1918 Bearcats

       Little is known about the 1918 team since the Free Press burned in 1923 and any reports were lost. They were not yet called the Bearcats and there was no annual until the following year when the initial edition of the De Leonian combined information for the 1918 and 1919 school years.  Never-the-less it was a year of real change in the school, in De Leon and in the area.

        In May of 1918, graduation ceremonies for the Class of 1918 were held in the auditorium of the new high school building.  At that time, the population of De Leon was about 800 people and probably no more than 100 were enrolled in the high school.  When school began in the fall it was in the new building located atop the hill where the First United Methodist Church stands today.  The area had been devastated by one of the worst droughts in Texas history and World War I was still raging. But changes were on the way. 

     On Labor Day night, September 2, 1918, an oil well blew in on the Duke farm in the the far northern corner of Comanche County just a couple of miles south of Desdemona.  Rain began to fall almost immediately thereafter, World War I ended in November, the Spanish Influenza swept the country and De Leon, and money and people began to flow into the area as never seen before or since.

      Comanche’s annual, the Arrowhead reported that Comanche played Tarleton on October 12.  The school then closed for two weeks because of the flu epidemic.  Their school closed again for a week in January again because of the flu.  Funerals became a daily routine in the area.

     

COMANCHE

      On November 11, 1918, World War I came to an end and both De Leon and Comanche celebrated.  The following day the two schools played each other.

       The only reports of the game came from the Comanche Chief and the Arrowhead.  The Chief stated, “The football game between De Leon and Comanche was slated for last Friday but Thursday’s rain made the roads impassable and it was postponed until Tuesday.  De Leon then came over and did a mean trick.  They played and won the game on Comanche’s home ground without letting the Comanche team know anything about it, walking off with a score of 27-7.  And just to add insult to injury, brought a lot of De Leon girls down with them to see the thing well done.  Boy’s we shouldn’t have thought you’d do it.”

        The Arrowhead reported that Comanche expected to “mop up” against their old enemy, De Leon, “when to our surprise they came over with eleven of those husky peanut fed fellows and beat us 19-7.”  (The correct score is believed to be 27-7.)


TARLETON and STEPHENVILLE

No record of the games have been found except for the Chief mentioning that De Leon had been victorious in both.


BAYLOR JV, DUBLIN, CISCO

According to Babe Daniell, De Leon defeated the Cubs but the score was not known.  He also said De Leon played Dublin and won but was unsure of the outcome of the Cisco game.


STRAWN

De Leon is believed to have played Strawn in 1918 but nothing on the game has been located.





    

1918 Known Team Members

Ralph Pittman

Carroll Stover

C.O. Bragg

Babe Daniell

Floyd Merritt

Starr Inzer

1918

DHS

OPP

27

7

W

L

W

L

W

Dublln

L

Cisco

W

L

Tarleton

Comanche

Baylor

Stephenville

Strawn