1915 College Football All-Southern Team

The 1915 College Football All-Southern Team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-Southern Teams selected by various organizations in 1915. Josh Cody and Baby Taylor were selected third-team All-Americans by Walter Camp, and Bully Van de Graaff was selected for his second-team. Van de Graaff was Alabama's first ever All-American. Buck Mayer of the 8–1 Virginia Cavaliers was the south's first consensus All-American, selected first-team All-American by Frank G. Menke and Parke H. Davis. The "point-a-minute" Vanderbilt Commodores won the SIAA.

Rabbit Curry.

Composite eleven

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Bully Van de Graaff.

The composite All-Southern team selected by ten sports writers and coaches included:

  • Josh Cody, tackle for Vanderbilt, inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1970, only three-time All-American in Vanderbilt football history. Third-team Camp All-American. He was selected for the Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869-1919 era.[1] Later a prominent football coach at many institutions.
  • Rabbit Curry, quarterback for Vanderbilt, unanimous selection. During the First World War, he was killed in aerial combat over France. He was a beloved player of Coach McGugin, described by one writer as "the player who has most appealed to the imagination, admiration, and affection of the entire university community through the years."[2]
  • Russ Cohen, end for Vanderbilt, later an assistant under Wallace Wade at Alabama and head coach at LSU and Cincinnati.
  • Wooch Fielder, halfback for Georgia Tech, later an influential veteran of the Second World War.
  • John G. Henderson, center for Georgia, the head of a group of three men, one behind the other with his hands upon the shoulders of the one in front, to counter Georgia Tech's jump shift offense utilized by John Heisman.[3] The game ended 0–0. He also played baseball and was later Georgia baseball coach.
  • Bob Lang, guard for Georgia Tech, the first guard selected for the Heisman era All-Era Tech football team.
  • Walter Neville, fullback for Georgia, made All-Southern in his first year on the varsity.
  • David Paddock, quarterback for Georgia, the only player in school history to have a petition circulated by the student body requesting that he play for the Bulldogs.
  • Baby Taylor, guard for Auburn, unanimous selection. Weighing just under 200 pounds, Taylor would be a small player today, but he was then considered quite large, "worth three ordinary men."[4] Miss Virginia Gilmer, an Auburn fan of some 13 years of age once told Taylor that “if she were a boy and as big as he and had any sense at all she would be an all-southern tackle.”[5] Third-team Camp All-American
  • Charlie Thompson, end for Georgia, captain-elect but ruled ineligible for next year.
  • Bully Van de Graaff, tackle for Alabama, unanimous selection. He was selected for the Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869-1919 era.[1] Alabama's first All-American, and brother of the inventor of the Van de Graaff generator which produces high voltages. Second-team Camp All-American.

Composite overview

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Bully Van de Graaff, Baby Taylor, and Rabbit Curry were unanimous selections.

Name Position School First-team selections
Bully Van de Graaff Tackle Alabama 10
Baby Taylor Guard Auburn 10
Rabbit Curry Quarterback Vanderbilt 10
Josh Cody Tackle Vanderbilt 8
David Paddock Quarterback Georgia 7
John Henderson Center Georgia 6
Charlie Thompson End Georgia 4
Russ Cohen End Vanderbilt 4
Neil Edmond End Sewanee 3
Jim Senter End Georgia Tech 3
Bob Lang Guard Georgia Tech 3
Bob Taylor Dobbins Guard Sewanee 3
Wooch Fielder Halfback Georgia Tech 3
Froggie Morrison Halfback Georgia Tech 3
Walter Neville Fullback Georgia 3
Yank Tandy Center North Carolina 2
Everett Strupper Halfback Georgia Tech 2
Paul Squibb Halfback Chattanooga 2
Roy Homewood End North Carolina 1
Phillip Cooper Tackle LSU 1
Ted Shultz Tackle Washington & Lee 1
Tom Thrash Tackle Georgia 1
Pryor Williams Guard Vanderbilt 1
C. M. Hamilton Guard Vanderbilt 1
George Steed Guard Auburn 1
Carey Robinson Center Auburn 1
R. McArthur Center Mississippi A & M 1
Johnny Barrett Halfback Washington & Lee 1
Buck Mayer Halfback Virginia 1
Homer Prendergast Halfback Auburn 1
Charles C. Schrader Fullback Kentucky 1
Hal Hunter Fullback Transylvania 1
Pete Mailhes Fullback Tulane 1
Bedie Bidez Fullback Auburn 1

All-Southerns of 1915

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Ends

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Tackles

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Guards

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Baby Taylor.

Centers

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Quarterbacks

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David Paddock.

Halfbacks

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Fullbacks

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Walter Neville

Bold = Composite selection

* = Consensus All-American

† = Unanimous selection

C = received votes for a composite All-Southern eleven selected by ten sports writers and coaches, including those from Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chattanooga, and New Orleans.[6] Votes for multiple positions are combined.

TC = Another composite, using eleven sportswriters, published by the Tennessean.[7]

H = selected by John Heisman, published in Fuzzy Woodruff's A History of Southern Football.

DJ = selected by Dick Jemison in the Atlanta Constitution.[8]

NT = selected by the Nashville Tennessean.[9]

SP = selected by the Sewanee student newspaper, the Sewanee Purple.[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "All-Time Football Team Lists Greats Of Past, Present". Gadsden Times. July 27, 1969.
  2. ^ Edwin Mims (1946). History of Vanderbilt University. p. 285.
  3. ^ Alabama vs. Tulane (PDF). November 6, 1937. pp. 5, 11.
  4. ^ "A Lip-Reading Football Star". The Volta Review. Volta Bureau: 102–105. 1925.
  5. ^ Jeremy Henderson (May 21, 2014). "To the eternal glory of Miss Virginia Gilmer, maybe the biggest Auburn fan ever".
  6. ^ Dick Jemison (November 30, 1915). "Composite All-Southern Of Ten Of The Dopesters". Atlanta Constitution. p. 10. Retrieved March 5, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.  
  7. ^ Blinkey Horn. "Composite All-Southern Shows Wide Range of Opinion and Place". The Tennessean. p. 10. Retrieved September 21, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.  
  8. ^ Dick Jemison (November 21, 1915). "All-Southern Pick". Atlanta Constitution. Retrieved March 4, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.  
  9. ^ Blinkey Horn (November 28, 1915). "Three Commodores Are Given Places On All-Southern". The Tennessean. p. 42. Retrieved September 21, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.  
  10. ^ "The Purple's Pick For An All-Southern Team". The Sewanee Purple. December 2, 1915.