The Rejected Touchdown | |||||||||||||||||||
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Date | September 14, 1951 | ||||||||||||||||||
Season | 1951 | ||||||||||||||||||
Stadium | Sonner Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
Location | Winfield, Kansas | ||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 2,000 |
The 1951 Central Missouri State vs. Southwestern football game was a college football game between the Central Missouri State Mules and the Southwestern Moundbuilders played on September 14, 1951. The game was played at Sonner Stadium in Winfield, Kansas. [2] The game is known for a team rejecting a touchdown awarded by the game officials.
Central Missouri's head coach Tate C. Page called it "the finest act of sportsmanship" that he ever saw. In the third quarter, Southwestern halfback Arthur Johnson completed a long run down the sidelines nearest Southwestern's bench. The referee signalled a touchdown and the crowd of 2,000 went wild with enthusiasm.
Southwestern's head coach Harold Hunt ran out on the field to shout, "Southwestern rejects the touchdown!" He then informed the officials that Johnson had stepped out of bounds, nullifying the touchdown. Not a single one of the referees had been in a position to see him do so, but they agreed to nullify the touchdown and returned the ball to the point where Coach Hunt said Johnson had stepped out. A photo of the run later confirmed Coach Hunt's observation and it was published in the Winfield Daily Courier. [3]
Referee W. P. Astle noted that there had been only three officials at the game instead of the regulation four. He later said, "If the fourth official had been present to cover what was impossible for me to cover ... I would never have discovered the ‘biggest’ man I ever met."
Southwestern's Hunt was nominated for "Football's Man of the Year" by This Week magazine because of this display of sportsmanship. [4]
John Alexander Harts was an American football coach and elocution teacher. Harts was from Winfield, Kansas and served as the first coach of the Oklahoma Sooners football team at the University of Oklahoma in 1895.
The Southwestern Moundbuilders are the athletic teams that represent Southwestern College, located in Winfield, Kansas, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) since the 1958–59 academic year; which they were a member on a previous stint from 1902–03 to 1922–23. The Moundbinders previously competed in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIC) from 1923–24 to 1957–58.
Arthur Daniel Kahler Sr. was an American college football and basketball player and coach. He was listed in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" as only person to coach at two different major colleges at the same time—head basketball coach at Brown University and football coach at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He later became a coach and athletic director at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas.
Willis Sherman "Bill" Bates was an American college football and college basketball coach. He served as the head football coach at Fairmount College—now known as Wichita State University—from 1905 to 1908 and at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas from 1914 to 1925, compiling a career college football head caoching record of 81–49–12. He also coached basketball at Fairmount and Southwestern (1914–1926), tallying a career college basketball head coaching mark of 179–79.
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The 2000 Kansas State Wildcats football team represented Kansas State University in the 2000 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team's head coach was Bill Snyder. The Wildcats played their home games in KSU Stadium. 2000 saw the Wildcats finish with a record of 11–3, and a 6–2 record in Big 12 Conference play, including a 29–28 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and winning Big 12 North division. The season culminated with a win over Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl Classic.
Harold Seymore Hunt was an American football and basketball coach. He stood out and gained nationwide exposure as an example of sportsmanship when he rejected a touchdown that would have won a game for his team.
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The 1969 Alabama Crimson Tide football team represented the University of Alabama in the 1969 NCAA University Division football season. It was the Crimson Tide's 75th overall and 36th season as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The team was led by head coach Bear Bryant, in his 12th year, and played their home games at Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa and Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. They finished season with six wins and five losses and with a loss against Colorado in the Liberty Bowl.
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