Old Missoula

 

Will Missoula’s Athletes Bring Back Ancient Glory

 

Start of Third Five-Year Period May Again Bring Laurels to Local School, for Five Years Banished Into the Ruck of Contenders

 

If the anonymous gentleman who first detected history’s habit of repeating itself was not standing on his foot when he made his famous comment, Missoula county high school is due this spring to resume her old place at the head of the contenders in the university’s interscholastic meet. With five years of triumph and five years of barren endeavor behind them the local scholastics stand now on the threshold of a third five-year period and according to precedent should walk home with the meet this week.

 

Time was when the purple and gold outclassed the whole state. For five years, alas, Missoula has struggled in vain, reaching her highest point when she took second honors last year. The power, cumulative until last spring, may be sufficient this year to bring a victory to the Missoulians; it is enough, at least, to make the local school feared by the field.

 

Students Confident

 

Students of the high school say that they are going to win, and the respect which they are given by the members of other schools of the state gives strength to their declaration. The Missoulians are among the prize dark horses of the coming meet, though on what this position is based, excepting only a one-sided victory over the Ravalli county champions, it is hard to say.

 

Last year Missoula won 24 points in the meet, but the winners of 19 of those tallies are no longer in school. Jones, winner of the 880 and the 440; Prescott, winner of the pole vault; Stone, who took second place in the 220, and McHaffie, who won third in the low hurdles, have graduated. The only veteran point-winners on the local squad are Murphy, who won three points last year by taking second place in the century dash; Sticht, who won third in the mile, and Kemp, who took third in the 880.

 

However, it is a well-known fact, as was remarked before, that history repeats herself, and in the knowledge of that fact lies a lot of hope. Unless history has suddenly quit repeating Missoula will surprise the state this week. For five years Missoula swept the field; for five years she was beaten; now a change is clearly due.

 

In view of the fact that Missoula ought, according to precedent, to win the meet, a review of the performances of Missoula athletes in the interscholastic ought to be interesting. Interesting or not, here it is:

 

1904

 

Missoula won the first interscholastic meet with a total of 23 points, gathered as follows:

 

Eugene Demers took second place in the 100-yard dash.

 

Warren Jones (a brother, by the way, of the Jones who broke the half mile record last year) ran second in the two mile.

 

Sam Dinsmore won the low hurdles, the broad jump and ran second in the high hurdles.

 

Keith Ambrose ran third in the high hurdles.

 

1905

 

Butte won the second meet with a total of 27 points. Missoula coming second with a score of 25. The Missoula point-winners:

 

Fen Dorman won the broad jump.

 

Sam Dinsmore won the high hurdles, the low hurdles, and took third place in the broad jump.

 

Alfred Johnson took second place in the pole vault.

 

Hugh Forbis ran second in the 50 and third in the 100 – yard dash.

 

Warren Jones took third place in the two mile run.

 

Charles Vealey won third place in the 880 – yard run.

 

1906

 

Anaconda won the meet with a total of 33 points. Missoula was third with 22 2-3. The Missoula points came thus:

 

Bert Conrad ran second in the 100 – yard dash.

 

Sam Dinsmore won the high hurdles and ran second in the low hurdles.

 

Sam Dinsmore and Fen Dorman tied with Wilson of Gallatin for second place in the high jump.

 

Fen Dorman took second place in the hammer throw and second in the broad jump.

 

Charles Duffy took second place in the shot put.

 

1907

 

Flathead county won the fourth meet with a total of 26 points. Missoula was second with 22. The point-winners:

 

Sam Dinsmore won the high hurdles, the low hurdles and the broad jump and took second places in the 50 – yard dash and the high jump. It is interesting to note that although he scored 21 points, Dinsmore did not win the individual championship, Denny of Flathead making 24. Last year 11 points won individual honors.

 

Fred Angevine took third place in the hammer throw.

 

1908

 

Missoula won the fifth meet with a total of 50 ½ points. They were won thus:

 

D. B. Gish won first place in the 50 – yard, the 100 – yard, the 220 – yard and the 400 – yard dashes and in the broad jump and the shot put.

 

George Trainor won the discus hurl, took second place in the shot put and third in the 440 – yard dash.

 

Charles Vealey won the low hurdles.

 

Bert Conrad took third in the 50 – yard dash, second in the 220 – yard dash and third in the 100 – yard dash.

 

Clifford Day won third place in the hammer throw.

 

Wilson Minnerly tied for third place in the pole vault.

 

1909 and 1910

 

On account of the sweeping victory of the Missoula team in 1908, which was attributed by other high schools to the fact that the local scholastics were allowed to train on the Montana field, Missoula was barred from participation in the games of 1909 and 1910. In 1911 the local school was allowed to compete with the understanding that its athletes be barred from practice on the university’s field.

 

Gallatin county won the eighth meet with a total of 30 points. Missoula coming in fifth with 11. These points were won by the following men:

 

Frank Heyfron tied for second place in the 50 – yard dash.

 

Merritt Owsley won the broad jump and took third in the shot put.

 

Louis Napton tied for second place in the pole vault.

 

Tom Denny took third place in the high jump.

 

1912

 

Gallatin county won the ninth meet with a total of 42 points, Missoula tying for third with a score of 11. The point – winners were:

 

“Web” Jones won third place in the discus hurl.

 

S. Ross took second place in the broad jump.

 

Louis Napton and “Hop” Prescott tied for second place in the pole vault.

 

1913

 

Gallatin county won the meet with a score of 38. Missoula was second with 24. The points were won as follows:

 

“Web” Jones won the 880 – yard run and the 440 – yard dash.

 

Scott Murphy ran second in the 100 – yard dash.

 

Stuart McHaffie ran third in the low hurdles.

 

Emerson Stone took second place in the 220 – yard dash.

 

Ernest Prescott won the pole vault.

 

Walter Kemp ran third in the 880 – yard run.

 

R. Sticht ran third in the mile run.

 

 

The above article appeared in the May 12, 1914, Missoulian, no doubt written by sportswriter, Ray T. Rocene.

 

Gallatin won the meet in 1914; however, Missoula won the meet the following two years, 1915 and 1916.

 

 

 

 

Leslie “Bullet Joe” Bush

 

Also of local interest, on the same day the Missoulian featured an article about Missoula’s great major league pitcher, Leslie “Bullet Joe” Bush, whose fabulous career included pitching in 9 World Series games.[1] Bush played at Missoula in 1912. He threw one no-hitter in 1916, against the Cleveland Indians. Again, this article was probably written by Ray Rocene.

 

 

Bush and Oldring Are Heroes of Thriller

 

Our own Leslie Bush and one Rube Oldring were the heroes of a recent ball game that will for a long time hold a unique place in baseball history. The game was played in Shibe park on May 6, the [Philadelphia] Athletics defeating the Red Sox, 7 to 3. Excerpts from James D. Isaminger’s story in the Philadelphia North American tell the tale:

 

“Rube Oldring made a play in the eighth that a dispassionate recorder of cork-cored news would call the most wonderful play ever made at Shibe park.

 

“In the eighth inning Janvrin lined furiously to left center. Pete Daley, who had succeeded Strunk in center in that very round, sprinted hard for the smoking drive, but could not get a fair hold on it. By a leap he contrived to partly stop the ball with his fingertips. The ball took a sharp carom for the turf and it looked like a certain double or triple until the crowd was stunned to see Oldring make a headfirst dive, and sliding five feet on his stomach, turn and then hold the ball in the air as a sign that it had been caught.

 

“Bill Evans, base umpire, had an uninterrupted view of the play and instantly waved Janvrin out. The catch, almost unparalleled in baseball, cost Boston at least one run, if not more. None of the writers can ever recall giving a center fielder an assist and a left fielder an out on the same fly ball, and the catch will go down in history with the miracles of baseball.”

 

Of Bush the story says: “Joseph Leslie Bush hurled baffling trajectories to the common enemy whenever in danger. In every inning but two Red Sox reached base, but Bush was always going at top speed when the situation was Goosefleshy.

 

“At times the Brainerd boy was ‘very badly put in the cart,’ as Barn Wimborne, the backer of the English polo team would say. Among those guilty of cart imperfections were Murphy, Baker, Schang and Orr. Had it not been for these slips, Boston would have been blanked.

 

“Besides his firmness in the pinches, Bush shone at the bat. With Orr on base in the eighth inning, Bush clinched victory by flogging the ball over the right field fence, the first time it has been done this season. The homer settled Boston for good. Joseph Leslie Bush is the third right-handed hitter to put the ball over the right field fence since Shibe[2]park was opened in 1909. The others are Daniel Murphy and Bird Cree, both of whom have passed out of fast company. Bush’s lick was a terrific smash. It fell into Twentieth street and bounced above a porch on the east side of the street. The boy from Brainerd is rapidly developing into one of the heaviest hitting pitchers in the game.”