Memorable Moments: Fights, Forfeits and Fatalities

Through our current lens, it is nearly impossible to imagine what football was like in 1900. The game itself resembled rugby more than it did the game we know today -- the forward pass was legal until 1906. Despite that, it was still American football and in 1900, CSU was then known as Colorado Agricultural College. This small school was made up of 273 male students, the main campus was mostly located only along College Avenue, and the game of football would not see its modernization of rules until 12 years later.

The CAC Aggies were coming back for their second year after the sport had been terminated by one of the school's presidents and a lot of uncertainty among who the players would be and who the coach would be greeted the team as the fall semester began.

In June of 1900, while students were away from classes, the school's football coach, William J. Forbes, was tragically killed in an accident in Loveland. The 25-year-old Vermont University graduate had volunteered to run in a hose cart practice and slipped, allowing the 1,000-pound hose cart to run over and kill him within minutes. These hose cart competitions were common in 1900, men taking the place of the horses that pulled the fire equipment as a competition of speed and strength.

The school replaced Forbes with George Toomey, a 26-year-old graduate of the University of Denver who also worked as a professor of oratory at CAC in the fall of 1900. Toomey played football at Baker University and came to Fort Collins to try his hand at coaching. Toomey was an athlete who also enjoyed playing in games with his own players, something highly unusual today, but very common 125 years ago.

Toomey set out to form a new team in 1900, but a year after football had returned to the campus, Toomey found it difficult to field a team of 15-20 men among the small number of male students on the campus. The new football field, still unnamed but later known as Durkee Field was to be a great spot for football on the campus despite the fact it had no grass, and a stream frequently ran through its center.

By Oct. 6, the team had finally been formed, and the Aggies hosted the Teachers College (Northern Colorado) at the campus grounds. In the only game CSU has not won or lost to UNC, the game was forfeited by Toomey over the rules of a fumble in the second half, therefore making it an unfinished forfeit and not considered a completed game. Rule arguments were very common in these days, and the Teachers left Fort Collins without a completed game.

This discouraged the already uninterested players and several of them quit after the first game of the season. In 1900, it was reported that after every loss, players quit the team in large numbers. Toomey was all about CAC students playing and not having outsiders fill in, so he frequently had to recruit men from the student body to just try the game and come out to play.

Toomey had to do a lot of recruiting of men throughout the rest of October as they lost to Colorado College by a score of 53-0, at Colorado by a score of 29-0 and at Colorado Mines by a score of 11-0. There would not be another game played until Nov. 24, nearly a full month after the Mines game. This one would prove to be a legendary game and the only win of 1900.

On Nov. 24, 1900, the Aggies hosted the football team from Wyoming. After the events and forfeit in Laramie the previous year, the schools tried to make amends and play one another again. The result proved why the schools still have a heated rivalry 125 years later.

In the first official game of the Border War rivalry (1899 didn't count), the Wyoming team arrived at the college grounds and soon declared that Toomey could not play in the game. The Aggies argued that since Wyoming's coach, William McMurray, was scheduled to play in the game there was no reason Toomey could not play also. This kept the anger flowing between both schools, especially the players from Laramie.

Once the game started, the Wyoming players set out to hurt Toomey with a hard tackle and then jumped on him several more times after the play was over. The Aggies held Wyoming inside the 20-yard line twice after the kickoff and an Aggie fumble. The Aggies then drove down the field on their second possession to their own 45-yard line and Toomey then ran 55 yards for a touchdown. After a missed goal kick the Aggies had a 5-0 lead.

As the game progressed, Toomey continued to make impressive runs around the ends and the Wyoming team continued to down him and assistant coach Clarence Griffith hard, causing fights among the players. Since it was so obvious, the Wyoming team later admitted to their harsh actions in the papers. After Toomey made two impressive runs toward the end of the first half, his collarbone was broken, and he was forced to leave the field. It was later learned that Toomey had also suffered a broken nose during the game.

The Aggies then scored two more touchdowns, and one goal kick ended the game with a final score of 16-0. By the time the game was over it was nearly impossible to see the players because of the darkened conditions. (The game started at 3 p.m., and after the arguments over Toomey, it was past 5 p.m., when the game finished.)

After the game, the Aggies invited the Wyoming team and their fans to the college for a dance and social between the two schools. More hard feelings were felt when the men from Wyoming were asked to pay a small entrance fee to get into the dance.

The Collegian reported in its December 1900 edition that there were a lot of hard feelings between both schools. The Wyoming team claimed they were mistreated and had rocks thrown at them during the game. The Collegian reported the Wyoming students and fans were poor losers and could not accept their loss to the Aggies.

The only win of 1900 is the first victory of the Border War and kicked off a rivalry that is planned to continue through the 2036 season. Toomey stepped down after a scandal in the first game of the 1901 season, which led to a forfeit against CU. Football on the CSU camps was a completely different type of game and a style we will never understand 125 years later, but despite that, rivalries were born that will continue long into the 21^st Century.

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