- Eureka High vs Guthrie High
In 1929 the Eureka High School football team played its home football games on Thrall Field, which was located at the northwest corner of Poplar and West Fourth Streets. After 1929, all of Eureka’s home football games have been played at McGinnis Field. The 1929 season is remembered for the football team going undefeated in its eight scheduled games and then traveling to Guthrie, Okla. to play a game against one of Oklahoma’s better high school football teams in that year. Eureka’s schedule and scores follows: Eureka 12-Toronto 6, Eureka 13-Gridley 6, Eureka 6-Fredonia 0, Eureka 20-Augusta 6, Eureka 31-Emporia 2, Eureka 12- Neodesha 0, Eureka 59-Howard 0, Eureka 19Arkansas City 0.
Eureka football fans and players thought the season was over after the game with Ark City, but that all changed when an announcement was made by the Kansas High School Athletic Association of the confirmation of a game to be played with Guthrie High in Guthrie, Okla., on Thanksgiving Day.
The Guthrie team was one of the strongest teams in Oklahoma and the strongest in the northern part of that state. In search of a holiday game with one of the outstanding teams in Kansas, the Guthrie officials wired the Wichita Eagle for a recommendation and it was the Crimson Tornado of the local high school that received the appointment. Negotiations were immediately transacted, the contract made valid and the game assured.
Guthrie High had an enviable record for the season. Out of seven games, one had been tied, one lost and five won by masterful scores. The Guthrie scores were as follows: Guthrie 38-Oklahoma City Central High 0, Guthrie 38- Oklahoma City Classen High 0, Guthrie 27- Enid 0, Guthrie 27- Blackwell 0, Guthrie 0-El Reno 0, Guthrie 7Shawnee 16, Guthrie won another game 20 to 6 but the opponent was not listed in the paper.
Enid had beaten Wellington 33 to 0 and Guthrie rolled over Enid. Blackwell held Guthrie to a scoreless tie and the El Dorado team held Blackwell to scoreless tie.
Shawnee, the only team to defeat the Guthrie squad was, admittedly state champion of Oklahoma. This was the first inter-state game in the history of Eureka High and furnished the Crimson Tornado with an opportunity to show its splendid power. The team, accompanied by Coach Godlove, left early Wednesday morning on a specially charted bus and were at the end of its 225-mile jaunt near noon. A light workout took place after they arrived.
The following are parts of The Eureka Herald article after the game with Guthrie was played: “A horde of fighting Bluejays resting contentedly amid the red sand dunes of Oklahoma and guarding zealously the Central Conference honors of that state arose in a determined manner to disperse storm clouds of a threatening Crimson Tornado that settled on Guthrie, Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 28.
The Bluejay is a grand old bird and famed for his warfare tactics, but after he had met with his opponent, his sleek coat was somewhat ruffled and his torso minus 7 of its gorgeous tail feathers. The Jay was worse for wear but its head still carried high: and justly so, for had not one of the strongest adversaries he had met in recent years been banished and sent homeward in defeat? And what a battle it was. Never had the Jay met one whose attack was fiercer and whose bruising tactics was well remembered.
In the first five minutes of play the jay had crossed the local goal line and from then on, the battle really raged. Godlove’s men, surprised at such a furious thrust staged by Guthrie, came back and fought the game that has made them famous in their home state, but it was not until the final period that the Crimson Tornado carried across the Oklahoma goal line and added the extra point to break into the column. Before the disciples of Godlovian tactics had hung up a single score Guthrie made its second touchdown.
Eureka scored in the last period when Pugh blocked a kick and recovered it on the Guthrie 16-yard line. Eight play latter Eureka scored. Several opportunities to score were passed up by Eureka and a victory denied when a pass from Warner to Braden was ruled incomplete. Two other times Eureka was inside Guthrie’s 17-yard line and did not score. Eureka made 253 yards from scrimmage to 248 yards for Guthrie. Approximately 250 fans from Eureka accompanied the team on its trip and a crowd of nearly 3,000 watched the game. The final score was 13 to 7 in favor of Guthrie.”
