By Ben Allen
In the year 2000 during the reunion of the Prescott High School class of 1945, the attendees were invited on a tour of the new high school in north Prescott. Mr. Tim Carter, the principal, conducted us on a tour of this fine facility. I remember best the gymnasium because one of the first things we encountered when we entered the main door was a large wall, which bore the sign, Our Wall of Fame. And, very prominent on it was a large picture of our 1944 varsity football team.
It turns out that this team was the co-champion of the Northern Arizona Conference. Winslow was the other co-champion but only because we didn't play them. I never knew our team was the Northern Arizona champion because soon after the season, I was off to the war.
Prescott's regular coach was Hamilton Pratt but he was also off to the war. Prescott was fortunate to obtain the services of Francis E. Siegel. Coach Siegel came to us from Pennsylvania and coached the Badgers for only this single season. He completely changed our offensive profile and we started using a single wingback formation with an unbalanced line. Coach Siegel was an All American Guard for Pittsburgh in 1932 and played in the Rose Bowl for Jock Sutherand. He had coached wining high school teams in Pennsylvania and also taught at Pitt University.
The Badgers were scheduled to play Glendale at home, Jerome away, Flagstaff away, Williams away, Buckeye at home, Kingman away and Williams at home. This was during WWII and the school was unable to furnish bus transportation for the away games; consequently, the team fathers pooled their gas coupons (three gallons per week), which enabled a few of them with better cars to drive the team to these games. All home games were played at the old fair grounds.
We lost our first game, which was to Glendale by a score of 25-0. Glendale was the previous year's state champions. But from then on, we swept all of the rest of the games. Fortunately, Glendale was "non-conference practice game." Our second game was with Jerome and I have some hazy memories of it. We arrived by car at the new high school where we changed into our football uniforms and then went up to the only flat area in town that could accommodate a regular size football field. Before the kick-off, we all had to police the field and throw off all the large rocks and boulders. During the first quarter, our quarterback, Chuck Kennedy, was hit hard and had his bell rung. He then continued to call the same play (12 right on 2) six times in a row before Coach Siegel realized Kennedy was in trouble and sent in Ernie Born to replace him. By the way, we scored a touchdown during that series of plays.
On one of our right end sweeps, Ed Wolgast got too close to the sidelines and a couple of drunken miners ambushed him by rushing on to the field and tackling him. They proceeded to pound on poor Ed until we could rescue him.
After the game, we loaded into the cars for the trip back to the gym for a shower and clothing change. During the ride through town, the car carrying John Hazeltine was stopped and John was dragged from the car and pounded upon until another rescue was made. Because of these extracurricular activities by the town folks, Prescott never played Jerome in town again; instead, all future games were played at the bottom of the mountain in Cottonwood.
Season recap:
Glendale 0-25
Jerome 20-7
Flagstaff 46-0
Williams 36-13
Buckeye 36-0
Kingman 25-0
Williams 71-6
Note that the Badger's scored a total of 234 points to their opponent's total of 51 and 25 of these points were scored by Glendale in Prescott's only loss.
Tackle Bob Knight was named on the honorary all-Arizona first team, as well as, on the all-Northern first-string team. Ed Wolgast, halfback, and Jerry Insley, guard, received honorable mention on the all-state selections; they also made the all-Northern Arizona first-string. Elden Porter, fullback, and Jim Hendrix, center, were named for the all-Northern second eleven. Charles Kennedy, quarterback, "Champ" Duran, halfback, and Junior Bunker, end, received honorable mention in the northern selections.
I'm proud to have been a member of that team even as a Junior. When you played behind the likes of Bob Knight, you were indeed fortunate to have earned a letter.
On January 2, 2000, the Prescott Daily courier printed a large article on the sport's section front page entitled: "Prescott High's All-Century Team." I'm proud of the three teammates that made that team-Bob Knight, Ed Wolgast and Roy Campbell. Gil Converse made the second team. And Roy proudly informed me that his grandson, Layne Campbell, also made the All-Century Team. Must be in the blood.
It's interesting to note that the 40 plus members of this team has produced three physicians, a Federal judge, a noted architect and several other professionals but the majority of this group became educators-several school superintendents, principals and just plain teachers. What better calling?
(Ben Allen was born and raise in Prescott and returned recently to relive those fine memories)
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (1945 Hassayamper yearbook). Reuse only by permission.
The 1944 Prescott High School Badger Football team, shown here in Flagstaff, were 6-1 with the only loss in a non-conference game against the top rated Arizona school. Many of the players of this championship season made it on to Courier's All Century Team.