Clash of Titans

We have no record of Coach Roper's halftime speech to his Tigers, but he probably reiterated the famous slogan of Johnny Poe '00, grandnephew of Edgar Allan Poe and Roper's teammate: "The team that won't be beat, can't be beat." Whatever coach said, the third period did not go well for the visitors.

Gorman returned Chicago's kickoff to the Maroons 35. Cleaves punted on second down to Pyott who was tackled at his 29. The Maroons likewise punted on second down, but Princeton booted the hot potato right back on first down.

Pyott attempted to punt on third down, but Gray blocked it out of bounds on the Chicago 22. Given an excellent chance to retake the lead, Princeton sputtered. After two plunges gained five, a double pass, Snively to Cleaves, failed. The Tigers tried the same play on fourth down. The pass was completed this time, but Cleaves was stopped inches short of the first down marker.

Pyott wasted no time punting out to the 40, where Cleaves made a fair catch. After a second down pass fell incomplete 40y downfield, Princeton tried another aerial, this one bouncing off a receiver's hand into the arms of Burgess in maroon.

Chicago ran five plays, making one first down, before punting to Gorman, who "twisted and wrestled" back to midfield. But Cleaves punted on first down to Jimmy Pyott, who returned it 6y to the 31.

On third-and-5, Pyott kicked to Gorman, who was tackled on the 22. Princeton was penalized half the distance to the goal for illegal use of hands. Rushed hard, Cleaves botched a punt, which went only to his 28.

Finally getting the field position he had been seeking, Stagg sent Johnny Thomas back in. Zorn smashed through center for six. Thomas gained two, then zero. On fourth-and-two, Thomas ripped through a hole in the Tiger defense for 15y to the six. After Zorn gained nothing, Thomas plunged to the two, then dove over right end beyond the goal line before being hurled back. Pyott tried his hand at kicking the extra point but failed. Still, Chicago seemingly had the game in hand with an 18-7 lead. But, to quote a phrase made popular 70 years later, "Not so fast, my friend!"

Outweighed and worn down, Princeton would need a break to get back in the game. Pyott's nifty 14y end run gave the Maroons a first down. Despite completing its first pass of the game—for only 3y—Chicago had to punt. Gorman caught it on the 20, then surprised the onrushing Maroons by lateraling the ball to Cleaves who ran to midfield. However, an official ruled the ball had been passed forward illegally and placed the spheroid on the one—in effect, a 49y penalty.

The prevalent strategy of the day called for Princeton to boot the ball out of danger. However, Roper had trained his lads to think outside the box. So QB Gorman called for punt formation with Cleaves back. But before the ball was snapped, Gorman whispered something in Jack's ear. Roper soon realized what Johnny said as Cleaves retreated to the back edge of the end zone to arch a pass to his quarterback who caught it on the run and continued to the 40 before being dragged down.

After Pyott failed to gain, Zorn went back to punt. The substitute center's snap hit him in the shoulder and caromed straight into the arms of the onrushing E Gray. "Clutching this gift from the gods," Howdy ran untouched to the end zone. Smith's PAT made it 18-14 Princeton.

Gray's dad, the president of the Union Pacific Railroad, wildly waved his program and clobbered a woman in the shoulder. "Hey, that's my wife," a man shouted at him. "Sorry," the excited father said, "but that was my boy who scored." "Oh," the husband said. "Hit her again."

Princeton-Chicago action
Thomas Breaks Loose

Thomas (#5) breaks loose through the Tigers.
Archival Photographic Files, [apf4-00459], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

For some reason—because Princeton had scored on defense?—Princeton kicked off. When the energized Tiger defense stopped Thomas on third down, Chicago kicked to Cleaves at the Princeton 42.

Jack fired a pass to Smith to the enemy 33. Cleaves took to the air again and was rewarded when Chicago was called for interference to place the ball on the 18. Cleaves tore through the center for 3y, but Rohrke in maroon was offside, moving the ball to the seven.

Cleaves battered for three, then one, before Ewer was thrown back. On the sideline, Crum, nicknamed "Maud" because of his mule-like kick on plunges, convinced Roper to sub him in place of Ewer for fourth down. Maud knifed into a mass of humanity. The four officials had to untangle the players before determining that the ball was over the line. Smith again booted the point. Princeton 21, Chicago 18.

Again, Baker kicked off, McMasters returning it to the 34. With little time remaining, Chicago had no choice but to pull out their neglected passing attack. Pyott hit L. L. McMasters twice to land the ball on the Princeton 45. Another pass over the middle resulted in an interference call on the Tigers, advancing the pigskin to the 25. After failing to gain on the ground, Pyott connected with Strohmeier to the six.

Twice the Maroons assaulted the Tiger line but gained only to the 2 1/2. Thomas then plunged to the one. On fourth down with time ticking away, assistant coach Fritz Crisler ('22), future Michigan Hall of Fame coach, urged Stagg to send in his son, Amos Jr., a backup quarterback, with orders to pass. But Amos Sr. shook his head. "I have to live with my conscience. Let the kids work it out by themselves." So Thomas hurled himself into the line yet again, but the converging defenders stopped him two feet from the goal line.

The New York Times play-by-play ended thus: "Princeton kicked out of danger just as the whistle blew, and Chicago went down in the most sensational defeat of the year, leaving the East triumphant."

In an interview nearly 70 years later, lineman Don Griffin, the last survivor of the '22 Tigers, revealed that Chicago was hampered in its last plays because the roaring crowd drowned out the signals. "We took credit for stopping them," Griffin said, "but the truth is their plays were messed up."

Stagg was furious. He had been exhorting his charges all week and had reminded them at halftime not to get conservative in their play calls, especially near the goal line, and passes had moved them into position to score. But who could blame them for putting the ball into the hands of Thomas, who had scored all 18 points?

The fourth period was one of the most thrilling in all modern football history. This was a period to talk about for years to come. It has always been the theory that it was the West that went in for the unexpected and the spectacular, and the East which stuck to the conservative, but right here Bill Roper's pupils pulled a play that was astounding in its audacity, when on a forward pass from behind his own goal line, Gorman carried the ball to the 40-yard line. The Princeton players held one of the greatest linebuckers that we have ever seen in a football field. Their stand was one of the gamest in the history of the game. The battle really ended on that last stand. It seems to us that from somewhere Johnny Poe must have looked down and smiled as he remembered that message which he once sent to a Princeton team, "If you won't be beat, you can't be beat."

The greatest sportswriter of the age, Grantland Rice, who had picked Princeton to lose to Chicago, proclaimed the Tigers the "Team of Destiny" after its stunning upset in the Windy City. The Tigers lived up to Rice's monicker, finishing the season undefeated with victories in the last two games over archrivals Harvard (10-3) and Yale (3-0).

William Roper's Tigers have been retroactively selected National Champions for 1922 by the National Championship Foundation and the College Football Researchers Association.