1940s A Decade of Domination - John Burroughs School

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Football: “Coming of Age”In 1948, the 49ers recorded the first undefeated and untied season, ringing up 254points in eight games against 33 for their opponents—a point differential of221. Not a single ABC team crossed the Bombers’ goal line. The co-captainswere Chuck Thies and Dave Sisler, both ’49.The Bombers opened the season by crushing Chaminade 59–0, with scoringby an array of players. In a splendid display of sportsmanship, CoachRay Wolfe instructed his men to punt on first down as the score escalated.Their next game was a squeaker, 15–13, against Pembroke Country Day;the Bombers’ points came on a safety, a short-yardage plunge by Thies, anda pass from Ben Bishop to Ken Read ’49. Pembroke’s hard-charging groupwas stymied by excellent line play from Burroughs, the Review reported,especially by John Krause ’50, Tom Perkins ’49, and Lew Tiger ’49.The team overran league opponents Principia 33–0 and Western, in a sea ofmud, 12–0. Key fumble recoveries by Ed Rowland ’50 and Doug Montgomery’49 highlighted the win over Western. Burroughs continued its high-scoringways by drubbing Coyle, a Catholic school in Kirkwood, 49–0. Versatile ShelbyPruett scored two touchdowns, two extra points, and a field goal. Wolfe againdisplayed sportsmanship by playing substitutes over half the game.Dave Sisler, an insightful sports historian, pinpointed the sixth game of the season asa watershed for John Burroughs School. Kirkwood came to Leland Field ranked as oneof the city’s top teams, just as in 1945, and featuring two heralded players, Carroll Maas andDavey Jones. As a multitude of Kirkwood boys in red and white streamed down the hillside, ledby their cheerleading corps, the Burroughs squad, thirty strong, watched and wondered. Ultimatelyundaunted, the Bombers stymied the Kirkwood offense and raced to a 19–0 halftime lead behindscoring from Thies and Pruett. Maas and Jones scored for the Pioneers in the fourth quarter, but Burroughscruised to victory 19–14. The Review hailed it as “the greatest victory of the season.” Sisler took a broaderview: “Burroughs came of age when we beat Kirkwood,” he declared. “Before that, no one really cared aboutus—we were the ABC League. Suddenly people realized—Burroughs can compete.”62 JOHN BURROUGHS /Burroughs athletes with famous fathers. Dave Sisler ’49, left, and Shelby Pruett’50, seen in their football uniforms in 1948 with their fathers and former MajorLeague Baseball greats “Hub” Pruett, right, and Geoge Sisler, left center.THE 1940s: DECADE OF DOMINATION 63
Speedy Jim Burst, brandishing a cast on his left armfrom an injury that had kept him out all season, explodedin the next game against Crystal City, scoringfour touchdowns in a 44–6 route. Crystal City was deepin the country; Burroughs was from the big city, andthe boys were private schoolers to boot. Shelby Pruettrecalls graffiti in the visitors’ locker room referringto Burroughs as “city slickers” and “pantywaists” andannouncing, “We’re gonna’ kick your a____.” Instead,Burroughs raced to a halftime lead of 26–6. When therout was over, Pruett recalled, “we were told we’d betterpack our things and leave in a hurry.”The season ended with the fourth straight shutoutof Country Day. The victory margin of 23–0 was thewidest of any Burroughs win in history. The Bombers’first strike came on a twenty-nine-yard Pruettto-Sislerpass. After Rowland blocked a punt, Pruettscored for a 13–0 halftime lead. Burst scored fromtwenty-three yards in the second half, and Pruettkicked a field goal. The game ended with Burroughson Country Day’s one-foot line. Honors poured in forthe Bombers: Named All-ABC were Pruett and Thiesin the backfield, Sisler at end, and Perkins in the line.Sisler and Thies made second-team All-District andPruett and Burst honorable mention.1949 basketball team. Frontrow from left: Strassner, T.Brown, Thies, Sisler, Bishop,Burst, Heuer, Weinrich;second row: Coach Wolfe,Wagner, Werner, Rosenfeld,Cramer, Pollnow, Hampton,Burke, Pfeifler.The starting five were all 49ers—Dave Sisler, Ben Bishop,Jim Burst, Chuck Thies, and Dick Strassner. As part of theirABC championship, Burroughs beat Principia when theywere the only undefeated team in St. Louis. The Bombersflattened Webster Groves 44–29, which, by the Review’saccount, “began to indicate that they were going places.”Emotions ran high as the team gathered momentum. TwoJBS fathers were ejected from one game for hurling jibes atthe referees, which may have prompted an editorial in theWorld by John Zentay ’49 reminding boosters that enthusiasmwas fine, “but when it reaches such proportions that thereferees are personally insulted then the fans are steppingout of bounds.”By the time of the subregionals of the state tournamentat University City High School, Burroughs was 11–2 andseeded ninth out of sixteen behind such powerhouses as St.Louis U. High, Cleveland, Beaumont, and Southwest. TheBombers plowed through Hadley 60–24, with reserves playingmost of the game, and Soldan Blewitt 53–33. In the semifinalsagainst Southwest, the fast-breaking sharp shootersplayed their best game of the year, amassing a 56–14 leadbefore the reserves took over. In the finals, Burroughs overcameUniversity City and their star Terry Fails, 36–31. Strassnerhad a hot shooting hand, and Jim Burst exhibited dribblingskills in a two-minute stall to close the game.A Basketball EncoreThe 49ers provided an immediate encore with a dramaticrace to a fourth-place finish in the state basketballtournament, a particularly noteworthy achievementin that the 1948–49 season was the last in whichall schools competed in the same playoff category,regardless of size.The engagement of Ben Bishop ’49 and Elaine Rowland ’53 was celebrated with thiscartoon depicting Rowland bounding into a huddle of the famous ’49ers basketballteam, from left, Dave Sisler, Chuck Thies, Dick Strassner, Jim Burst, and Bishop.The regional tournament was held at the Washington UniversityField House. Burroughs was now seeded second behindMcBride. The Bombers overcame CBC in the openerand dominated Lutheran High School in the second roundbehind Sisler’s twenty-one points. Their opponent in the finalswas again U. City, which had advanced to the regionaltournament as the runner up in the subregionals. Different64 JOHN BURROUGHS // THE 1940s: A DECADE OF DOMINATION 65
Page 4 and 5: Country Day struck in the third qua
Page 6 and 7: season (one tie) in 1945 and a seco
Page 9 and 10: game since the first day of preseas
Page 11: Bill Harrell ’44 excelled in the

1940s A Decade of Domination - John Burroughs School

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