Georgetown University Athletics

Baseball Rises to National Prominence...

On the eve of 20 years of intercollegiate competition on the Hilltop, Georgetown celebrated the centennial of its founding in 1889.  J. Havens Richards, S.J. was the recently inaugurated University president (1888-98) whose ambitions for the future of Georgetown were worthy of the vision of John Carroll and Patrick Healy.

Among Fr. Richards’ objectives were growth and expansion.  He wrote to one prospective donor, “Our students have been for some years past deeply interested in the athletics movement which has taken place in the great colleges of the country . . .” specifically mentioning Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and Penn as schools in the first rank.  Wanting to increase enrollment, foster student spirit, spark alumni interest and financial support, the University president saw the value in linking Georgetown on the athletic playing fields to these elite schools in the northeast.  

As Georgetown entered the decade of the Gay Nineties, the baseball nine and the newly formed football squad at the University had already begun to compete with a few of these elite colleges.  However, with the NCAA not yet established until 1906, college sports in America were about to begin a new era with little-to-poor intercollegiate oversight.  

In an effort to compete and win, schools began to make allowances in academic schedules, to charge admission, to provide scholarships for student-athletes, to hire and pay coaches, to focus efforts on fund raising for teams, and to secure athletes from both undergraduate and graduate departments of the school to fill their rosters (a not uncommon practice that was permitted well into the 1900’s).  

Fr. Richards was less than comfortable with these developments, but still was willing to tolerate them on the Hilltop.  For example, the total number of undergrads at Georgetown – averaging less than 100 in a given year -- had previously limited the number of sports that could be fielded year-to-year.  Some of aforementioned schools of first rank had enrollments exceeding 1,000 students.  By permitting the participation of medical and law students, the pool of prospective student-athletes on the Hilltop quadrupled.

In addition, in order 1) to provide a measure of control at Georgetown, 2) to help supervise its teams, and 3) to raise money, the Athletic Association - a forerunner of the Athletic Department - established an athletic advisory board comprised of faculty, alumni, and students.  

One universal excess was the unregulated brutality prevalent in the sport of football.  On the Hilltop, the sport came to an abrupt halt following an 1894 Thanksgiving game in front of 10,000 spectators, when Georgetown captain George "Shorty" Bahen suffered spinal injuries that eventually led to his death. Football returned three years later and quickly regained its popularity. 

Another area subject to abuse derived from the lack of eligibility rules.  This void gave way to charges of itinerant college athletes who were more professionals than students.  

It was not uncommon for a losing school to point at their victorious opponent with accusations of one or more instances of unethical behavior.  Eventually, the lack of effective oversight and need for reform led to the creation in 1906 by the schools themselves of a national self-governance organization (eventually named the NCAA). 

Fr. Richards was determined to build a ‘modern’ gymnasium.  “Every great college has [a gymnasium],” he wrote.  Unable to secure the funding for a gym, the basement of Healy in 1896 was set up to accommodate a straight running track and a batting cage.

From 1889 on, the baseball and football teams had used the field that is the present-day Copley lawn.  Improvements were made to Varsity Field in 1895 with the addition of spectator seating for both sports.  A larger grandstand was constructed in 1898.  The photo below shows the expanded grandstand prior to a baseball game against arch-rival Virginia.

And in the photo below from the early 1900’s, the field and grandstand are shown during a well-attended football game, more than likely against Virginia.  Note the field lines in this era, which gave rise to the football term “gridiron.”

The decade of the 1890’s also saw an early version of the Georgetown fight song and the now familiar ‘hoya saxa’ yell.  Despite popular lore, the cheer actually had no Greco-Roman origin or meaning; it was simply the one college yell that has lasted to the present. Some of the other meaningless cheers that thankfully did not survive were listed on a page from the turn-of-the-century yearbook below.  In addition, Georgetown’s original nickname for its teams was adopted in this period:  the Hilltoppers.

As one might expect in the fledging years of intercollegiate sports, it was an era of “firsts.”  One year after a quarter-mile running track was laid out encircling the baseball field in 1891, Georgetown sent its first team of runners to compete at an intercollegiate meet in New York City. In 1895, William Foley, a nationally-renowned track coach, was hired on a full-time basis. Following him to the Hilltop was world-class sprinter Bernard Wefers (the first man to be labeled the ‘world’s fastest human’) and his brother James.

In 1891, the baseball squad completed the first undefeated season by a Georgetown team and earned the title “Champions of the South.”  Two years later, the team traveled north for the first time in late spring, missing one week of classes.  It was a controversial scheduling practice that continued annually for the next decade.  The Hilltoppers, with a 12-2 record in 1894, were again acknowledged as Champions of the South and a year later returned with a 12-3 winning mark.  Coach Joe Kelly became Georgetown’s first paid baseball coach in 1897.

Notwithstanding the outstanding ’91 season, the best baseball player enrolled at Georgetown in 1891 and 1892 may have been “Buttermilk Tommy” Dowd, who as an enrolled law student, was eligible to play football.  He was not eligible to play baseball for Georgetown however, because he was also the starting centerfielder for the Washington Senators. His football career ended after two years on the Hilltop when the Senators traded him to the St. Louis Browns.

In the 1892 football photo below, Tommy is pictured in the middle row, third from the left.  The dapper fellow in the top hat was the student team manager.  Pictured at the far right of the back row is football/baseball player “Shorty” Bahen, who died from injuries sustained in the 1894 Thanksgiving football game.

Athletics flourished during the tenure of John D. Whitney, S.J., who assumed the Georgetown presidency in 1898 and presided through 1901.  

In 1899, Georgetown took the intercollegiate baseball world by storm, winning 18 of 20 games against college teams, beating national powers Princeton and Yale three times each and Virginia twice. The Hilltoppers reached the pinnacle of college baseball when they were acclaimed intercollegiate national champions at season's end. 

Upon their triumphant return from their northern trip at the conclusion of that year, the championship team was escorted from the train station to Georgetown in a torchlight parade led by a carriage of top university officials and included students on horseback, alumni, students from the three schools, and the college band.  They were greeted with fireworks once back on campus.

Coach Phil King’s ace pitching staff included Edmund Bach, Edward Kenna, and future Chicago White Sox World Series winner, Guy Harris "Doc" White.  In the field, the Georgetown nine was led by first baseman and captain Dan McCarthy and speedy shortstop Charles Moran.  A trio of these former student-athletes have notable stories that history has preserved.

Pictured below left to right: Dan McCarthy (standing next to Ed Bach); Doc White; Ed Kenna.

Highly-regarded team leader Dan McCarthy ’99 earned his medical degree shortly after the team’s championship season.  Six years later, the Georgetown College Journal printed the report below.

Doc White ‘02 came to Georgetown from high school in Washington, DC, a southpaw hurler with a wicked curveball.  He went on to earn a degree from the Dental School, but at the start of the school year following the ’99 championship season, Doc was barred by Georgetown from playing the 1900 season.  The reason?  He had played summer ball with a municipal team, deemed at the time to be untoward for a collegiate amateur.  

A year later in 1901, Doc opted to sign a professional contract, even as he continued his dental studies.  One of the top pitchers in the new American League (see photo below), he once set a major league record of 45-consecutive scoreless innings that was not broken until 1968 by Don Drysdale.  At age 88, Doc sent a telegram to the Dodger all-star congratulating him for breaking his mark. His life and career is well documented on several of the following baseball websites: bio information; professional accomplishments; baseball hall of fame prospects.

Edward Kenna ’99 was a student at Georgetown for just one year, the year the baseball team won its first championship crown.  Like his teammate Dan McCarthy, he also played football on the Hilltop.  And like Doc White, Ed played baseball in the summer following 1899 season, so he too was prohibited by Georgetown from pitching for the Hilltoppers in 1900.  Soon afterwards, Ed departed the school, did some coaching and then pitched in the minor leagues for five years.  There, he was dubbed “The Poet-Pitcher” by teammates for his pastime of writing rhymes while in the clubhouse.

The son of the U.S. Senate minority leader from the state of West Virginia.  Ed went on to become a newspaper editor in Charleston.  He died of heart failure at the young age of 34.  More interesting information on Ed Kenna (especially his account of remarkable back-to-back pitching starts when he played in Denver) can be found at this link: The Poet-Pitcher.

FOOTNOTE: At the turn of the century, Georgetown was fortunate to have among her students a young man with a talent for illustration.  John Sheridan, a member of the class of 1901, developed a name for himself with his drawings and particularly his depictions of athletes and sporting events.  His illustrations abound in the student publications at the turn of the century.

John left in the Hilltop in 1900 for employment in NYC.  He went on to gain widespread attention when he illustrated 14 covers for the Saturday Evening Post.  His obituary in The New York Times stated that he "was credited with the idea of using posters to advertise college sports."

More information on John Sheridan can be found at this link: Sheridan the Illustrator.

COMING NEXT:  Sports Expand With Intermittent Success