Photos from the Vault

1924 Cal Poly football team

The election is over. Hope your candidate did well. Here in the Vault we don’t have to worry about the future, lets look back at the past. Cal Poly has been playing football for a long time but 1924 was not a vintage year for the school.
As a photographer I prefer the old Leatherheads style helmets allowing a full view of the faces. In my opinion it would be a better sport without all the visors, pads, braces and gear. Anything that makes the sport look more human and less robotic is a good thing.Yep, Fox television will have to get rid of their prancing animatronic transformer on NFL telecasts when the Vault takes over the league. And day games, can we have more day games? Speaking as a photographer, more light = better photos.Eric Burdick, former Tribune sports editor, now with the Cal Poly athletics department, sent me the details of woeful 1924 record.

Cal Poly was going through hard times as budget cuts in 1923 slashed class offerings. Only agriculture, mechanics and printing remained in the course catalog.President Nicholas Ricciardi resigned during the 1924 academic year. The hiring of Benjamin Crandall, as president would begin the first steps back from the brink and toward the modern university we know today.The Morning Tribune put out the best spin possible focusing on the Homecoming Day festivities for the first two paragraphs before writing about the game.

The Polytechnic school went down to defeat yesterday afternoon on the Poly field, in their game against the Fresno State Teachers College, the score at the final whistle being 22-6. The Poly boys played a good, hard game, but luck was against them.Fresno made two of her touchdowns on intercepted passes, running from 40 to 50 yards for a touchdown. The rest of their points they made on field goals, having a good kicker.Poly played a better game of football, continually holding Fresno and forcing them to punt. Lumley and Oldham were two to the outstanding players for Poly. The rest of the team did some of its best playing yesterday and deserve a great deal of credit.There was a large crowd to witness the game and a large rooting section. The Fresno team remained over for the dance last night.          

This season is a different story both for the school and the football team. It is homecoming again this week and this team is a lot of fun to watch. Welcome back to the the present. For full football details check out Josh Scroggin’s blog.