Washburn Football Programs & Homecomings

     During the war, colleges had difficulties fielding football teams since many men were drafted or volunteered for the war effort. But giving it the old collegiate effort, schools continued their programs -- with alterations. In the fall of 1942, Ray was a junior and editor of the Washburn Review, the school newspaper. Homecoming that year was October 30th and the school was suffering through a no-win season, with only 6 points scored in the five games played. These losses included a 42-0 drubbing by power house Wichita in Topeka. (The 2014 Washburn media football guide refers to Wichita as Wichita State, but Wichita U. didn't join the state system until the 1960's. Page 168.)

Mary Grace writes what happened to the Review editor and his cohort Bill English in her My Life:

The Student Council had decided that while in the past the football team had always chosen the King and Queen for homecoming that the whole school should vote on it.  It didn’t pass. We didn’t have a very good football team and he [Ray] wrote an editorial about that we should celebrate anyway no matter what the score.  That annoyed the football coach so he used it to inflame the team a little.  The team decided to shave the hair of the editor, the President of Student council and two others.  They got Ray, editor, and Bill English, President of Student Council but Ray warned the other two and the team couldn’t find them.  Ray had his picture on the front page of the Topeka Daily Capital along with Bill.  He started wearing a baseball cap and informed me I didn’t have to go to homecoming with him if I didn’t want to.  He and Bill refused to tell the faculty who was involved.

The Topeka State Journal ran this photograph:

Sporting haircuts forced upon them unceremoniously Wednesday night when a controversy over methods for selection of a homecoming kin and queen, reached a climax, Ray Morgan . . . and Bill English, forgot their troubles Friday to join into the fun of a homecoming celebration.

The coach inflamed the team so much, that they went out and beat Fort Hays State, 21-13. Then it was back to their previous efforts- losing their last two games and never scoring again.

Ray and Bill English after their haircuts from the football team.
Ray appears to be in uniform because by the fall of 1943,
he had joined  the College Student Enlisted Reservists.

     By the fall of 1943, Ray's brief involvement with the Army was over and he was back in Topeka, presumably attending Washburn. It was wartime so the programs reflect that patriotism. I guess you use your imagination about who has the warship and who has the tank. I'm assuming, also due to the wartime, that the teams were a bit ragtag with men coming and leaving as their orders came through.

Ray's writing about the game. 

The only program I've found from the 1943 season is the one above. I hadn't realized he wrote any sports or worked for the Washburn Athletic Department. When we kids were growing up, Ray often wrote the color story for the A's games for example, but never the game story. He wouldn't have worked for the Washburn Athletic Department in 1944 because he had moved to Lawrence to attend the University of Kansas. But that was a short experiment and by the fall of 1945 he was back in Topeka, attending Washburn and working again for the Athletic Department.

This cover might be a tad unsettling for the NCAA - I'm not really sure what the photo means. Someone is throwing dice - gambling on a Washburn win? Or gambling by playing football? Any ideas? Warrensburg seems to now be the University of Central Missouri.

This is a brightly colored football program and I must admit I wasn't sure who Peru was. It turns out to be a college in Peru, Nebraska. It's only a few miles north of the Kansas-Nebraska state line on the Missouri River.

To quote from Ray's article:

Showing an amazing amount of potential power last week when they rolled over Warrensburg by a 25-0 score, the Ichabods are out to show that the victory was no accident and that they are as good against any team.

. . . .

Al Wheeler, Peru coach, is expected to unleash a razzle-dazzle type of play on the gridiron tonight with a traditionally wide-open system of play putting everything imaginable across the Moore Bowl green. 

The Ichabods went on to see through the razzle-dazzle and beat Peru 21-0.

The program says Washburn vs. Fort Riley, but it wasn't the whole fort - only the khaki-clad troops from the Cavalry School. 

As Ray writes:

Games against the Fort Riley team have sometimes proven disastrous for Ichabod teams in recent years but the blue-and-white gridders are out to revenge the humiliation of those years if the breaks are right.

. . . . . .

Press relations from the Cavalry school have indicated that the Washburn team is being considered as a tough opponent and Army officers are watching all troops who pass thru Fort Riley for gridders to strengthen the olive-drab team. Some of the players of the Fort Riley team were in the stands to watch Washburn’s win over Peru to pick up a few pointers.

The Icabods came through with their third straight victory beating the Cavalry by a score of 19-0.


The last game of the season was the following week against the Olathe Naval Base. In anticipation of that game, Ray wrote the following:

Next week is the week for all you Washburn University grads to come back and get in the rah-rah spirit of old-time college days. It will be Homecoming with all of its attached activities. It will be the first peace-time Homecoming the school has had in recent years. A homecoming queen will be crowned and the old traditional ball will be held

The double-page spread below appeared in all the 1945 programs that I found. It's hard to imagine anything like this happening now. One has to remember that The Flintstones in the 1960's was sponsored by Winston cigarettes -- tastes good like a cigarette should.  I think Fred even smoked at the end of the show while putting the cat or dog out and having it jump back in through the open window. Although Fred never noticed.

Double-page advertisement in the 1945 Washburn football programs.