I recount a centennial episode from October 1926 in which thirteen East High players, led by their captain known as “Blubber” Sullivan, boycotted a scheduled contest over the appointment of local officials, were summarily suspended from all athletics by school authorities, and were subsequently reinstated after parental and administrative arbitration, a sequence that reveals the tensions between student agency and institutional control in early American high‑school football. We relate how the boycott nearly foreclosed the season, how Coach Gus Anderson elected to continue the campaign with alternate personnel, and how the restored team proceeded to a defensive stalemate against Academy High, a contest characterized by extraordinarily low yardage totals. I explicate Gus Anderson’s enduring significance to Erie football, noting his prodigious coaching record across East and McDowell and the later commemorations of his legacy in local athletic infrastructure. We connect this historical vignette to contemporary developments, including the renaming of the former Gus Anderson Field and the ongoing community engagement of alumni such as James Conner, thereby demonstrating the continuity of local gridiron culture across a century. I present these recollections as part of our broader endeavor at Pigskin Dispatch to elucidate football history through day‑by‑day and year‑by‑year narratives, and we invite listeners to consult our timelines for further contextualization.
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Transcript
You know, sometimes the greatest stories in football history sort of come by accident, you know, accidental reading, that is.
Speaker A:I came across one just recently writing a post for Pigskin Dispatch on a hundred years ago today type articles.
Speaker A:And I dug up an article from my own hometown about a team, a school I was familiar with a century earlier.
Speaker A:We have that in our stories today here on The Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel.
Speaker A:So October 23rd, I did a little piece on something that came up in a Washington, D.C. newspaper about East High.
Speaker A:East High here in Erie, Pennsylvania, my hometown, where I officiated for 27 years.
Speaker A:I had many games where east high school used to play in her.
Speaker A:East high school is no longer a high school, is now a middle school.
Speaker A:Less than 10 years ago, they combined all of the Erie city public schools into one big public school that they renamed Erie High.
Speaker A:So east high is no longer that, but it has a fantastic heritage of gridiron history here in the city of Erie.
Speaker A:'s capital back in October of:Speaker A:So on this 100 year anniversary, I wanted to share this because it really ties into some other football history that I was familiar with and kind of a little interesting story and a little bit of legendary performances that maybe somebody you don't know much about.
Speaker A:So the story starts off on this October 23rd, Dayton, that there was a.
Speaker B:Little bit of a battle going on.
Speaker A:Between two high schools.
Speaker A:And it was about the football field, but it was not on the football field.
Speaker A:Newcastle High School in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, which is a little bit closer to Pittsburgh than it is to Erie.
Speaker A:It's probably, I'd say 80 miles south of Erie, probably 25, 30 miles north west of Pittsburgh.
Speaker A:They were supposed to travel to Erie, Pennsylvania to play East High school.
Speaker A:Well, Newcastle was in a little bit of a disruption over playing at East High because East high was going to hire local officials, officials from the city of Erie.
Speaker A:Think about the:Speaker A:It's not the transportation ways that we have today of just hop in a car and you go, not everybody had a car back then a little bit harder to travel.
Speaker A:The roads were not as good, not the super highways we have today, but so they were expecting.
Speaker A:Erie sees tie to hire officials outside of the city, which I don't even know that that would happen today.
Speaker A:You know, being a local high school football official here in Erie, generally when you have games in that city, you hire officials from the local area of the home team because it's Travel.
Speaker A:You know, high school football officials are.
Speaker B:Not making tons of money.
Speaker A:So even in today's world, traveling more than an hour away from your hometown, it costs money.
Speaker B:with the price of gas here in:Speaker B:But it was pretty similar to what.
Speaker A:It was 100 years ago but even harder to travel.
Speaker B:But Newcastle just, you know, they said hey, we don't want to play you.
Speaker A:If you're going to have these local officials.
Speaker A:So at some point in time the,.
Speaker B:The two schools negotiated and they said all right, fine, we'll send the East High team down to Newcastle to play.
Speaker B:And Newcastle you can get whatever officials you want.
Speaker A:East just wanted to play the game.
Speaker B:They were a pretty good ball club and vying for a city championship here that year.
Speaker B:So they wanted to play some, some good competition.
Speaker B:They felt Newcastle was a worthy opponent.
Speaker B:So they fought, figured they would travel down there.
Speaker B:Well, that's what the administrators wanted.
Speaker B:But the captains, which captains held a much higher status, the playing captains, the student athletes than they do today.
Speaker A:The captain was a guy named Blubber Sullivan.
Speaker B:Blubber I'm sure was his nickname, but that's the only name they give him in the newspapers.
Speaker B:And he had a group of 12, 13 individuals on the team that really followed him because he was a, a good leader.
Speaker B:And he said, you know, we don't want to take a one day trip to Newcastle for traveling.
Speaker B:We'd rather take a three day trip to an unknown destination.
Speaker B:They just said let's go further south.
Speaker A:Let's go play somebody more interesting.
Speaker B:Probably wanted a few more days off from school.
Speaker B:You know, think of like a high school kid does.
Speaker B:But they were pretty staunch on their, their opinion and they wanted to make sure that their team get the trial for three days.
Speaker B:So they were boycotting, they were striking against practicing and playing on this game that was upcoming on this October, I believe it was October 21st game is when it was scheduled against Newcastle.
Speaker B:It got to the point where the school administrators and the principal, Johnny Ray.
Speaker A:Decided that you know what, since you're.
Speaker B:Boycotting and everything, you know, we're going to just ban you from all athletics the rest of your high school career.
Speaker B:So even though you're star on a basketball team, well you're not playing that anymore and if you played baseball, you're not doing on a track or whatever and football definitely you're, you're out, you're, you're done with your athletic career here at East High and end up being.
Speaker B:All 13 members were kicked off the team Suspended from sports.
Speaker B:This is pretty dramatic, you know.
Speaker B:And the coach was a guy by the name of Gus Anderson which we'll get to him in a little bit here because he has a story all his own.
Speaker B:It's kind of interesting.
Speaker B:So anyway, Gus Anderson and Principal Ray, they kicked these guys off the team.
Speaker B:Well the parents of these 13 individuals, they're.
Speaker B:They're a little bit peeved about this.
Speaker B:They're like wait a second.
Speaker B:These are our kids.
Speaker B:You know these are 17, 18 year old kids making a decision for trying to stand up for something they believe.
Speaker B:You can't just kick them off and ban them from all athletics.
Speaker B:It's not like they, you know tried to burn the school down or anything like that.
Speaker B:They were just trying to make a point that you know having some say in where they play and what they do.
Speaker B:Whether it be right, wrong or indifferent.
Speaker B:So the story goes that they ended up having, you know, they end up saying okay, the Newcastle game is off.
Speaker B:You know we're, we're still bickering with Newcastle anyway.
Speaker B:We don't have enough players to go down there.
Speaker B:Let's just forego that.
Speaker B:That game's canceled.
Speaker B:And they're talking about maybe canceling the rest of the season.
Speaker B:Well you know Coach Anderson said no, we still got enough players to play.
Speaker B:We're going to take what we are.
Speaker B:I'm going to name a new captain.
Speaker A:We're going to, you know, we're still.
Speaker B:Going to finish out our season.
Speaker B:We have a couple more games here in the City league because we're vying for a city championship.
Speaker B:We can't just forfeit the rest of our games and forego that.
Speaker B:We have still have a pretty good team.
Speaker B:Well the parents met with the coaches and administrators.
Speaker B:Grievances were aired.
Speaker B:You know like any good arbiter would,.
Speaker A:Would do in arbitration hearing.
Speaker B:I'm not sure how formal it was but the players got to vent.
Speaker B:The coaches got the vent, the principal got the vent.
Speaker B:And it all really.
Speaker B:They all got together and you know the parents and said you know what, what are we really fighting about?
Speaker B:You know this is kind of silly and we're all sort of want the same thing.
Speaker B:East High warrior program in:Speaker B:And we, you know, we can still win the City Championship.
Speaker B:You know forget about that Newcastle game.
Speaker B:Forget about Newcastle.
Speaker B:Our problems with them.
Speaker B:Let's not let this fester into something much worse like it has been with getting kids kicked off the team.
Speaker B:So Principal Ray, Coach Anderson, they allowed those 13 members to come back.
Speaker B:You know, Blubber Sullivan regained his status as captain of the team.
Speaker B:They started practicing again that following Monday and they went into a big game just about a week and a half later against Academy High School, which is no longer a high school here in Erie.
Speaker B:But I did officiate Academy games back in the day.
Speaker B:Academy turned into Collegiate Academy, which is sort of the, the higher honors type.
Speaker B:Students of the Erie school district go to Collegiate Academy and they have a great academic program going on there.
Speaker B:A lot of kids going on to better things at higher education.
Speaker B:But so Academy High and East High end up playing to a 00, a scoreless tie.
Speaker B:It's a kind of a really interesting game because these two teams, neither defense allowed more than like 114 yards.
Speaker B:One team had like 114.
Speaker B:The other team had 92 yards, you know, of total offense in a whole game, in a high school game.
Speaker B:That's pretty unbelievable for high school, even back 100 years ago.
Speaker B:The forward pass had been legal for, you know, 20 years technically, but as sort of as we know it for at least over a dozen years.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But they, you know, team still ran the ball a lot because it was a loser.
Speaker B:But yeah, great defense there.
Speaker B:But let's get into the coach, Gus Anderson, because Gus Anderson is a name.
Speaker A:That I know very well because of my.
Speaker B:The school district I live in, where all four of my children graduated high school from McDowell High School here in the Mill Creek Township, which is a.
Speaker A:Suburb of the city of Erie, sort.
Speaker B:Of surrounds Erie all the way except for the lakeside.
Speaker B:The McDowell had a football field that was called Gus Anderson Field.
Speaker B:Well, East High and McDowell High for.
Speaker A:Years and years and years played against each other in athletic competition.
Speaker B:And Gus Anderson ended up was.
Speaker A:He was first a coach for East.
Speaker B:High, had a great successful program.
Speaker B:Co champions of that:Speaker B:Easton Academy were co champions that year.
Speaker B:Gus Anderson coached.
Speaker B:His overall record in football was 127,.
Speaker A:48 And 15 with some really great seasons.
Speaker B:For McDowell, he was 2.
Speaker B:I'm sorry, East High football, he was 127, 48 and 15.
Speaker B:For McDowell, he was 213, 80.
Speaker B:For the basketball, 127.
Speaker A:Let me start all over again.
Speaker B:127 And 48 and 15 for McDowell football.
Speaker B:His combined record for football, 318 and 103 between McDowell and East High in the years he coached.
Speaker B:ears for McDowell through the:Speaker B:So he's coaching in the:Speaker B:So that's pretty, pretty cool.
Speaker B:or July of:Speaker B:They, you know, just recently the school.
Speaker A:Board is renovating the the field and the athletic complex.
Speaker B:They ended up renaming it for a player that's still playing in the NFL right now, James Connor, who currently plays.
Speaker A:For Arizona Cardinals, formerly the Pittsburgh Steelers,.
Speaker B:Where he was drafted in the third round.
Speaker B:A Pitt Panther.
Speaker B:While he played high school football at McDowell High, I had officiated many of his games that James Conner had played as a running back for McDowell and a good defender, great ballplayer, big kid as a high school student, you know, student athlete and of course went on to beating, you know, some cancer during his college years and still survived it.
Speaker B:Cancer survivor makes the NFL successful in the NFL.
Speaker B:He was a scoring touchdown machine a year ago and some years past.
Speaker B:some injury problems here in:Speaker B:Football from an NFL player, star player at Pitt, you know, in his collegiate days and formerly the Gus Anderson Field.
Speaker B:So it really all ties in the history of 100 years ago, right into the history today.
Speaker B:And it's a local story here in Erie, but kind of an interesting story all the same for the game of football and something I thought you would enjoy.
Speaker B:You know, you can check out our pigskindispatch.com every day we're trying to have these football stories, at least during the football season, these stories from football from 100 years ago from different areas.
Speaker B:And it just so happens the October 23rd story was on that story from Erie that I shared with you today.
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