Falcon champions in the early days

The University Life publication recorded interesting information of life on the campus of Friends University through the years. There was enough interest in beginning a football team the first fall, 1898, for Professor Edward M. Williams, teacher of Physical Sciences, to begin practicing with a group of men. They reported playing three games, losing only to the Newton Giants. However, nine years later, the Athletic Association was reorganized and football was dropped from the proposed sports. The November 1907 University Life publication had a poem titled “In Memoriam.”

Alas! the prince! alsas! the chief! The pride of F.U. now is o’er,

And fallen our Varsity’s dearest sport, We’ll never see our football more.

Appropriately, a memorial service was planned. On October 11, “A casket draped in black had been prepared by the Ladies’ Quartette…and as the orchestra began playing for the students to march out, the “muffled drum’s sad roll’ and the tolling of the bell were heard; and the funeral procession began moving out of the front entrance….” The ladies quartette sang “Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in football love,” and an obituary was read by the “Most Reverend John Stanley” (a student) in which he spoke of the “all-knowing Board of Directors, (who) in their infinite wisdom, having seen fit to remove from our midst our beloved football, we the students of Friends University, hereby wish to express our grief and regret at the departure of our loved one.”