Since we’re nearing the end of high school football season, October seems like a good month to
do a photo on Shinnston High School’s first football team. I’ve had the accompanying image for
about twenty years; it was taken in the fall of 1908. For many years, a large hand-colored
version of this photo could sometimes be found on display inside Harmer Funeral Home.
Those in the photo, from L-R are, at front: Walter Burnett, Camden Conaway, Harold Jarrett
(The Toggery), and Albert Richardson. Middle Row: John Lowe, Leslie Wyatt, William Clyde
“Jake” Wyatt (holding ball), Robert Taylor, George Maloney, and Edgar Harmer. Back Row:
Isaac Emery Ash (Teacher and Principal), Clark Pigott, Earl Hardesty, John Richardson, Penfield
Randall, Harvey Ferguson, and the first SHS football coach, John B. Wyatt. Richardson, L. Wyatt,
and Randall are each wearing a rubber nose guard around their neck. Randall is also wearing
shoulder pads. A few helmets are lying on the ground, at front center. One team member was
missing from the photo and that was Brooks Martin. He was listed as being a 250lb guard with
extreme strength, but it was often thought he did not exert himself fully due to fear of crushing
his opponent. Four of the players were 19 years old. The Richardson boys were brothers and
the two Wyatt boys were brothers of the coach. Also, George Maloney died the following year
from rheumatism.
The team played 8 games during their inaugural season. Many of the boys had never played a
football game and only a few had ever watched one being played. Also, several parents did not
want their sons playing a game that was labeled as being dangerous so it was not easy forming
a team. The 1908 team not only lost every game, but they were also never able to score any
points for any game they played that year.
Several local spots were utilized for both practice and playing fields. The current Little League
field at the end of Monroe Street was used during the 1908 season. Their first game was
played there against Mannington and was an eye-opener for several of the players whom
experienced it as their first ever football game; Mannington defeated Shinnston, 17-0. The
second game was an away battle against Morgantown. In 1908, the travel route for the team
consisted of taking a streetcar from Shinnston to Fairmont, and then boarding a train from
Fairmont to Morgantown. That game left three players injured: Richardson had a knee out of
place, Randall injured his wrist, and Hardesty was unable to accompany the team back home as
he was left in a Morgantown hospital with a broken collar bone. The resulting score of the
Morgantown game was Morgantown-67, Shinnston-0. Again, Shinnston never scored one point
during the 1908 season.
In later years, other local spots used as a playing field included the meadow where Vincent
Lumber is today, the Long farm in East Shinnston near the Bethlehem divide, and the land
where the current Almost Heaven Barn is along Saltwell Road.
The image is labeled as “SHS”, signifying it being Shinnston High School. A freestanding high
school building opened in Shinnston in 1916 as “Clay District High School”, but the back side (or
the East Avenue side) of the Mahlon Street public school building had an addition where high
school classes were taught and SHS was part of that building at the time of this photo.
When preparing for a presentation or writing an article, I generally prefer to do my own
research on topics, as opposed to summarizing what someone has already summarized into
their own work. My research generally includes spending a lot of time looking through
microfilm and data collected from the time the events actually occurred. However, a large part
of the information for this article came from a 1962 interview of the late Edgar Harmer, a
lifetime Shinnston resident and member of this 1908 football team. The interview proved to be
invaluable to creating an article for this month’s story behind the photo!