200 Memories Central
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Welcome back to our celebration of 200 moments, memories, coaches and student-athletes from the history of Lycoming College athletics. In this second series of moments, the school moves through the First World War and into the roaring ’20s. With that period comes a series of important changes and wins for the athletic department, including the building of Hilltop Gymnasium and the first emergence of girls’ intercollegiate athletics at Dickinson Seminary.
Once again, longtime women’s tennis coach Deb Holmes wrote a history of men’s sports at the College in 1978 and her research proved invaluable in the early years of this list. However, primary documents from the College archives are understandably sparse on their information from the late-19th century and early 20th-century athletic events.
With no more ado, here are moments 11-20 in our series of 200:
11. Ray Krebs, 1916 – There really was no doubt who the star of the undefeated 1916 team was – rangy forward with a solid jumper, Ray Krebs was a three-year starter for the Seminary basketball team. Consistently the team’s leading scorer as a junior, he was an easy pick as captain. Early in the season, he led the team to a two-point win over the Jersey Shore Y.M.C.A. Later in the season, he outscored both Elmira Free Academy, 28-24, and Lewisburg High School, 25-18. Besides the high-scoring averages on the basketball court, Krebs was also the captain of the football team in 1915, starting at left halfback.
12. Monroe Hess, 1916-18 – An important part of the offensive line from 1916-18, Monroe Hess was one of the best players in the Seminary era. As a sophomore, he stepped onto the team and immediately entered the lineup. By the next fall, he became one of the first two-year captains in school history, leading the team to a 6-3 mark as a junior. A left tackle, Hess was listed by the Dickinson Union as someone who “possessed the rare combination to win the game with love and respect for the other team…“Hessie” played and fought hard in all the games.” He also played baseball as a sophomore.
13. Mary Helen Baker, 1920 – Girls’ athletics was gaining ground slowly in the early 20th century, even as physical education instructors across the country opposed competition among women, fearing it would make them less feminine. However, Dickinson Seminary encouraged physical education amongst its female students before many schools, with physical training entering the academic catalogue in 1906. Even before that, girls formed basketball clubs for special games between the junior and senior classes. What makes Mary Helen Baker special is that she is one of the first girls to ever earn mentions on the Dickinson Union’s pages as an athlete. At one of the first all-girls tennis tournaments in school history, Baker posted two 3-0 wins to win the championship.
14. Dr. John W. Long, 1921-55 – During the 34 years that Dr. John W. Long served as president of Dickinson Seminary, Dickinson Junior College and Lycoming College, he guided the school through an immeasurable amount of changes. A baseball player that turned down a pro contract at the end of his time at Dickinson College to focus on work within the church, Long was a lifelong fan of athletics. While his larger legacy lays in his vision to make the prep school a college, Long was the first to address one of the most critical needs for the athletic program – an adequate gymnasium. In fact, it was one of his first projects, as the cornerstone was laid on Nov. 3, 1923. His support for the athletic program didn’t stop there. Eight years later, he erected a steel and concrete foundation for the bleachers at the football field. Toward the end of his days in office, Long made two of the most lasting contributions to the athletic program, overseeing its admission to the NCAA and the Middle Atlantic Conference in 1951.
15. M. Ross “Cardy” Swartz, 1923-30 – A graduate of Lebanon Valley College, M. Ross Swartz, better known as “Cardy,” came to Dickinson Seminary straight out of the minor leagues. A pitcher in Reading and Rochester, Swartz came to the hilltop in 1923 as the athletic director and the football, men’s basketball and baseball coach. For the next six years, he held those titles. On the gridiron, Swartz’ teams finished under .500 just twice and he finished his tenure with a 28-17-4 (.612) record. In his first two years, he coached two of the best squads in the prep school’s history, posting an 11-2 record. On the basketball court, he took a team that went 3-7 in his first year and transformed it into one that posted an 8-5 mark in 1927-28, the most wins for a Seminary team since the undefeated 1916 team.
16. The First Homecoming, 1923 – Homecoming’s beginnings at the Seminary trace back to pretty close to the listed original Homecoming at the University of Missouri in 1911. Just 12 years later, in 1923, the team hosted Mansfield on Nov. 3, going on to win 13-7 in a hard-fought contest. Homecoming, in that origin, was held as part of the same celebration as the laying of the Gym Cornerstone. A year later, the team’s homecoming game against the Wyoming Seminary coincided with the dedication of the gym and with that, the tradition was born. However, that second Homecoming met the Seminary with its only loss of the season (see the next moment). Mention of Homecoming disappeared for a few years after that, but it came back in 1930 and 1931 before going away again until 1939. Excluding the years for World War II and the Korean War when football was discontinued, Homecoming has been celebrated every year since.
17. 1924 Football Team – Although the Seminary enjoyed a fine 5-1 season in 1923, the school continued its football renaissance in 1924. It began with a dramatic win in the season-opener, as Granny Nye crossed the goalline with just two minutes to play to help lead the Seminary to a 13-7 win over Keystone. As the season wore on, it became clear that it was one of the best prep school teams in the state, led by the stalwart running play of Bye Hayes, as he scored on a 60-yard touchdown reception against the Cornell freshmen and added the lone touchdown in a win over West Chester Normal. After a 19-0 win over the Susquehanna reserves, the team had an impeccable 6-0 record, having allowed just the seven points against Keystone. Meanwhile, the offense, led by the play of quarterback Earl Z. McKay, Nye and Hayes, racked up 97 points. However, in the last game of the year, the Seminary met its lone defeat, 19-0, at the hands of a Wyoming Seminary team that hadn’t lost in three years. Still, the team, under the direction of Cardy Swartz, posted its most wins since 1917 and its highest winning percentage since 1902.
18. Hilltop Gymnasium, 1924-80 – In 1922, only one year into his presidency, Dr. John W. Long made one of the most popular decisions of his early time in office. Plans were made to build a gymnasium – a new building specifically for athletics. According to Deb Holmes’ history of the athletic program, “Not only did the students contribute to the building fund, but they unanimously voted to raise tuition $10 a year for the purchase of new equipment for the teams.” At a cost of $16,500, the Seminary opened the building with “facilities for basketball, handball, bowling, indoor baseball and track as well as containing wonderfully equipped sets of body building instruments, boasts of a 60-by-20 foot swimming pool,” the school yearbook, The Dart, proclaimed. The student paper, the Union, said of the preview weekend of the building during Homecoming that, “No one entered without first stopping to admire the outside, resembling as someone remarked of a very fine community building rather than what is supposed to be just a school gymnasium. Lighted up as it was, with broad stone steps leading up to the entrance, it gave everyone a real thrill of pride to realize that at last, the gymnasium was ready for use.” And for the next 56 years, used it was. The Hilltop Gymnasium was the home of the men’s basketball team from the building’s construction and the wrestling (1956) and women’s basketball (1978) teams also used the building as their headquarters. Today, the building still stands as the Fine Arts Building, although the athletic arenas have long since vanished from the building.
19. Taking down Wyoming Seminary, Nov. 14, 1925 – For a decade, Wyoming Seminary was to Dickinson Seminary as the Atlanta Braves are to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The closer and better Dickinson got to becoming an elite prep school team, the better Wyoming Seminary became. In 1925, after not having been scored upon at all in 1923 or 1924, Wyoming came to Williamsport on a sunny autumn day undefeated and having only allowed one touchdown all season. After a first-quarter drive by Wyoming Seminary stalled at the 15-yard line, the Dickinson frontline continued its bend-but-don’t-break tactics. Dickinson also benefitted from solid special teams play, as Granny Nye booted a still-school-record 85-yard punt, all the way through the opponents’ end zone, helping the teams head to halftime tied at zero. In the third quarter, it was Bye Hayes who took over on special teams, as he fielded a punt at Dickinson’s 25-yard line and then he broke through the line thanks to some great blocks, scoring the game’s lone touchdown. Wyoming’s offense couldn’t get any closer than they had in the first quarter for the rest of the game and, according to the Dickinson Union, “…At the end of the game, they walked off the field with tears in their eyes.” For the first time in nearly four years, they had lost after all and it was Dickinson Seminary, led by Granny Nye and Bye Hayes who led the way.
20. Millard Hayes, 1925 – In his two years at Dickinson Seminary, Bye Hayes left a legacy as one of the greatest halfbacks in the school’s history. In 1924, he burst onto the scene by posting game-clinching touchdowns against the Cornell freshmen and West Chester Normal. At the end of the year, he was the natural choice to become captain as a senior. While the team didn’t have the same success that the 1924 team did, Hayes did lead the Seminary to one of the biggest upsets in school history, scoring on a 75-yard punt return to lift the team to a 7-0 win over Wyoming Seminary, ending a four-year win streak. That wasn’t the end of his athletic prowess, though, as he also played on the basketball and track and field teams, as he finished his career with six letters. He also shined on the track, as he won the pole vault at the Penn State Intercollegiate Track and Field Meet, took second in the shot put and third in the 100-yard dash as a junior.
We hope you enjoyed our second look at 200 Memories. Stay tuned on Friday, Sept. 16, as moments 21-30 will be released, with moments capturing both Dickinson Seminary and its transition period into a junior college.
As always, if you feel we missed an event or two that can be deemed a memorable moment or a memorable student-athlete, please share them. Tell us why they are special and any information you may have about that moment or person to Sports Information Director Joe Guistina at guistina@lycoming.edu. Special addendums with your feedback will be released following the conclusion of the list in 2012.
