September 17, 1897 - Ed Travis was a tackle from Tarkio College and the University of Missouri. Ed grew up in Tarkio , Missouri which is a small college town in the northern part of the state. Ed Travis was a star lineman at his local high school and had one ambition, he wanted to play football at the University of Missouri. Missouri’s coaches seemed unimpressed with the youngster out of high school , so Ed stayed home and attended Tarkio College. After an impressive season at Tarkio, the brass at Missouri recruited Travis and the next fall he was playing football for the Tigers. Football at Missouri was suspended for World War I and Ed served his country overseas. In 1919 he returned home and donned the Tiger uniform once again. He was selected to enter the College Football Hall of Fame in 1974.
September 17, 1909 - Bill Morton was a quarterback from Dartmouth College. Morton became a Dartmouth legend in the 1931 season in the Yale game. Up until that point in football history, the Big Green had never defeated the Bulldogs. With time dwindling in the fourth quarter, it looked like Yale had their number once again as the Bulldogs led by a touchdown with just over a minute to play. However no one told Bill Morton, as he kicked a 33 yard field goal to knot the score at 33 all and the Big Green finally tied their longtime nemesis. “Air Mail” Morton had more heroics in store at the Cornell game as the on-field magic of Morton led to a 14-0 victory over the formerly undefeated Big Reds of Cornell. The College Football Hall of Fame welcomed Bill Morton through their doors into the hollows of collegiate legends in 1972.
September 17, 1910 - Cliff Montgomery was a former quarterback from Columbia University. Montgomery had his watershed collegiate moment on the big stage at a crucial moment. The setting was the 1934 Rose Bowl and heavily favored Stanford University was having their way with the Lions in the second quarter but somehow were denied the end zone as the score was still tied at 0-0. Montogomery in the huddle then called the play that went down in history known as “KF-79”, a newly devised option style play. The play failed twice earlier, but Cliff wanted to give it one more chance. So the Lions set up in an unbalanced line formation, Morton took the snap and then promptly handed it off to the speedster Al Barabas who swiftly weaved his way to an 18 yard touchdown! It proved to be the only score of the game and Columbia won the Rose Bowl 7-0 with Cliff Montgomery voted as the MVP of the game! Cliff would go on to receive All-American honors and led the Columbia Lions to a record of 22-3-2 during his 3 seasons played. After school Clif Montgomery played one season professionally with the Brooklyn Dodgers football team and later became one the nation’s top football officials. During his service in the U.S. Navy during World War II he became a decorated Naval Commander. The National Football Foundation voted Montgomery into their College Football Hall of Fame in 1963.
September 17, 1913 - James “Monk” Moscrip was an end from Stanford University who played for the Cardinal from 1933 through the 1935 seasons. He was a member of the famous “Vow Boys” who prior to the 1933 season promised not to lose to the University of Southern California for the next three seasons. Moscrip and the rest of the group delivered on their promise as Stanford defeated USC in those three straight seasons allowing the Trojans to score a total of only 7 points in the three games! Monk was the fastest man on his team as he played both offensive and defensive end as well as performing the kicking duties for Stanford. During World War II Moscrip was a U.S. Navy lieutenant and fought bravely in the battles at Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal and Okinawa. After the War Monk played a couple of seasons in the NFL as part of the Detroit Lions franchise. He was welcomed into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
September 17, 1927 - George Blanda was a quarterback and placekicker in both the AFL and the NFL. His career lasted for 26 years, longer than any other player in history and in his last season, at the ripe old age of 48 he is the oldest person ever to play quarterback professionally. George played collegiately at the University of Kentucky. Out of college Blanda was on the AAFC’s Baltimore Colts roster in 1947 through the 1949 seasons. In 1949 George Halas signed the youngster for $600 to play with the NFL’s Chicago Bears. Blanda was the kicker and played a little bit of linebacker for his first few seasons with the Bears. George was named the Chicago starting quarterback in 1953, but an injury a year later would relegate him back to being the kicker. Blanda and Halas often had a rocky relationship together during Blanda’s time with the Bears. This led to Blanda retiring after the 1958 season. When the AFL formed in 1960 though, George Blanda found the opportunity to play quarterback again as he joined the new Houston Oilers team. Though the so called experts often referred to him as an NFL cast-off, Blanda proved he could still play as he and the Oilers won the first two AFL Championships! In the 1961 season he set a record at the time for AFL/NFL quarterbacks as he threw 36 TDs. His most memorable season though might be in 1970 when he was a member of the Oakland Raiders. That season with the Silver and Black, Blanda in a five game span helped the Raiders pull off 4 last second victories and one tie with either a passing TD or a field goal kick and he was 43 years old at the time! Another amazing fact about Blanda that will probably never be matched is that he spent 7 or more seasons with 3 different franchises! George Blanda was selected to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981.
September 17, 1960 - Anthony Carter was a wide receiver from the University of Michigan. Anthony was a unanimous All-American in both the 1981 and the 1982 seasons and an All-American a third time in 1980. That 1980 season, he was voted by his Michigan teammates as the MVP of the team, the very first time in Wolverine history that a sophomore won the honor. After the 1982 season Carter was nominated as the BIG 10 Conference Most Valuable Player! Besides playing offense Carter returned punts and kicks for the Wolverines. In his career at Michigan he scored 36 touchdowns and put up 240 total points breaking the record set by the great Tom Harmon some 4 decades earlier. Carter enjoyed a 13 year career in professional football. He played in the USFL for the Michigan Panthers and then later in the NFL for the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings. The National Football Foundation selected him to enter the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
Special thanks to the Pro Football Reference website.
