This fall East Texas Baptist University would in normal times be celebrating a rarity in the history of ETBU sports—the centennial of ETBU’s forerunner, the College of Marshall’s, 1920 mythical national football championship.
Research first released in 2008 by three rating services; including SEK Sports Research, Harry C. Frye, and the Wood System, by evaluating all two-year colleges in the United States listed College of Marshall as their 1920 football National Champion! Marshall was the first team named in all three of the agencies’ lists of junior college champions, which ironically began with the 1920 season. Marshall, with a 6-0 season record, was the best.
Football began at the College of Marshall (COM) in 1917, the year the college opened its doors to students (the school was chartered in 1912). With many Texas high schools in those days going only through 11th grade, junior colleges often sponsored high school programs too.
With some younger boys playing for the college, the first COM teams also scheduled high school opponents, including Marshall High School. Understandably, the high school boys, who in some cases were 18 to 20 twenty years old, got the best of the college boys, who were often younger than their high school counterparts. COM that first season in 1917 failed to win a game.
The gridiron became an afterthought in 1918 as World War I raged in Europe through November of 1918, and the young men trained on campus with a student cavalry unit. By 1920, football returned with older men of college-age and World War I veterans making up the roster, coached by former Mercer College Herschel Forrester. The College of Marshall swept through its six-game football schedule not only unbeaten but unscored upon! Victims of the Marshall team included Centenary College and East Texas Normal (now Texas A&M University-Commerce) as the team racked up high scores on most opponents.
Football in 1920 had limited substitution rules, and players once leaving a game could not return during the half in which they left, even if temporarily injured. Uniforms were minimally padded, with malleable leather helmets, and “iron men” players often played hurt rather than leave a game. So, the squads were small. The 1920 team had 16 young men, only 12 of whom saw much action.
Outstanding players for COM included team Captain “Doc” Jones, a quarterback who won many games with his “cool-headed” end sweeps; Arthur Edmondson, a 165-pound halfback who could run 100 yards in 10 seconds on a dirt track, and “Kid” Forester, a line-busting 205-pound transfer fullback from Georgia, who had already played two seasons of college ball.
