Dayton, I am sure had a whale of a ballteam in 1943. I am also sure they had at least one loss on their record. Back in those days the river towns ( those towns located on the ohio) had really good football teams. Dayton and Ludlow were no exception. When you throw in Newport, Covington Holmes and Bellevue you had some really nice ball teams and a tough conference which I believe they referred to as the Little 6. Dayton's Quarterback in 1943 was Bob Demoss who went on to start for the Purdue Boilermakers in 1945 as a freshman defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes who were rated No. 1 in the country in most polls in his debut as Purdue's opening game quarterback.I dont know how the Rotary Bowl selected the teams but I am sure they looked at all the teams and came up with Ashland ( who was undefeated ) and Highlands ( who had one loss , but a big win over the best team in Cincinnati ). Who knows maybe Male was asked but elected to play their rival Manual. One can only speculate but in any event we can not rewrite history and we can only guess who would have prevailed between Male and Highlands. We can gain some solace in knowing that both programs have survived the test of time and I look for a good season from both H and H

one of Manual's isn't so mythical, they played in a National title game down in Louisiana and won over New Britian.

 

Awesome...probably took a day and a half to get there by train. That would have been the experience of a lifetime for teenagers born right after the depression!

I got the Owensboro 1917 info from the following website.:fire:

 

 

1917 REDDEVILSCHEDULE

Head Coach : Arthur Acker

Record: Owensboro High 8-0 (STATE CHAMPIONS)

Week Date Opponent Result Score

1 10/7/17 Madisonville W 116-0

 

2 10/14/17 Morganfield W 68-0

 

3 10/21/17 Hopkinsville W 66-0

 

4 Forfeit Paducah W 1-0

 

5 11/4/17 Louisville W 14-0

 

6 11/11/17 Lexington W 28-2

 

7 11/18/17 Princeton W 104-0

 

8 11/30/17 Henderson W 124-0 :devil: :devil: