1915 College Football All-Southern Team

The 1915 College Football All-Southern Team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-Southern Teams selected by various organizations in 1915. Josh Cody and Baby Taylor were selected third-team All-Americans by Walter Camp, and Bully Van de Graaff was selected for his second-team. Van de Graaff was Alabama's first ever All-American. Buck Mayer of the 8–1 Virginia Cavaliers was the south's first consensus All-American, selected first-team All-American by Frank G. Menke and Parke H. Davis. The "point-a-minute" Vanderbilt Commodores won the SIAA.

Composite eleven

The composite All-Southern team selected by ten sports writers and coaches included:

• Josh Cody, tackle for Vanderbilt, inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1970, only three-time All-American in Vanderbilt football history. Third-team Camp All-American. He was selected for the Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869-1919 era.^[1] Later a prominent football coach at many institutions.
• Rabbit Curry, quarterback for Vanderbilt, unanimous selection. During the First World War, he was killed in aerial combat over France. He was a beloved player of Coach McGugin, described by one writer as "the player who has most appealed to the imagination, admiration, and affection of the entire university community through the years."^[2]
• Russ Cohen, end for Vanderbilt, later an assistant under Wallace Wade at Alabama and head coach at LSU and Cincinnati.
• Wooch Fielder, halfback for Georgia Tech, later an influential veteran of the Second World War.
• John G. Henderson, center for Georgia, the head of a group of three men, one behind the other with his hands upon the shoulders of the one in front, to counter Georgia Tech's jump shift offense utilized by John Heisman.^[3] The game ended 0–0. He also played baseball and was later Georgia baseball coach.
• Bob Lang, guard for Georgia Tech, the first guard selected for the Heisman era All-Era Tech football team.
• Walter Neville, fullback for Georgia, made All-Southern in his first year on the varsity.
• David Paddock, quarterback for Georgia, the only player in school history to have a petition circulated by the student body requesting that he play for the Bulldogs.
• Baby Taylor, guard for Auburn, unanimous selection. Weighing just under 200 pounds, Taylor would be a small player today, but he was then considered quite large, "worth three ordinary men."^[4] Miss Virginia Gilmer, an Auburn fan of some 13 years of age once told Taylor that “if she were a boy and as big as he and had any sense at all she would be an all-southern tackle.”^[5] Third-team Camp All-American
• Charlie Thompson, end for Georgia, captain-elect but ruled ineligible for next year.
• Bully Van de Graaff, tackle for Alabama, unanimous selection. He was selected for the Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1869-1919 era.^[1] Alabama's first All-American, and brother of the inventor of the Van de Graaff generator which produces high voltages. Second-team Camp All-American.

Composite overview

Bully Van de Graaff, Baby Taylor, and Rabbit Curry were unanimous selections.

All-Southerns of 1915

Ends

• Charlie Thompson, Georgia (C, DJ)
• Russ Cohen, Vanderbilt (C, NT)
• Neil Edmond, Sewanee (C, TC, NT, SP)
• Jim Senter, Georgia Tech (C, TC, H, SP)
• Roy Homewood, North Carolina (C, H)

Tackles

• Bully Van de Graaff†, Alabama (C, TC, H [as fb], DJ, NT, SP)
• Josh Cody, Vanderbilt (College Football Hall of Fame) (C, TC, H, DJ [as e], NT, SP [as g])
• Phillip Cooper, LSU (C)
• Ted Shultz, Washington & Lee (C, DJ)
• Tom Thrash, Georgia (C, H)

Guards

• G. E. "Baby" Taylor†, Auburn (C, TC, H, DJ, NT, SP)
• Bob Lang, Georgia Tech (C)
• Bob Taylor Dobbins, Sewanee (C, TC, NT, SP [as t])
• Pryor Williams, Vanderbilt (C)
• C. M. Hamilton, Vanderbilt (C)
• George Steed, Auburn (C, H)
• Kirby Lee Spurlock, Mississippi A&M (DJ)

Centers

• John Henderson, Georgia (C, TC, NT, SP)
• Yank Tandy, North Carolina (C, H, DJ)
• Carey Robinson, Auburn (C)
• R. McArthur, Mississippi A & M (C)

Quarterbacks

• Rabbit Curry†, Vanderbilt (C, TC, H [as hb], DJ, NT, SP)
• David Paddock, Georgia (C, TC, NT [as hb], SP [as hb])

Halfbacks

• Wooch Fielder, Georgia Tech (C, TC, H)
• Froggie Morrison, Georgia Tech (C, H [as qb], NT)
• Everett Strupper, Georgia Tech (College Football Hall of Fame) (C, SP)
• Paul Squibb, Chattanooga (C)
• Johnny Barrett, Washington & Lee (C, DJ)
• Buck Mayer*, Virginia (C, DJ [as fb])
• Homer Prendergast, Auburn (C)
• Clyde Littlefield, Texas (DJ)

Fullbacks

• Walter Neville, Georgia (C)
• Charles C. Schrader, Kentucky (C, SP)
• Hal Hunter, Transylvania (C, NT)
• Pete Mailhes, Tulane (C)
• Bedie Bidez, Auburn (C)
• Hubert Wiggs, Vanderbilt (TC)

Key

Bold = Composite selection

* = Consensus All-American

† = Unanimous selection

C = received votes for a composite All-Southern eleven selected by ten sports writers and coaches, including those from Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chattanooga, and New Orleans.^[6] Votes for multiple positions are combined.

TC = Another composite, using eleven sportswriters, published by the Tennessean.^[7]

H = selected by John Heisman, published in Fuzzy Woodruff's A History of Southern Football.

DJ = selected by Dick Jemison in the Atlanta Constitution.^[8]

NT = selected by the Nashville Tennessean.^[9]

SP = selected by the Sewanee student newspaper, the Sewanee Purple.^[10]

See also

• 1915 College Football All-America Team

References

This page was last edited on 16 August 2023, at 05:00