Historic Neutral Site Wabash vs. DePauw Games
This Saturday, the Little Giants go head-to-head with the Tigers in a drag out, knock-down, fight for possession of the Bell on neutral turf at Ball State’s Schuemann Stadium. Scroll through to see rare photos from the 1915–1922 Wabash vs. DePauw games held in Indianapolis—including parades through the city and the crowds packed into Washington Park and Irwin Field to watch two rivals settle their score on borrowed turf.
The 1915 game, which Wabash won 34–0, marked the first of seven continuous matchups in Indianapolis. Wabash Magazine reflected on the outcome: "Three years ago "The Little Giants" were able to win from our old rivals in a very satisfactory manner. Then, after a slump of two years, "The Scarlet" came into her own again by defeating the best team that evr represented the institution of DePauw. We do not consider it any small achievement to win an entire schedule but we firmly believe that is of vast greater importance to give all due credit to the opposing team even though it insists upon being designated as DePauw. Purely in this spirit, we are compelled to say that the greatest victory of the season was when the above mentioned institution met the superior Wabash machine on the Washington gridiron."
Wabash men boarded the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway at Big Four Station in Crawfordsville and rode the train to Union Station in Indianapolis before parading through the city to Washington Park. Pictured is the 1918 parade.
In 1915, the noise leaders made the "biggest preparations to for cramming [the pep rally before the game] full of ginger." Not pictured: Minnie the Elephant, who Yell Captain I. Newton Hill secretly acquired through extensive negotiations with her management in the weeks leading up to the game.
The Bachelor, November 17, 1915: "Minnie, properly decorated with Wabash pennants, will march with all the dignity she possesses in the parade, at the head of the Wababsh delegation, and she will go to the game, thank you, with the rest of the fans. Hill is now reading up on how to make an elephant trumpet at ritical moments in a football game, and the new Scarlet mascot will do her best to cheer the Little Giants to victory."
But Minnie was featured in this cartoon from the 1915 Wabash Magazine.
Players make their way to the field in 1918.
This was only the third year the scarlet jerseys featured numbers sewn onto their backs.
The sidelines looked a bit different in 1918.
Though the stands were just as full of fans eager to root for their team.
A poster promoting the 1919 Wabash vs. DePauw faceoff in Indianapolis.
The Washington Park stands were packed for the 1919 matchup.
Shots from the 1919 game which ended in a tie—one of nine in the history of the series.
Wabash Magazine again captured the game outcome in a cartoon highlighting the 1919 season.
An excerpt from Wabash Magazine, 1919.
The parade to Washington Park, 1920.
...featuring the Caveman!
The 1920 Wabash football team led by Robert P. "Pete" Vaughan.
Scenes of the packed stands and fierce battle at Washington Park in 1920.