UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
										
Interview #506
GLOECKLER, RAYMOND, JARRED, JACK AND McCORMICK, WILLIAM

GLOECKLER, Raymond (1928- )
Undergraduate and Graduate Student; Lecturer; Professor of Art
At UW: 1946-1952; 1961-1994

JARRED, Jack (1923- )
Undergraduate and Graduate Student
At UW: 1945-1949

and McCORMICK, William G. (1928- )
Undergraduate Student
At UW: 1947-1954

Interviewed: 1997	
Interviewer: Barry Teicher
Length: 1 hour, 2 minutes

Formation of 150-lb. football team; Arthur "Dynie" Mansfield; Scrimmages; Jerry Burns; League play; Conference co-championship; Disbandment of team; Fifty-year reunion.

October 27, 1997

Tape 1

00:00:00	Question: Let's start out talking about how each of you got involved in the team. Answer: Ray Gloeckler, Jack Jarred and William McCormick first became aware of the formation of a 150-lb. football team when they read a notice posted on campus.  Arthur “Dynie” Mansfield, who served as coach, organized it in the fall of 1947, but it was Harry Stuhldreher, the varsity football coach, who came up with the idea.  Two hundred and fifty recruits signed up.  Illinois, Ohio State and Michigan also organized teams.  RG and WM had played football in high school.

00:05:10	Question: Did Mansfield decide who was going to be allowed to try out or were all 228 invited? Answer: Many recruits quit the squad for various reasons, and before long only fifty remained. The team practiced on a field near Camp Randall.  They occasionally scrimmaged  against junior varsity players who weighed under 190 pounds.

00:08:46	Question: Did you have games pretty soon in that first year? Answer: RG, JJ and WM discuss the play book, which was relatively simple.  They talk about some UW boxers from the lower weight classes who played on the team, as well as other players.

00:14:58	Question: What was [Mansfield] like as a coach? Answer: Mansfield, a former heavyweight boxer, taught baseball but his first love was football.  He was respected and feared by the team.

00:18:58	Question: How does equipment then differ from today, 1990's? Answer: The players’ helmets were made of leather and did not have face masks.  Their pants were constructed of rough canvas.

00:22:05	Question: How many games did you play in the year? Answer: In the team’s first year, Michigan was the only team that defeated it.  The Michigan halfback, Jerry Burns, also played on their varsity team.  He later went on to coach the Minnesota Vikings.  The 150-lb. team had tremendous fan support.  RG, JJ and WM talk about Roundy, the legendary sports writer for the Wisconsin State Journal.

00:31:24	Question: You won your first game, what about the rest of the first year, who did you play? Answer: RG, JJ and WM discuss the 1947 season.  The team won all its games but one and shared the league title with Michigan.

00:39:34	No question: The team recently held a fifty-year reunion, and the players who attended were introduced during halftime at a UW football game.

00:40:37	Question: When the second year started did you have pretty much the same people back? How did the second year go? Answer: The second year of the team’s existence was similar to the first.  Again, it won all its games except that against Michigan.  The team was disbanded after its second year because of the cost and the fact that most other Big Nine schools did not field a team.  In the East, 150-lb. football was popular at both the high school and college levels.  The sport is still played in the East, but the weight limit has been raised to 165 pounds.

00:45:29	Question: Did anyone ever get broken noses or anything? Answer: RG, JJ and WM discuss injuries.

00:48:42	Question: Al Mancheske was the assistant coach, do you remember anything about him? Answer: They talk about several players who were on the team in its second year.

00:49:42	No question: They discuss the indoor track in the Red Gym.

00:53:36	Question: How did you start your reunions? Answer: A thirty-year reunion was held in 1977 in Madison.  It was organized by Ken Dennis, and Dynie Mansfield attended.  RG, JJ and WM continue their discussion of the fifty-year reunion.

01:01:49	End of tape.

END of Oral History #506