the exclusive agents selling iron plows designed by the Oliver Iron Plow company. Using a newly patented “chilled” process to construct the plows, the South Bend, Indiana–based company overwhelmed its competition throughout the 1870s and 1880s, helping the Letzelters build a sustainable family business. They were also devout Roman Catholics and became founding members of St. Sylvester’s Parish in Woodsfield, where Michael and many of his children and grandchildren worshiped and are buried.
MICHAEL WENDOLIN LETZELTER was the third of his name, the grandson of the first Michael Letzelter who emigrated to America in the mid-1800s. The sixth of eight children, he was raised in a German-speaking household and, with his siblings, quickly developed bilingual skills enabling him to communicate at home and in the world beyond. He and his two brothers, Charles and Joseph, set their gaze on the future and would eventually move away from the wagon-making tradition of their parents and grandparents, as this new generation embraced the new opportunities offered by the only place they ever knew as home. Michael was the middle of the three boys, a young man with traditionally handsome features. He boasted a long angular face with a square jaw, reddish-brown hair, friendly eyes, and a slight curl to his hair when it grew too long. He was no older than the age of eighteen when he met the young girl who would steal his heart and change his life. Mary Elizabeth Poulton, known as Mollie, was the same age as Michael. Born halfway across the state in the tiny village of Beaver, Ohio, she moved back with her family to nearby Belmont County—the place of her parents’ marriage—in approximately 1890. Many of the Poulton family relatives lived throughout the Ohio Valley, mainly in Woodsfield and Wheeling, and Mollie’s signature books from the era indicate that the family visited relatives often. Michael and Mollie probably first met during these visits, when Mollie’s Catholic family would have attended St. Sylvester’s for their Sunday services. Precisely when they met is less certain. Mollie was a collector and keeper of signature books, a common practice of the era. The earliest one she received as a gift from her sister Emma in 1890 right before her ninth birthday. Her largest and last known signature book was given to her in 1894. The final inscription in her book was written on February 9, 1899. It read:   A basket of kisses A peck of love Give me some in return, Or I’ll give you the glove.   The author of that final entry was signed: “Mr. M. W. Letzelter.” The remaining pages of the book were left blank as if there were no more signatures she needed to collect. Their courtship would last seven years. While no specific stories remain, one can imagine a group of young boys and girls enjoying each other’s company over time: Michael, his sister Laura, and their cousin Edith Schumacher teaming up with Mollie, her younger brother Martin (known as Bert), and Laura’s boyfriend, John Caton—all of them near the same age, all of them spending a fair amount of time in Woodsfield. One can imagine this because in that tiny town, on Tuesday, November 14, 1905, they got married. All six of them. It must have been a remarkable event for such a small, close-knit community. The proceedings began early in the day when Father T. A. Goebel of St. Sylvester’s Roman Catholic Church in Woodsfield presided over the marriages. The first joined Michael and Mollie in St. Sylvester’s Church. Immediately after that, Father Goebel moved to the Church Rectory, where he married Mollie’s brother Bert Poulton and Edith Schumacher. He then traveled to the Letzelter family home where Michael’s sister, Laura Letzelter, exchanged her vows with John Caton—a service that could not occur on the church grounds because Mr. Caton was not Catholic. While the marriages were conducted separately, they were celebrated together, with all three couples sitting together for a formal portrait commemorating the rare event. One imagines that an event this unique likely touched the entire community. It also partially explains the need to preside over three different locations, as tiny St. Sylvester’s Church could not hold the entire community. After the festivities calmed down, Michael and Mollie, as well as Laura and John, settled into the Letzelter family residence at 143 Oak Lawn Avenue in Woodsfield with their recently widowed mother, and they began the process of building their own lives and families together. Within a year, they had their first child, a son, whom they named Cyril Joseph Letzelter.

THE STANDARD PRACTICE of people of German heritage was to learn a trade and pass it down through the generations. The Letzelter family had brought their trade of blacksmithing and wagon making with them to the United States. However, in this new world and new century, Michael and his older brother Charles saw the opportunity to do something different. In the shadow of the Second Industrial Revolution, with new manufacturers and factories popping up all over the valley, they turned their eye toward the growing field of industrial plumbing. Both of them were able to secure coveted apprenticeships with William Hare & Son Plumbers, Gas & Steam Fitters in Wheeling, West Virginia. The training would take seven years to complete, but upon completion, Michael and Charles would be master plumbers with skills in high demand. Both his training and later work would require much time away in the Wheeling area working on large-scale jobs. While Michael worked, Mollie continued to live with her mother-in-law and began raising their young family. Over time more children arrived. Michael was born in 1908. Twin brothers Charles and Francis were born in 1910, but they were weak. Francis died within a day, while Charles fought for two weeks before expiring. Their youngest son, Richard, came in 1912. Through it all Michael traveled to make money for the family, and Mollie stayed home with the children in Woodsfield. As the three boys grew, they became playmates, with older brother Cyril emerging as the natural leader. He was a charming boy who, like most elder siblings, had a strong sense of responsibility. The day his father came home to Mollie exclaiming of Cyril, “Mike, you’ve simply got to do something about this boy,” he was greeted by the sight of a line of baby chicks lined up dead on the front porch. Little Cyril wasn’t being mean, though; he had accidentally killed them when he—trying to be helpful around the...