Little never-say-die team took a shellacking

By Ron Brocato, Sports
Clarion Herald

It would never happen today. It couldn’t. Neither the rules of football nor the spirit of fair play would allow it.

But the outrageous did occur in a Class B game played in New Orleans on Oct. 23, 1928, when S.J. Peters Commercial High defeated Westwego School by the score of 139-0. And Coach Jack Dowling’s “Commy High” team was audacious enough to do it in the shadow of the New Orleans Municipal Courthouse at Tulane and South Broad.

Today, even the most combative of coaches would mutually agree to play the remainder of a game with running time on the clock if a score was out of hand. The game officials would, and do, strongly urge such an end to a rout-in-progress. But not back then.

During an era in which The Times-Picayune sports writers regarded themselves as newsmen and not “journalists,” the T-P’s Gene Thatcher had an interesting style of expression, displayed in this manual oration of the outcome:

“All high-scoring records of the New Orleans Preparatory School Athletic Association were broken yesterday on the new gridiron of the Samuel J. Peters High School of Commerce when (Coach) Jack Dowling’s favorites for the Class B championship turned back Westwego’s football team, 139 to 0 before a big crowd (editor’s note: The game was Westwego’s first ever).”

Thatcher goes on: “Scoring five or more touchdowns in every quarter, Commy also piled up 23 extra points after the scores and made their size, weight and experience crush a brave, outclassed over-the-river eleven that never once gave up in a valiant effort to crash through (’Wego’s captain, last name Caire, weighed 95 pounds. And just three players sat in reserve.).

“The fact that Coach (J.V.) Fairchild’s boys, making their city prep league debut, chalked up five first downs, all as a result of forward passes, and several times showed clean, hard tackling and spirit that will go far against an opponent of more equal strength, brought down the plaudits of those who jammed the sidelines and took advantage of the new bleachers being erected on one side of the field.”

“After the first play it simply became a question of who wouldn’t score a touchdown.” Thatcher then recites the names of the players who crossed the goal line, noting, “and others all contributing as the linemen completely crushed their inexperienced rivals.”

He also praised the losing team’s valiant effort but couldn’t help editorializing with this admonishment: “Dowling was out to run up a big score, and he did it by frequently rushing in new men, pulling his first team out at the end of the first quarter and sending them back in to open the fourth period. Commy’s seconds did as well as the ‘first-stringers,’ too.”

The score by quarters for the victor read: 32-40-34-33 points.

“Unless something is done to prevent such a recurrence of this in Class B – either having Commy in ‘A’ or form a Class C division – the sport will be ruined hereabouts. As it was, the last quarter was shortened by four minutes with darkness approaching. If gone the entire route the count might have climbed to over 150. Westwego hardly rushed the ball past midfield but should show much better form against the other contenders.”

Thatcher’s observation, more of a wish, couldn’t have been more wrong. Refusing to yield a minute of play, Fairchild’s shorthanded team, given the nickname “Spartans” in later years, lost its remaining games by the scores of 76-0 to Manual Training (Newman), 69-0 to Jesuit’s junior team, 57-0 to St. Aloysius and 55-0 to Donaldsonville. With two games left in the B league, Rugby won by a score of 84-6 and New Orleans Academy also prevailed through a similar rout, 82-6, before Westwego salvaged a season-ending 0-0 tie against the St. Aloysius jayvee.

Thatcher issued one final opinion, writing, “All other B games will be played at the old Tulane Stadium. It’s probably a good thing, as the (Peters) fences are entirely too close to the goal lines on both ends, and the ball had to be brought out near the last white line and the goal posts jammed right up against the streets.

“Commy’s peppy five-piece jazz band, just recently organized, entertained a large band of girl rooters who came to cheer for Westwego, and the spirit ran high on both sides,” wrote Thatcher.

The 139 points stand as a record rout. The previous record in the three-parish area was a 96-0 deluge by Warren Easton over St. Aloysius in a 1923 game.

The outcome was also the most points scored by two teams in a single game until 2012 when Newman and Carver combined for 140 points in a 72-68-point parade, won by Newman.

Commy did move up in class the following year and remained a public high school until 1952 when it became a junior high. The school closed indefinitely in 2005, one of many casualties of Hurricane Katrina.

One of three small high schools on the West Bank of the city, Westwego joined Marrero and Gretna in a consolidation to create West Jefferson High in 1955.

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