100 Years of Raider Football, Floy DRAKE

DRAKE, BLAKE, GREENWAY, SHIELDS, MULLIGAN, ROBINSON, DOWNING, JOHNSON, AUGENSTINE

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 10/3/2012 at 13:47:58

Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, September 25, 2003

100 Years of Raider Football

Oldest living Raider, Floy Drake,
played football in 1925 season
by H. Alan Smith

He was 16 years old and a senior at Mount Ayr high school.

This was his first year on the blue-jerseyed squad, for while he stood 5' 11" or so, he had only just reached 145 pounds, big enough that he thought he could play.

The pre-season story didn't mention him, and there weren't enough good football pants to go around so he was first given a pair where the elastic around the knees was long gone. "They just about covered my knees," he said.

Soon a bigger player, Millard BLAKE, who had just moved into the district decided football wasn't for him, however, and DRAKE got a better pair of pants to wear.

And it didn't take long in practice before Floy DRAKE was the starting right guard for the Raider football team for the full season.

Now 78 years later when Mount Ayr Community high school is celebrating 100 years of football, DRAKE is the oldest surviving Raider player.

DRAKE, now 94 and a resident of Clearview Home in Mount Ayr, still has clear memories of that football season. he also is the official "paper boy" for the Mount Ayr Record-News, taking the newspaper around to residents who subscribe when it is delivered in a bundle to the nursing home on Wednesday afternoons.

He will be honored in several events during the week along with other football players from the Raider past.

Football then was played in much more primitive conditions than today, DRAKE remembers.

He will be honored in several events during the "There were no bleachers to sit on," he noted. "People just came and stood along the sidelines to see the action." And of course there weren't any lighted stadiums.

The numbers of people coming to see the games were smaller, especially on road games, he noted. He said 30 or 40 people for road games was considered good in a time when even the players were transported to games in private cars over dirt roads.

Raymond GREENWAY was the athletic coach for the team -- in a day when the single athletic coach coached football, basketball and track for the boys. There wasn't such a thing as a coaching staff.

Coach GREENWAY was "coaxed away by Clarinda" the next year and then died a few years later, DRAKE remembers.

Equipment wasn't like that used today either. Football had begun again at the high school in 1922 after a few years without a team, and most of the equipment was picked up where it could be found.

The team had six new helmets in 1925, going to the two ends and four backs. Everyone else had old ones if they could find one to fit. "But we were better off with helmets than some other places," DRAKE remembers.

For warmups the team members bought they own sweatshirts with their names on the back. DRAKE remembers they cost the players $1.10 each.

Instead of coming up with platoons of players for offensive, defensive, or special teams, players played the whole game going both ways. If a substitution was made, the player could not return to the game that quarter.

"I never saw a play from the bench all season," DRAKE says.

"We didn't have too many substitutes so that we hardly had a full second team to practice against sometimes," DRAKE remembers.

There weren't a group of girl cheerleaders helping root the team on either. Part way through the season, however, Glen SHIELDS, Henry MULLIGAN and Joe ROBINSON began dressing alike and leading cheers. "But there weren't any big crowds to lead in cheers either," he said.

Offenses weren't too complex either. "I think we had about four plays," DRAKE said. "We would run plays off tacke and around the ends with pulling guards. We had a pass play and a formation for punting with a spread line and that was about it."

"Dale DOWNING was our quarterback and we had a good right end in Raymond JOHNSON," DRAKE noted. "He had good hands and was fast."

Instead of place kicking, were the ball is placed on the ground and then kicked for extra points and field goals, balls were drop kicked for these in DRAKE'S football days.

The team wasn't nearly as big as players today, either. The biggest player on the team weighed 165 pounds then.

Instead of a corps of officials on the field, one official did all the game running and penalty calling.

While there were many differences in football 78 years ago, the game was much the same in many ways too.

And that high school football season is indelibly part of DRAKE'S memory.

The team went 5-3-1 that season, back in the days when games didn't go into overtime to determine the winners in close games.

"Our first game, we went to Greenfield back when Mike AUGENSTINE was coaching there," he said. "It wasn't long before he moved up to coach at East high school in Des Moines."

It was the worst loss of the season for the Raider squad, which fell 41-0. The game was played September 26 in a season that ran through Thanksgiving.

The second game of the season was against Clearfield and the team used a pass interception return and a scoring pass to take a 12-6 win over Clearfield on a rainy field.

The third game of the season was against Humeston on a very cold day. A pass interception for a touchdown was the only scoring in a 6-0 win for the Raiders.

The team played Lenox next, with the Raiders winning 25-0 with one of only two extra point kicks scoring for the year. A couple of running touchdowns and a couple of passing touchdowns were scored in that game.

The team went to Lamoni for its next game, which was played in an ocean of mud and water. On a hillside field, he remembers. Lamoni scored a touchdown and a safety to win the game 8-0.

"The car I was riding in to the game had a flat tire, and I had to pile into another car that was coming along to get to the game," DRAKE said.

Conditions weren't any better in a game in Mount Ayr in early November when Osceola came to play. Games usually began at 3 p.m., but because of muddy roads, the Osceola team didn't arrive to play until about 4:30 p.m. "Highway 169 wasn't even graveled then," DRAKE noted.

"They were a big team, bigger than us, but we played them tough in about as hard a game as we had all season," DRAKE said. "It got so dark that we couldn't see very well, and the cars that were there lined up along the sidelines and turned their lights on to try and help us see."

The Raiders recovered a fumble at the Osceola 10 yard line and scored on a quarterback sneak to take a 6-0 victory in the game.

When the Raiders played Bedford on November 13, it was the first favorable weather of the season.

The Mount Ayr squad ended up winning the game 19-9, with Bedford kicking the only field goal kicked against the team in the season.

The next game was with Leon, and members of the Mount Ayr band went to that game. There was a controversy when a Leon player made an unpopular comment when the Mount Ayr quarterback was hurt. Leon went on to win the game 7-0.

The final game of the season came on Thanksgiving Day when the team traveled to Garden Grove.

"A ditch ran through the field on one side, the ground was frozen and there was some snow on the ground," DRAKE remembers.

The teams battled back and forth, with a goal line stand keeping Garden Grove from scoring late in the game.

The game ended in an 0-0 tie.

As the Mount Ayr Record-News reported, "The game ended soon after the umpire crawled through the hedge and recovered the ball after a missed field goal kick by Garden Grove."

Fond memories of football from the oldest living Raider football player.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2012

Photographs courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News

100 Years of Raider Football
 

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