Remembering Ken Rouse, the 1927 Silver Football winner from University of Chicago

Looking back nearly 100 years later, Ken Rouse’s selection as the Chicago Tribune Silver Football winner for 1927 might appear to most people to be an unusual choice.

Rouse was a center on a University of Chicago team that went just 4-4. However, the Lindblom High School graduate made quite an impression on the conference’s coaches and players throughout his career with the Maroons.

David E. Sumner, a professor emeritus at Ball State, did extensive research on the U. of C. football program for his biography on Rouse’s coach, “Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football’s Great Pioneer.” Sumner said Rouse was often praised for his leadership on and off the field.

“He had a great sense of sportsmanship and was a great leader,” Sumner said. “He was popular among his teammates and he rallied the team during some difficult years. That’s the best explanation I have.

“The Silver Football award was about the player who had contributed the most to his team, not necessarily the most outstanding player, and from what I know, I think he had definitely done that.”

Rouse himself authored an article that ran in the Tribune on Nov. 1, 1932, titled, “My Greatest Thrill in Football.” In it, he told of one of the highlights of that 1927 season. The Maroons beat Purdue 7-6, with Rouse blocking an extra point for the decisive play.

“I think no one has ever had more pleasure in having a football kicked into the pit of his stomach than I had at that moment,” Rouse wrote.

According to a Dec. 18, 1927, Tribune story, Rouse was the editor of the school newspaper at Lindblom, head of the school’s ROTC program, voted the “most popular boy in school” and delivered the commencement address at his graduation.

He began his high school football career as a halfback before being moved to center.

At U. of C., he became the only…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/remembering-ken-rouse-1927-silver-120000137.html

Author : Chicago Tribune

Publish date : 2024-08-11 12:00:00

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