THE AUSTIN TIGER PAGE 13. By Ray Schmidt

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1 THE AUSTIN TIGER PAGE 13 By Ray Schmidt The long history of high school football in the United States is littered with tales of legendary stars who compiled amazing prep records before they flamed out quickly in the bigger world of college football. There have also been many with such incredible records who still managed to put together decent careers at the intercollegiate level, yet because they could not possibly replicate their high school achievements these once well known players are today often judged failures and forgotten. Perhaps the greatest and most publicized of prep football stars from the latter category was Bill DeCorrevont of Northwestern. Growing up on Chicago's Far West Side, DeCorrevont attended Austin High School where he had the good fortune to come under the direction of one of the top coaches in Illinois in Bill Heiland. In his freshman year DeCorrevont was on the Austin varsity football team, but that first season was ruined when he suffered a fractured hip early in the year. After a good sophomore season, in his junior year of 1936 DeCorrevont was ready to begin blossoming into one of the greatest prep players ever from his tailback spot, as the Tigers fielded one of the top teams in the state. After being stunned by an early season tie, Austin proceeded to steam-roll its way through the Public League's West Division as DeCorrevont scored two or three touchdowns every week for a total of 11 before the playoffs. In the semi-final win over Schurz High, he had to leave with a hip injury early in the first quarter and was feared lost for the rest of the playoffs. Yet DeCorrevont recovered, and the next week he was back performing his triple-threat duties as the Tigers pounded Tilden Tech for the public school championship. Austin then battled to a tie in the city championship game against neighboring Fenwick High of the Catholic League, as DeCorrevont accounted for two TDs before 75,000 fans at Chicago's Soldier Field. When his senior season of 1937 rolled around DeCorrevont had matured and now seemed a man among boys. He was 5'11" tall, weighed 180 pounds, and would reach his 19th birthday on November 26. An outstanding natural athlete, DeCorrevont had also been the school's standout player on the varsity baseball team throughout high school, and the Brooklyn Dodgers had offered him a contract before senior year to play professional baseball. In the 1937 football season, Austin and DeCorrevont began to systematically demolish everyone in their path as teams tried everything to check the standout tailback, but the Tigers had a backfield loaded with capable players to go with a rock-solid defense and so they kept rolling. Against Marshall High DeCorrevont tallied seven touchdowns that included scoring gallops of 50, 33, 29, and 26 yards. The speedster then tacked on four touchdowns as Austin avenged a tie in 1936 with a 47-0 romp over Farragut, including dashes of 78, 64, and 48 yards. But all DeCorrevont's other exploits during the regular season were overshadowed when he played only two quarters against McKinley High, yet still tallied nine touchdowns while carrying the ball just ten times. Five of his scores came on runs of 35 yards or longer. After Austin knocked off a fired-up Senn High team for the public school championship, it was on to Soldier Field again to battle Leo High, champions of the Catholic League, for the 1937 city championship. Leo had its own star tailback in Johnny Galvin -- who later played at Purdue -- and many believed he was nearly the equal of DeCorrevont. In the days leading up to the game the Chicago newspapers were filled with articles about the approaching showdown and everyone expected a large crowd, with the Daily News projecting that 80,000 fans might show up. When the two teams came running out of the tunnel at Soldier Field they were overwhelmed

2 PAGE 14 at the sight of approximately 120,000 fans who were jammed into every nook and cranny -- the largest crowd at Chicago's lakefront arena since the 1926 Army-Navy game -- and almost everyone was there to see DeCorrevont do his stuff. And the Austin tailback didn't disappoint anyone, as he scored three touchdowns and passed for another as the Tigers demolished Leo by a score of In the first half he scored on runs of 47 yards and one yard, and Austin added two more tallies in the second half. Two weeks later the Tigers traveled to Memphis and defeated Jackson (Tenn.) High, 13-0; DeCorrevont scoring on a 37-yard run before leaving his final prep game with an injury. It was no surprise that Austin's star tailback was bombarded with all manner of offers for college -- many extremely illegal -- but in the end he enrolled at nearby Northwestern University of the Big Ten in Approaching his sophomore season of 1939, the preseason publicity surrounding DeCorrevont and his Wildcat teammates was incredible. The ex-austin prep was expected to open up temporarily as the backup tailback to Ollie "Red" Hahnenstein for Coach Lynn Waldorf. Wilton Hazzard of Illustrated Football Annual wrote of DeCorrevont: "Always a stupendous runner, he'll be even better now. Those speedy ball-carrying flashes will be more devastating, more perfectly timed." Described as the "most talked-about high school star that ever came down the pike," DeCorrevont had been set up as the target of every defense on Northwestern's 1939 schedule. The opener was against Oklahoma, and the highly publicized sophomore entered the game early in the first quarter. On his first carry he was dumped for a seven-yard loss, and the next time he touched the ball he was nailed for a six-yard loss. Returning to the action in the third quarter, he ran a kickoff back 38 yards and later tacked on an impressive weaving run of 28 yards. By the fourth quarter DeCorrevont was running and passing like any other tailback, yet Northwestern tumbled to a surprising 23-0 defeat. Bill DeCorrevont of Austin The following week was even worse as Ohio State held him to a minus-four yards rushing on 11 carries. Referring to his paltry offensive output, the Associated Press story in some newspapers across the country was headlined, "DeCorrevont Impotent" -- hardly typical pressure for a sophomore player. Northwestern finally broke into the win column against Wisconsin (13-7), despite DeCorrevont being again bottled up running the ball -- held to just three yards on eleven carries. He did break off one dazzling run for an apparent touchdown gallop of 54 yards, only to have the play nullified by a penalty. Yet the AP writer still described his play as "marvelous" on defense and as a punter. DeCorrevont finally broke through in 1939 against Minnesota when he was described as "the hero of the Wildcats win." Entering the game at the start of the second quarter, he chipped in a 12-yard run to Northwestern's first scoring drive. Then in the third quarter he paced a 63-yard march to the Gophers' one with his running and passing, before a fumble ended that threat. With

3 PAGE 15 the score still tied at 7-7, DeCorrevont re-entered the game with 4:04 left to play and on the first snap he circled right end and dashed 61 yards to the winning touchdown. The AP wrote that the game served "to mount DeCorrevont on the pedestal he has futily tried to ascend previously." After a 3-0 loss to Purdue, Northwestern tangled with Notre Dame and DeCorrevont notched a good outing despite the Wildcats' 7-0 loss. In the second quarter he broke off a dash of 33 yards around left end, completed a pair of passes for 16 yards each, and boomed a 67-yard quick kick. But the best play came just before halftime, when Ben Sheridan of Notre Dame broke free and raced 52 yards in the clear before DeCorrevont caught him from behind with a TD-saving tackle. Northwestern had been a "major disappointment" in 1939 with its record, and DeCorrevont had struggled most of the season although Wilton Hazzard wrote that he "actually gave a good account of himself." Francis Powers of Illustrated Football Annual noted that the ex-austin star "has been proved mortal," and that "the tons of ballyhoo, built on his prep school exploits, collapsed Northwestern's premature dreams of gridiron empire." Again this was extremely unfair criticism of a player who could not possibly live up to the media and fans' expectations for him after Bad enough that he was being given a major share of the blame for despite having only shared the tailback spot -- but for 1940 he would have a second major challenger for playing time in talented sophomore Otto Graham. Rumors soon began circulating that DeCorrevont was thinking of leaving Northwestern -- Southern California being said to have the inside track on landing the troubled tailback In January 1940 the controversy escalated when a radio show reported that DeCorrevont had informed Northwestern authorities that the price for his remaining was to either replace Waldorf as head coach or allow him to select a new backfield coach. Waldorf said that the situation was "preposterous. I don't see any reason for even commenting," while DeCorrevont quickly denied the report. Soon he did admit that he had been considering a transfer to USC after his disappointing 1939 season, but again denied the other stories. In the end DeCorrevont decided to remain at Northwestern, although his hopes for the 1940 season were given a jolt when he had to undergo an appendectomy operation during the summer. Yet many sportswriters still looked for big things from the ex-prep star, and Illustrated Football Annual included him in its preseason feature article on the expected stars for DeCorrevont went right to work at erasing the memories of Northwestern launched its season with a convincing 40-0 win over Syracuse as DeCorrevont and running mate Don Clawson each scored two touchdowns. Playing most of the game at tailback, the Austin Tiger broke off a pair of 27- yard runs, completed five of five pass attempts, and punted extremely well. One of the best games of his college career unfolded the following weekend before 42,000 fans at Dyche Stadium as the Wildcats knocked off Ohio State by a score of 6-3. Again DeCorrevont played nearly the entire game and was a tower of strength carrying the football, kicking, and returning punts. In the fourth quarter he capped off the Wildcats only scoring drive of the day with a slashing sweep around right end for the last five yards to paydirt; a series set up just before by his 53-yard quick kick over the head of Les Horvath. Sportswriter Irving Vaughan said that "DeCorrevont finally came into his own as a collegiate football meteor (and) started himself toward the fame that eluded him in his sophomore year." Maxwell Stiles of Football Form and Digest pegged DeCorrevont as the #3 backfield man in the country behind Tom Harmon and Paul Christman during the first weeks of the 1940 season. The Wisconsin Badgers were next up for Northwestern, and DeCorrevont was again a dynamo at tailback as he rifled a 33-yard touchdown pass to Floyd "Tuffy" Chambers in the early going

4 PAGE 16 of the second quarter. Then just before halftime DeCorrevont swept around right end on his way to a 50-yard touchdown dash and a 14-0 lead. In the second half his heroics continued as Northwestern piled up a 27-7 win, yet in the fourth quarter when the Austin Tiger swept around end for a six-yard gain he was hurt and had to be carried off the field. Two days later Associated Press described it as a "blue Monday," as Coach Waldorf announced that DeCorrevont -- the "ace halfback" -- had suffered a severe ankle sprain and would be unable to play the following weekend. Red Hahnenstein stepped in at the tailback spot as Northwestern blitzed Indiana 20-7, but the injury for DeCorrevont was far worse than first thought. He played just 12 minutes and carried the ball only one time in a loss to the eventual national champions from Minnesota, and the following week he was again limited to a backup role as the Wildcats defeated Illinois DeCorrevont's ankle had improved by the time Northwestern faced off against #3 Michigan. Entering the game late in the opening stanza, he rifled a long pass to Bob Motl that produced a 60-yard touchdown play in the second quarter but the Wolverines still prevailed with a win. In the season finale the Wildcats handed Notre Dame a surprising 20-0 defeat. DeCorrevont was back in form as he rifled a 32-yard touchdown aerial to Clawson in the second quarter, and in the second half the star from Austin broke off a brilliant dash of 27 yards to set up his four-yard smash for a touchdown a few plays later. Earl Hilligan of Associated Press described DeCorrevont's play against the Irish as the "greatest performance of his collegiate career." The 1940 season had started with great promise before the ankle injury, Bill DeCorrevont of NWU but the table seemed set for a good senior season in 1941 for DeCorrevont. Francis Powers wrote that "if his arm and ankle stay whole he could easily become the gridiron wonderman of early predictions." After Otto Graham scored three touchdowns to lead a 51-3 win over Kansas State in the opener, DeCorrevont took over and notched touchdowns on a dazzling 51-yard punt return and a two-yard plunge to lead a romp over Wisconsin -- a performance that prompted United Press to say that the ex-austin man "ran and passed like the hero in his prep football scrapbook." The next week DeCorrevont completed passes all over the field -- including a 40-yard strike to Bob Wallis -- yet Northwestern tumbled to a 14-7 defeat at the hands of Michigan. The Wildcats then sandwiched wins over Ohio State and Indiana around an 8-7 loss to eventual national champion Minnesota, before dropping a 7-6 heartbreaker to Notre Dame. DeCorrevont broke off

5 PAGE 17 a number of sensational runs against the Irish -- including romps of 34 yards and 27 yards -- and intercepted an Angelo Bertelli pass on the Wildcats' seven yard line. In the final stanza his ball carrying led a march to the Notre Dame 17, but a missed field goal ended the chance for a win. November 22, 1941, at Dyche Stadium, brought the close of two intercollegiate careers, as Northwestern faced off against the last Illinois team directed by legendary Bob Zuppke. DeCorrevont was a dynamo in his final game as he racked up three touchdowns in a 27-0 romp over the Illini. In the first quarter he rifled a pass to Bob Motl for a 28-yard gain and then soon after blasted five yards for his first TD; in the second quarter he swept around right end for a 20-yard scoring gallop; and in the third period he again connected with Motl for 20 yards and on the next play slashed the last five yards to his final collegiate touchdown. And so it was over -- the college football career that began with so much expectation but ended with a nagging sense of disappointment which remains to this day, despite DeCorrevont's many brilliant moments for Northwestern. Yet there was plenty of recognition of his talents -- George Connor once described DeCorrevont as "one of the greatest punt returners around" -- and this was parlayed into a career of five seasons of pro football in the NFL. After serving three years in the Navy -- during which he played for the famous undefeated Bainbridge Navy team in he returned and played for the Washington Redskins, Chicago Cardinals, and Chicago Bears, and was a member of the 1947 NFL champion Cardinals. In later years he lived in Florida and was a very private individual who preferred not to discuss the glory days at Austin High and the following years at Northwestern. Connor once described DeCorrevont as "just the nicest, unassuming guy," and former teammate Otto Graham called him "a great athlete; just a regular guy." Chicago sportswriter Howard Roberts summed up the Austin Tiger's career best: "Perhaps it was asking too much of a youngster to carry (the) publicity pressure and a football as well, but DeCorrevont did a good job of both. He never approached his prep performance as a Wildcat, but he was a good football player."