Old Missoula

George ‘Gussie’ Scherck – We didn’t forget you!

One of Missoula’s esteemed sons became a headline in the local Daily Missoulian at the height of WW1 when he survived an airplane crash while flying solo at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas in April of 1918. His worried parents in Missoula had just received a telegram notifying them that their son’s skull was fractured but he had survived.  By all accounts he was one of the lucky ones.

George Scherck’s name was familiar in Missoula as a local star athlete who had enlisted in the Army Aviation Service while a junior at the University of Montana. As with many young Montanans, playing sports took a back seat when WW1 broke out. He became a lieutenant in the Army Air Service after first attending training at Kelly Field in Texas, followed by Selfridge’s Field in Detroit, then Cornell University’s aviation school in New York. He had recently begun solo flights back in Houston Texas, but he quickly joined a long list of budding WW1 pilots whose careers ended before they could enter combat. Thousands of young American pilots were being produced, but at a heavy cost. A little-acknowledged statistic was that training killed more of these pilots than combat did. More than half of all WW1 pilot were killed while in training.

Scherck was one of many Missoulians who had joined the cause. Students at the University of Montana had been quick to action when the country declared war in April of 1917. A list of male students in a “Roll of Honor” in the 1919 University yearbook, The Sentinel, shows the names of approximately 100 who had joined the military. Two were already listed as casualties. The Sentinel also listed three women ‘co-eds’ who had joined the service.

This yearbook solemnly stated that Missoula was covered in a ‘war cloud’ that had “swooped over the ridge of Mount Sentinel and enveloped the campus of the State University of Montana.” It noted that the student body had “changed overnight – transformed from a rollicking, carefree band of young men and women enjoying four years of university romance to a group of determined Americans face to face with a stern reality.”  Much of the yearbook’s theme was patriotic, featuring photographs of many uniformed soldiers, usually dressed in khakis.

Scherck’s crash story soon leaped clear across the ocean according to an account furnished by one of his Montana schoolmates. When he came back to Missoula from France in 1919, Merrill Borland announced that Scherck was supposed to be dead.

Borland’s surprise was quoted in an interview he gave in the Helena Independent Daily:

“’The news of George Scherck’s death came as a great blow to me.’”

“It was Merrill Borland, now a student in the school of journalism at the state university, just returned from France, who made the statement yesterday. When informed that George Scherck was very much alive and at the moment was practicing with the Grizzlies on Montana field, Borland set aside enrollment, conversations with friends and all other attractions which a university holds for a returned hero, and hunted out the 1919 Montana football captain.

“In explanation, Mr. Borland stated that early in April, 1918, he with others of the 163^rd infantry while serving in France, had received word that Scherck had been killed when an airplane which he was driving collided with another and fell to earth. Such an accident did occur on April 1 of that year and as a result Scherck sustained a fractured skull and other injuries. While in the hospital at Kelly Field, Texas, where the accident occurred, Scherck was three times given up for dead, but he came through in good enough shape to pilot the Grizzlies this year.”

Another interesting article from a national journalism magazine, The Editor and Publisher, in 1917 noted that Merrill Borland and George Scherck had been acquaintances back at the University in Missoula prior to their inductions:

“Student Janitors Off to War”

“The Montana News Bulletin relates that there have been four student janitors on the job at the University of Montana in the Journalism School Building during the course of the year, and every one has enlisted for military service. They are Joe Townsend, jr., Merrill Borland, Alec Swaney, and George Scherck. Various theories have been offered to explain the rush to arms of the student janitors. Some say it comes from reading the headlines and seeing the ads in the newspapers which the janitors file every day.”

Another article appearing in the Butte Daily Bulletin on January 24, 1919 noted that Scherck traveled over some very long distances since leaving Missoula:

“Aviators See America First Declares U Man”

“Scherck Travels 20,000 Miles on Land and Air. Visits 34 States in U. S.

“Missoula, Jan. 24 – “‘Join the air service and see America first.’” This is what George Scherck, a former student in the State University of Montana, says and with reason, after having been in 34 states since he enlisted in the aviation section of the United States army in April, 1917.  “‘I have traveled about 20,000 miles altogether,’” Scherck has recently returned from West Point, Miss., to his home here with an honorable discharge.

“Scherck enlisted from Missoula; then his journeyings covered the route from Missoula to Spokane, Wash.; from Spokane to San Antonio to Detroit, Mich.; from Detroit to Long Island, New York, from Ithaca to Dallas, Texas; from Dallas to Houston again; then back to Dallas; from Dallas to Dayton, Ohio; from Dayton to West Point, Mass. Besides covering this route, he made three trips back to Missoula and many side trips. Neither does this category include his flying trips across the country, averaging in length from 15 to 175 miles.

“Scherck is planning to register at the university this quarter to complete his senior year.”

Returning to Missoula in 1919 Scherck resumed his studies at the University, majoring in journalism under the legendary Dean Stone. The course there was unusual in that it featured no texts, but only used 24 “big eastern and western dailies, and the Montana papers. . .” Not surprisingly, the school was set up to resemble a working newspaper. Scherck had already been managing editor of the Kaimin newspaper in his junior year, before joining the service, and was also editor of the Montana News Bulletin his senior year. Except for a short stint as a football coach at Butte Montana high school, he would make the newspaper business his career for the rest of his life.

Some of his hometown U of M classmates included Florence Worden Dixon, daughter of the Republican Senator from Missoula, Lelia Paxson, daughter of the famed artist, and Brice Toole, son of John R Toole – whose influence in Montana politics was legendary – and uncle of K. Ross and Missoula mayor John Toole.

In 1919 the famed Bernie Bierman from Minnesota became the head football coach at the University of Montana. Only 3 years out of school himself, he embarked on a career that would last a lifetime and included 5 national football championships. His stay at Montana was a short one, but he would later remember it fondly. He also later recalled George Scherck in a speech he gave in San Francisco for an East-West Shrine game event where he was coaching: “I learned all my football from George Scherck.” Bierman and Scherck had another thing in common in that they were both former Butte High School Bulldog football coaches – Bierman in 1916 and Scherck in 1920.

The 1920 Sentinel featured a full page on the 1919 football season that year. This was his senior year and George Scherck was captain of the Grizzly squad.

“Early last fall the boys had played the football season in Kelly’s[1] [cigar store/pool hall]. Montana had walked through everything for the 1919 season and there were shouts of “On to Pasadena!”

“Next came Reality. She might not have been stern, but nevertheless she was there. Along with this woman came Coach Bierman. ‘Bernie’, listened to the cries of the victorious on Kelley’s gridiron and said: “’Now that you fellows have captured the ante-season oratorical title we’ll see what you can do on this earth.’”

“Then Bernie sounded the call.

“Suddenly the shouting and tumult ceased. There was no rush of football warriors to Montana field. The mighty Gustavus Scherck, alias George Bernard, was one of the first to respond. The ‘Hungry Swede’ Dahlberg, ‘Cupid’ Harris and ‘Dublin Gulch’ Sullivan straggled in.

“I would have a fine team,” said Bierman, “if football could be played with four men.

“Next followed the great hunting act with Grizzly supporters beating the brush for miles around in an attempt to scare out a few stars. Finally Harrison [Harry] Adams was coaxed away from three squares on the Pacific coast and Cort Howard was induced to come out of the wilds of northwestern Montana and put on football togs. But Bernie Bierman was far from satisfied and often he was heard to murmur something about a good high school aggregation being able to trounce his pets. Even ‘Father’ Scherck was willing to admit that the Grizzlies weren’t exactly what they should be.”

Scherck proved to be a special player for the Grizzlies. In a 7 to 0 loss to heavily favored Idaho he was given unusual praise.[2]

“True, the entire team deserves honorable mention, but a few adjectives should be set aside in memory of Captain Scherck. He went that day as if he was playing before the only woman in the world and he startled Muscovite supporters until they arose and inquired: “Who is this demon with the unadorned and undefiled head?” That was a day on which they forgot their own stars to talk about the fighting Montana leader.”

The cross-state rivalry proved to be a draw that year, however, the Grizzlies were commended for holding the ‘Aggies’ to a 6 to 6 tie on their own field. Playing the game on a muddy field they came away feeling they had accomplished something: “It was ‘Fleetfoot’ Harry Adams who furnished the first real sensation when he made a run of over 70 yards and planted the ball behind the goal posts for Montana’s touchdown. Captain Scherck and Swede Dahlberg were copartners in crime with siege gun tactics in opening holes in the Aggies line . . . With but inches between a Montana defeat and an unthinkable Aggie victory the line braced and held. And Bozeman’s last hope was gone.”

On Homecoming day Washington State was too much for the Grizzlies, however Harry Adams scored more points against them than had any of their other opponents.

“It was Captain Scherck’s last game and the brilliant end gave all that he had, winning the plaudits of the crowd in addition to praise from the officials. Dahlberg, Harris and Dorsey[3] did great work on the line, while Keely, Adams and Sullivan starred in the backfield.”

While Bierman stayed at Montana for another year, he was never as successful there as he would be later. Yet several of his Montana players nevertheless recalled him with a special admiration. In his book Footballs Greatest Coaches author Edwin Pope said that Bierman was not noted for his rousing speeches. He was known as “the coach who never lost his temper, never raised his voice, never shed a tear, never appealed to sentiment, never played sentimental tricks on his team.” Bierman was once quoted saying, “I never made an emotional speech in my life.” George Scherck seemed to understand Bierman’s credo. “George Scherck made Bierman’s pep talks for him at Montana. ‘Mostly,’ Scherck said, ‘he just asked the men how they felt, gave them tea and sugar, and left them to rest.’ Harry Adams later noted that Bierman nevertheless expected full steam ahead when it came to competition: “He went in for ‘roughneck basketball’ – in which no fouls were called – at Montana. ‘And, brother,’ recalls Harry Adams, ‘he really played it rough!’ “His students had to be ready to go all the way all the time. ‘I was walking down University Avenue one day,’ says Lambert L. (Frog) de Mers, Montana, ’21, ‘and saw our bear mascot break his leash and make for the hills. I took after him with a piece of rope, and finally caught him after a mile-long chase. I was barely out of breath. This is why we were able to play entire games without replacement.’” Bierman also seemed to produce several players who later went into coaching. As noted above, Scherck coached at Butte High after leaving U of M. In 1922 the opposing coaches in Butte’s annual Butte High v Butte Central game were two former Butte boys who had also played for Bierman’s Grizzlies, Harry ‘Swede’ Dahlberg and Steve Sullivan.

Although he did not follow the coaching profession for long, George Scherck did stick with sports writing. He wrote for the Butte Montana Post for a short while and then moved to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1924. From there he moved to the San Francisco Examiner and finally the Oakland Tribune where he worked when he died in 1954 from a heart attack. While he was strangely absent from writing about football, he seemed more focused on California horse racing, handicapping, tracks and jockeys.

A fellow Oakland Tribune columnist Alan Ward wrote the following about George the day after his death in 1954:

“Death takes a friend and associate with whom you’ve worked for 18 years and you stare at a blank piece of paper and wonder what you can say to express your true feelings.

“You mustn’t get sentimental because George Scherck, for all his innate sentimentality, wouldn’t like it. George, whose brave heart failed him early last night, was a true newsman. Newsmen pretend to abhor tenderness of word and action, so you must be reasonably brief, factual and almost gruff in an epitaph you’re trying to put into print.

“You can say that George, Tribune turf editor, was one of the best handicappers in the business, because that’s simple fact. The records prove it. Year after year George was the leader, or among the leaders, at Golden Gate Fields, Tanforan, Bay Meadows and county fairs of Northern California.

“You can add that his friends sometimes called George Scherck by the nickname of Gus, and for a reason never logically explained. But somehow the name Gus fitted him. At other times he was referred to, in all affection, as ‘The Bald Eagle.’ The allusion was obvious, and George delighted in the latter pseudonym.

“You can go on to say that George, for all his deep knowledge of horse racing was conversant with many sports, with all phases of sports department operation.

“Himself a former sports editor, he could write football, baseball, boxing, basketball and probably even table tennis and jai alai. He was a fine desk man, which means he could put a paper together. That’s a rare accomplishment.

“It can be added that George was a doughty football player and captain at Montana and a flyer in World War I who miraculously lived after a plane crackup at Kelly Field; that the same qualities he exhibited in football and the service were demonstrated in journalism.

“And finally – and The Bald Eagle would like this – George had a flair for clothes, once being recognized as the best dressed newsman on the Pacific Coast. He was ruggedly handsome and possessed of a basic gentleness and courtliness which made him a favorite with men and women alike.

“The Tribune has lost a valued employee. George’s associates in the sports department have lost a friend.”

The same Oakland Tribune edition also had a more formal article about him:

“George Scherck Tribune Racing Expert, Dies After Heart Attack

“George (Gus) Scherck, 60, member of The Tribune sports staff for 18 years and one of the top turf experts on the coast, died last night after being stricken with an asthmatic and heart seizure, while leaving the Tanforan track with John Haake of its public relations staff. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, where he died an hour and a half later.

“During his long career he combined his two chief interests – newspaper work and sport. Although a football star and later a coach at the University of Montana, in newspaper work he specialized in race tracks and was widely known as a horse racing expert, frequently topping handicappers at Golden Gate Fields, Tanforan and Bay Meadows.

“A sometime gruff appearing person, he actually was one of the most genial and friendly of men who loved all phases of good living.

“He was born in Appleton, Wis., but went with his family to Montana when he was 9 years old. He was graduated from the Missoula, Mont., high school and the University of Montana, where he majored in journalism and starred on the varsity football team. He captained the team in 1919 when it was coached by Bernie Bierman, one of the greats of the grid game.

“In 1937 while appearing at a Football Writer’s Association banquet in San Francisco as co-coach of the Shrine East-West game Bierman said “‘I learned all my football from Gus Scherck.’”

“When airplanes were as risky from the machine angle as war, Mr. Scherck was a flying lieutenant for 20 months in World War I and had a narrow escape in a plane crash at Kelly Field, Texas.

“He returned to teach history and coach at Butte, Mont., high school, but his mentor, Bierman, called him back to the University of Montana as assistant coach.

“He started his newspaper career on the old Butte, Mont., Post as a sports writer and later became sports editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1924 to 1928.

“When he came to the Bay Area he first was sports writer for the San Francisco Examiner. On The Tribune he covered all sports but gradually evolved his niche as a horse racing specialist.

“He is survived by his wife, Mary Farrell Scherck[4], of 1425 Harrison St.; a son, Peter, a student at San Francisco City College, and a daughter Mrs. Robin Jones of Santa Barbara.

“Funeral services will be held tomorrow at 4 pm. at Truman’s chapel at Telegraph at 30^th St.”

It only seems fitting that a sample of George’s work be presented. Below is one of his more entertaining articles that appeared in his Oakland Tribune column, ‘Down The Stretch’, in June, 1941. Not all of his writing effort was dedicated to horse racing:

This is the story of a California fight manager who was given an added 25 per cent of a $4400 gate, yet failed to collect a dime.

Johnny Sylvester, matchmaker for Promoter Tommy Simpson, lovingly patted his bulging tummy, lifted his shoulders to settle his coat, sat down and started to speak.

“Times were good to me in 1932,” said the rotund matchmaker as he cast his eye on the placard announcing Wednesday night’s headliner, Irish Johnny Taylor and Earl Turner, youthful Negro from Richmond.

“I had money in the old sock and suits in my Sacramento locker. Boy was I independent.”

You could see Johnny living over those days in Sacramento.

“Varrias Milling had beaten Fidel LaBarba in Sacramento and he was hot stuff in the valley.

“Claude Varner was billed to fight LaBarba in Hollywood and I went down to see the brawl. When Varner won I signed him to box Milling in the Capital City.

“It was a natural and how the advance sale made the cash register sing.

“Came the afternoon of the fight. Both boys weighed in and the stage was set for a sell out house. But Varner in stepping on a bench to put on his pants slipped and injured his ankle. We got doctors and they worked on the injured leg.

Varner Unable to Fight

“Well at seven that night we knew that Varner could not go on. Knowing Charley Miller, in the semi-windup, was well liked in Sacramento I got him to agree to fight Milling. Now all I had to do was sign Milling.”

Sylvester’s eyes were shining now for he was thinking of the gate. The house was better than $4000 and fans were still trying to get in.

“Johnny Sampson, manager of Milling, then started crying for more dough,” continued Simpson’s matchmaker. “This Miller didn’t cost you so much so we want 15 per cent added onto our 25 per cent to take Miller, he told me.

“Boy did I go up in the air. Knew I was sure to be asked for more dough for I was in a spot. Had figured on boosting Milling’s share $250 but that 15 per cent burned me.”

You see Sylvester was the promoter. When he’s a fight manager his line of thought runs differently.

Sylvester Announces Substitution

“I made the announcement of the substitution and the crowd went for it,” Johnny said as he settled more comfortably in his chair. “But I got madder and madder as I thought of that added 15 per cent.

“Suddenly I made up my mind to call the whole thing off.

“I’ll show that Sampson a thing or two, I said.”

“When I met Sampson I said, well the fans will take the substitute and everything’s set. But instead of giving you 15 per cent I will make it 25 per cent. Now take your fighter to the dressing room and get ready.

“When they had left I went into the ring and made the announcement that the fight was off.

“We refunded $4400 as the State ring commission records will show.

“When Sampson and his fighter were ready they called for me. I led ‘em to the arena and were they surprised when they saw the empty house. The joint was a blank, even most of the help had gone home.

Costly Party for Sylvester

“What’s the matter? Sampson wanted to know.

“You told me you would give me an added 25 per cent and now there’s not a soul in the house. What did you do?”

Sylvester now got up. He had to have room to tell the final part of the yarn. He needed to swing his arms and point with pride.

“There’s the house you smart manager,” continued Johnny, moving his arms to include the imaginary house.

“Take the whole thing and cut yourself in another 25 per cent.

“That’s the best party I ever put on. It cost me $504 which included transportation for the headliners, arena rent, $50 for Varner to aid him in his training expenses and other items.”

Which goes to show what strange things the fight mob will do when money flows freely.

Simpson better watch that Sylvester if those golden days return.

One of the more curious aspects of Scherck’s career at the Tribune was his fellow sports columnist, Art Cohn, who also wrote an Oakland Tribune column called Cohn-ing Tower. Quite unlike George Scherck, he was widely known for his bombastic style. Cohn’s broad choice of subjects often elicited unwanted controversy and may have accounted for his departure from the Oakland Tribune early on. Art Cohn did not toil in obscurity for long, however. He soon became an author and screenwriter for Hollywood’s elite, including Liz Taylor and Frank Sinatra.

This topic would not seem to be particularly relevant to George Scherck, except that one of Art Cohn’s stories was allegedly the basis for the movie, Red Skies of Montana. That story was, of course, based upon the tragic 1949 Mann Gulch fire which killed 13 of Missoula’s smokejumper firefighters. Cohn’s interest in Montana forest fires hasn’t been explained, yet he ventured into writing on an eclectic variety of topics besides sports, including a biography of Mike Todd, the film producer and husband of actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Mike Todd was apparently one of Cohn’s heroes and their friendship sadly led to Cohn’s death when he was killed in New Mexico in the same plane crash that killed Mike Todd. Cohn’s unfinished biography of Mike Todd, The Nine Lives of Michael Todd[5], was eventually finished by his wife and published in 1958. Another of Cohn’s biographies was based on the fighter Joe E. Lewis and made into a movie that starred Sinatra.

Regarding WW I – a list of Montana’s complement of WW1 servicemen and women has been documented in the Montana Memory Project. The servicemen and women from the University of Montana who died in WW1 have been memorialized at Memorial Row on campus and are the subject of Memorial Row’s website. The University of Montana Memorial site lists 37 casualties. A list of casualties that appears in the book Soldiers of the Great War shows 12 with the hometown of Missoula[6]. This book lists every casualty from Montana. According to the Montana Historical Society, close to 40,00 Montanans served in WW1 and about 12,000 of these were volunteers.