With all the coverage of last week’s college signing day, the discussion of whether LSU can unseat Alabama in the SEC West next year, what Hugh Freeze will do to top this past year, and of course today’s Super Bowl, thoughts turn to great football teams. Thoughts not only of great teams, but tough teams, too.
An article titled “The Toughest Coach There Ever Was” appeared April 30, 1984 in Sports Illustrated. It is one of the longest one-part articles to ever appear in the magazine. That issue’s cover featured photographs of an East Mississippi Junior College (now Community College) football helmet and the now almost mythical EMCC coach “Bull” “Cyclone” Sullivan.
The article on Sullivan and an opening letter from the publisher covered 18 pages in the magazine. Though I never knew Sullivan, I had friends who played football for him. To call him a legend is an understatement. Though he really could be termed the toughest coach there ever was he still had the love and respect of those who played under him. Bull Sullivan may have been the toughest coach, but what team at any level of play would be the greatest team?
That honor has to belong to the 1899 University of the South team. The University of the South is affectionately known as Sewanee, after the Tennessee mountain-top town where it is located. It is a small Episcopal college about 50 miles from Chattanooga. Now noted for its top notch academic reputation, it was once a football powerhouse, with three former players in the College Football Hall of Fame, four Southern Conference (out of which the SEC evolved) championships and was a charter member of the SEC in 1933.
The “Iron Men” of Sewanee’s 1899 team left a legacy that will probably never be equaled. That year little Sewanee went 12-0, scored 322 points and only allowed 10 points. The late Joe Paterno once said that the Sewanee team’s accomplishment “has to be one of the most staggering achievements in the history of the sport.” And what small schools did Sewanee beat? Only little schools like Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane, LSU, Ole Miss, Auburn and North Carolina. It was not that string of victories alone, however, that resulted in the team being known as the legendary “Iron Men of Sewanee.”
The Iron Men were almost superhuman on a road trip in November of 1899. It was that trip that created the legend. The 21 Sewanee players, coach Billy Suter, manager Luke Lea and trainer Cal Burrows traveled by rail in a chartered Pullman car on a football adventure of 2,500 miles. The team’s first destination was Austin, Texas, where they arrived on the evening of Nov. 8. On Nov. 9, 2,000 people paid a dollar each to see Sewanee defeat Texas 12-0. The players again boarded the train and traveled to Houston where, the next day, they defeated Texas A&M, 10-0. Another train ride after that game carried them to New Orleans where, on Nov. 11, they defeated Tulane, 23-0.
The following day was Sunday and so Sewanee, an Episcopal Church school, took the day off and rested. Monday, the 13th, saw the team in Baton Rouge where they defeated LSU, 34-0. Then the next day in Memphis they played Ole Miss, “the long haired knights of the oval from Oxford.” Unlike Sewanee, whose players wore leather helmets, the Ole Miss players did not wear helmets but grew their hair long and bushy for protection, thus their nickname. Once again Sewanee won, defeating Ole Miss 12-0.
In six days, Sewanee had played and won five games, all on the road against the cream of Southern football. In those five games, Sewanee had outscored their opponents 91-0. After arriving home, Sewanee rested for six days and then beat Cumberland 71-0. The following week was their only close game and the only points scored against them. They defeated an Auburn team coached by John Heisman (he has a trophy named after him), 11-10, in Montgomery. The season ended with a 5-0 victory over North Carolina. It was a season like no other team would ever have.
Who were these men of iron? They were five law students, four medical students, four theology students, and eight undergraduates. In 1931 former team captain Diddy Seibels was asked how they accomplished what they did. He replied, “To what was Sewanee’s brilliant success due? I attribute it to one thing alone and it is the greatest thing any team can have: Teamwork…there were no jealousies, only the indomitable will to win, that unconquerable never-say-die Sewanee spirit.” Today Sewanee’s football cheer of long ago still sounds across the mountain top on game days: “Rip em up, tear em up, leave em in a lurch, down with the heathen, up with the church. Yea Sewanee’s Right!”
For the full story of the legendary 1899 season I would suggest Wendall Givens’ book, “Ninety-Nine Iron.”
Rufus Ward is a local historian. Email your questions about local history to him at [email protected].
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.