1921, 1930 Logan teams added to undefeated list

Upon further review, the 1921 and 1930 Logansport football teams also went undefeated during the regular season, making the 2026 accomplishment the seventh time in school history.As previously reported in these pages last week, the 1909, 1911, 1958 and 2005 teams also made it through the regular season unbeaten.The 1921 and 1930 seasons were overlooked for their accomplishments in the original scanning by this reporter of the records kept by former athletic director Mike Smith. Here is a closer look of those two seasons.1921SportsAlmanac.com takes a good look into the history of Indiana high school football state championships. There are different eras according to the website.There’s the “nothing official about it (1800s to 1926)” era.“In the early, early days of football, there were no playoffs, no polls ... only teams struggling to find other teams to play,” the website reported. “As the sport grew and programs began to excel, an undefeated season would no doubt bring with it claims for the state championship, often bolstered by the local newspaper that covered the school.“But let’s not take anything away from those early teams just because there was no method of selecting the No. 1 team. There was no way to prove or disprove who was the best, so, for this era, if a team had a great season, claimed to be the state champs and was backed by a newspaper or some other worthy source, who are we to argue?”Logansport’s 1921 season was during this era, as was the mythical state championship 1909 team and the 1911 team that had difficulty finding opponents wanting to play against them.The Pharos-Tribune wrote in a game preview of the 1921 team: “Coach Homer Stonebraker’s gridiron battering ram of high school huskies is cocked and primed for its battle supreme tomorrow afternoon at the Spencer park field when the red and black warriors buck up against the strong Rensselaer squad.”The Berries defeated Rensselaer 22-13 in Week 3 in the closest game of the regular season. They went 7-0 during the regular season, which included a 107-0 win over Monticello in Week 6.A game was added against Kirklin on Nov. 19, 1921 at a neutral site at Frankfort’s baseball field. Reports were a train from Logansport was going to bring LHS students, band and fans to cheer on LHS. Preparations to accommodate 5,000 spectators were made by the civic bodies of Frankfort.“At 5 o’clock next Saturday evening, one of the two battling elevens will remain on the field the conquerer, with an undisputed claim to the 1921 high school gridiron honors of Indiana. Which squad will withstand the acid test,” proclaimed the Pharos-Tribune, which predicted a Logansport win.But the headline in Sunday’s paper was “L.H.S. loses state championship in a field of mud.”“There is no alibi for the local boys,” said the Logansport Press following a 34-0 defeat. “They played real football and fought a valiant battle but were completely outclassed. They would have been defeated by Kirklin on the fastest field in the country or on a gridiron ten times as muddy as the fair grounds at Frankfort where the struggle took place.“Ernest Rohrabaugh, quarterback for the victorious squad, is a football team all alone. Rohrabaugh played a game which would be worthy of mention with any college team in the United States.”The article said the sea of mud made the forward pass that Logansport relied on that year nearly an impossibility. Reports were that Kirklin outweighed the locals 15 to 20 pounds per man.“Only on one occasion did the Logansport men execute a pass for any substantial gain and this play, known as a lateral pass, is deserving of mention,” the article stated. “The pass was put through like the old Evers to Tinker to Chance combination. Cripe took the pigskin, ran five yards to the left, passed it back to Arrick at the other extremity of the line and Arrick in turn tossed it to Scott who was waiting several yards down the field. The play gained thirty yards for the Red and Black and brought a prolonged burst of applause from the spectators.”The starting 11 for the Red and Black in the state championship game was Myers, Flory, Carr, Puett, Hillis, Kendall, Scott, Arrick, Corriden, Paul and Price.One of the oddities of the 1921 team was they had a 44-7 win over Fort Wayne and a 34-0 loss to Kirklin, which now feeds into Clinton Central High School. Fort Wayne had a population around 86,000 in 1921 and Kirklin's population was around 700. Logansport's population 105 years ago was about 22,000.1930According to SportsAlmanac.com, the 1930 team was part of “the sportswriter says... (1927 to 1952)” era.“In 1926, three different schools were dubbed state champs by various newspapers, all with a legit claim,” the website writes. “Dick Miller, the sports editor of the Indianapolis Times, decided that something different needed to be done when it came to selecting No. 1. Beginning in 1927, he got the blessing of the Indiana High School Athletic Association to award a trophy to the best team in the state.“Given with the approval of the IHSAA board of controls, Miller himself would award the trophy, called ‘Triumph,’ to the ‘Most Outstanding Team in Indiana.’ (The board made it clear that they did not approve any team as the official champion.)”The 1930 Logansport team went 8-0 during the regular season.The NCC didn’t start awarding conference champions until 1932, but Logansport did win a Central Indiana High School Football Conference title in 1930, meaning the Berries’ Hoosier Conference title this year was their 10th conference title in the sport. The Berries’ wins in 1930 were against Peru, Thorntown, Huntington, Muncie Central, Marion, Lafayette Jeff, Kokomo and Indianapolis Tech.A 14-13 win over Peru and 19-12 win over Jeff were the closest games of the regular season.The undefeated regular season set up a mythical state championship game against Gary Emerson on Thanksgiving Day.“A tight defensive, better than anything Logansport has encountered to date, and a cyclonic offensive, more powerful than any bucked by Emerson during the current season, will be matched when the Golden Tornado of the north and the Red Devils of the Central Conference clash on Gleason Field at Gary Thanksgiving Day afternoon,” the Pharos-Tribune reported.Officials expected an attendance of more than 10,000 fans at Gleason Field.Pharos-Tribune headlines stated, “Logansport line and backs outweigh the Golden Tornado by many pounds; Coach Trobaugh believes that he has the better team.”Logan starters included L. Campbell, Hall, C. Campbell, Million, Settles, Rummel, Layman, Morrical, Fribley and Sanders.The headline of the Friday paper stated: “Emerson of Gary routs L.H.S. Eleven 21-0.”“Sweetly cherished hopes of a Logansport high school football championship burst like a bubble in the frigid air at Gary Thursday afternoon when the Golden Tornado of Emerson outplayed the Red Devils of L. H. S. and won easily 21 to 0,” the article stated. “Passes were a chief factor in the strong Emerson assault.”CURRENT TEAMThe 2026 Berries are 10-0 for a second time in their history, joining the 2005 team.They have a chance to improve to 11-0 for the first time in program history when they travel to Jay County (4-6) for a Class 4A sectional semifinal game Friday night.The Berries have already won their 10th conference title in program history and recorded their seventh undefeated regular season.They are hoping to add on to their four sectional championships (1986, 1988, 2004 and 2020) and one regional title (2004).