Colorado State University Athletics
This Week in CSU Football History -- A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
10/18/2017 11:35:00 AM | Football
Photo from 1919 CAC-Utah football game gives glimpse into what watching a football game on campus 98 years ago looked like
by John Hirn
ColoradoAggies.com
October 18, 1919 – There is an old idiom in the English Language that says, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Today thousands of photos are taken during one football game, but only five have survived from the 1919 Utah game at Colorado Field. Stored in the Colorado State University Historic Photograph Collection archives in the Morgan Library is one photo that may be worth 10,000 words.
The photo is labeled "Aggie Player Scoring Touchdown". Upon closer examination of this nearly 100-year-old priceless gem of CSU football history the viewer can see several things happening at Colorado Field as the Aggie player scored the first of five touchdowns that afternoon.
First is the Aggie player, sophomore halfback Charles Bresnahan running with the ball as he crosses the goal for the touchdown. Bresnahan was a four-sport athlete at CAC and holds the school record for earning the most athletic letters of any student-athlete. He would go on to a brief professional baseball career, referee high school sports in Colorado and was inducted into the CSU and Colorado Sports halls of fame.
Next is the Utah player, wearing a white helmet, presumably with a red stripe across the top and a red jersey. The Utes (then known as the Redskins) were guided by first-year head coach Thomas Fitzpatrick and looking for a championship season. The program had not won its first conference championship yet, but in the coming decade their strength on the gridiron would increase immensely.
As one looks at the background of this classic football photo there is a sense of what it was like to attend a game at Colorado Field in the last year of the 1910s. Built in 1912, Colorado Field only had a grandstand that sat 1,000 people, but at this time it was permissible to park your car on the east side of the field. A small set of bleachers stood between the 40-yard markers and cars parked on the sideline north and south of those bleachers.
In the photo, fans are seen sitting on cars we only see in museums cheering enthusiastically; one man in a sport coat and tie gripping the wire fence with a huge smile on his face as the woman next to him, sitting on the fender of a car clasps her hands on her head in joy. Smiles on the faces of women and children are seen at the left while men at the right of the photo appear to be bored by the action.
The last and most interesting part of this photo is found lying on the ground, tied to a fence post just above where the word "touchdown" is written on the photo. It is a black bear cub, then mascot of the Colorado Agricultural College Aggies for that one lone season of 1919. His, or her name is still unknown today; this is likely the only still photo of the bear on the sidelines of a game.
The Aggies would go on to beat Utah easily, an 80-yard interception return for a touchdown by John Ratekin and touchdowns by Claude Wood and two by Harry Scott put the game away. The Aggies finished 1919 with a 7-1 record and won their third conference championship in five years. Two years later the Colorado Field grandstand would be expanded to seat 5,000 fans and by 1925 no cars could park on the sideline during games. It was easily the glory days of Coach Harry Hughes' football career and as this photo shows the game was enjoyed by fans, players and even bears in Fort Collins.
ColoradoAggies.com
October 18, 1919 – There is an old idiom in the English Language that says, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Today thousands of photos are taken during one football game, but only five have survived from the 1919 Utah game at Colorado Field. Stored in the Colorado State University Historic Photograph Collection archives in the Morgan Library is one photo that may be worth 10,000 words.
The photo is labeled "Aggie Player Scoring Touchdown". Upon closer examination of this nearly 100-year-old priceless gem of CSU football history the viewer can see several things happening at Colorado Field as the Aggie player scored the first of five touchdowns that afternoon.
First is the Aggie player, sophomore halfback Charles Bresnahan running with the ball as he crosses the goal for the touchdown. Bresnahan was a four-sport athlete at CAC and holds the school record for earning the most athletic letters of any student-athlete. He would go on to a brief professional baseball career, referee high school sports in Colorado and was inducted into the CSU and Colorado Sports halls of fame.
Next is the Utah player, wearing a white helmet, presumably with a red stripe across the top and a red jersey. The Utes (then known as the Redskins) were guided by first-year head coach Thomas Fitzpatrick and looking for a championship season. The program had not won its first conference championship yet, but in the coming decade their strength on the gridiron would increase immensely.
As one looks at the background of this classic football photo there is a sense of what it was like to attend a game at Colorado Field in the last year of the 1910s. Built in 1912, Colorado Field only had a grandstand that sat 1,000 people, but at this time it was permissible to park your car on the east side of the field. A small set of bleachers stood between the 40-yard markers and cars parked on the sideline north and south of those bleachers.
In the photo, fans are seen sitting on cars we only see in museums cheering enthusiastically; one man in a sport coat and tie gripping the wire fence with a huge smile on his face as the woman next to him, sitting on the fender of a car clasps her hands on her head in joy. Smiles on the faces of women and children are seen at the left while men at the right of the photo appear to be bored by the action.
The last and most interesting part of this photo is found lying on the ground, tied to a fence post just above where the word "touchdown" is written on the photo. It is a black bear cub, then mascot of the Colorado Agricultural College Aggies for that one lone season of 1919. His, or her name is still unknown today; this is likely the only still photo of the bear on the sidelines of a game.
The Aggies would go on to beat Utah easily, an 80-yard interception return for a touchdown by John Ratekin and touchdowns by Claude Wood and two by Harry Scott put the game away. The Aggies finished 1919 with a 7-1 record and won their third conference championship in five years. Two years later the Colorado Field grandstand would be expanded to seat 5,000 fans and by 1925 no cars could park on the sideline during games. It was easily the glory days of Coach Harry Hughes' football career and as this photo shows the game was enjoyed by fans, players and even bears in Fort Collins.
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