Tragedy on the Football Field
The first high school football game in the United States was played in 1875 in Connecticut between Norwich Free Academy and New London High School. The first high school football game is Kansas was in 1892, between Abilene and Chapman. These early year games looked much different than high school football does today. Players wore wool jersey, leather pants and cleats. It was not until the 1920s that helmets were used and those were leather. Over the years great improvements have been made in the equipment that is provided to make football a much safer game than it was in those early years. Eureka, like many communities in those early years when equipment for protecting the athlete was lacking, experienced two tragedies.
In November 1918 and again in November 1923 tragedy struck the Eureka High School football team when two of its football players died while playing football, one in practice and one in a game. The football games were being played at Eureka in the afternoon as Eureka did not have lights at this time.
In 1918, Eureka was playing Burlington and the game was in the second quarter. Ruben Snyder, a 14-year-old, was playing defense and was attempting to tackle the Burlington runner. He collided with another Burlington player, who was running interference for the ball carrier. When Snyder failed to get up, players rushed to his assistance and found he was unconscious. After further efforts to revive him failed, he was placed in an automobile and brought to town, but died before he reached a doctor’s office. His father was at the game and helped carry his son to the automobile.
Snyder, who was perhaps the youngest man on either team, was an eighth-grade pupil and this was his first game as a regular on the high school team, although he had played some in previous games. The cause of death was first said to be from a blow across the kidneys. Later it was said to be due to paralysis of the heart.
The funeral of the unfortunate young man was held in the Snyder home in Eureka. Six of Ruben’s schoolmates served as pall bearers. Interment was made in the Greenwood Cemetery.
In November 1923, Norman Duncan, age 19 and a star player on the Eureka High football team, died at an El Dorado hospital. He was making a tackle in practice in Eureka and injured his spinal cord. He was carried from the field, paralyzed from the shoulders down. An ambulance was called from El Dorado and the injured player was taken to a hospital, where he died the next day.
Norman was a senior at the high school, a leader in all school activities, the best player on the football team and one of the most popular students in the school. School was dismissed the day after he died after the students were told of Norman’s death.
