Coe College Athletics: Mabel Lee

"She did the cake walk for Buffalo Bill. . . she square-danced with Henry Ford. . . Alonzo Stagg called her "Miss Nebraska” . . . she fought to let women be seen on the campus in bloomers and tangled with a sheriff when women danced in flowing chiffon around a May Pole. She is Mabel Lee,” said Roby Kesler in 1978.

Mabel Lee graduated from Coe in 1908.  She returned to Coe in 1910 to spend eight years as the Director of Physical Education for Women.  She startied two (now defunct) Coe traditions her first year: The May Fete, and The Colonial Ball.

Mabel would go on to be the first elected female president of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation and the first female president of the American Academy of Physical Education.  In 1932 she presided over the women's sessions of the Los Angeles Olympics in place of Lady Lou Hoover.  In 1982 Lee was honored by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports as one of the five women in the nation who meant the most to the women of the country in the area of fitness.  This athletic diva refused to slow down and at the age of 85 began a career as an author.  She published four books before her death at the ripe age of 99.  There is much more to know about her story.  You can read the full article on Mabel Lee on "Coe College: the First Hundred Years" along with many other tales of athletics at Coe.

~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant

Coe College Histories: "The Four Lamb Brothers of Coe College"

Under the Histories tab on the website "Coe College History: the First Hundred Years" you can find six full text histories of Coe College.  One of these histories is "The four Lamb Brothers of Coe College", written by Harris Lamb '27.  For seven years (1920-1927) Coe had two Lamb brothers on campus each year.  The two elder brothers (Clyde and Ray) made sure to finish their education in three years so as to be out of College when their identical twin brothers (Harris and Willis)  entered, saving their parents the worry of having four boys in college at once.  Harris went on to dedicate more than thirty years to Coe as an athletic Coach and then alumni director.  His history of Coe is full of antidotes and stories of Coe College in the 1920s through the 1970s.

Below is an excerpt from pages 11-13, when Harris was the football coach:

In 1945, we played Cornell.  Cornell still had the Navy unit.  We had no business playing them.  They were outstanding.  They had just tremendous players.  Anyway, it's a game.  It doesn't make a lot of difference whether or not you win or lose, but of course you like to win.  But, we played Cornell, and I thought the coach of Cornell would make it a good game.  He would not run up the score.  Listen.  that afternoon Cornell College beat us 52-14.  They walloped us.  Ozzie Brahos '48 caught a pass and he ran for one touchdown, I remember.

The next game was with Beloit.  Dolph Stanley saw the score in the paper.  Right away he's on the telephone.  He says, "Harris, are you comin'?"  I says, "Why sure, Dolph.  We're going to be there for the game this Saturday." "Well." he says, "I thought maybe you'd be quitting."  "No," I says.  "We'll be there."  Well, I had Bob Tvrdik '46 and Bob Wessale '46 and, oh, a few good players.  But I know we had Bud Collette '50, who was a tennis player at Franklin high school.  He played one of our ends.  We didn't really have an outstanding team.

So, on the telephone Dolph says, "Now, Harris, we're going to be very, very fair with your.  We won't do what Cornell did. I says, "That's all right.  It would be nice of you not to beat us too much."

So, when we get up there, I'm out on the field.  The team's starting to warm up.  It was a night game.  I looked over at the Beloit team and he had 'em.  Boy, he had the horses, big chunky tackles from Chicago.  They looked even bigger and better than Cornell.

Dolph came over to me and he said, "Say, Harris, you know I told you on the telephone that we would take it easy, but....." he said, "I noticed in the paper tonight they've got us predicted to beat you about 35-0."  He said, "I just got to let them go; I can't keep that score down less than 35."

I turned to him and this is a quote.  I said, "Dolph, I told you on the phone that we would treat you fair if we had a good team.  Well, I don't have a very good team, but if we should be lucky enough to ever beat you, it won't be by a big score."

Well, he left me.  I went to the dressing room.  I told those guys, "That dang crook!  He said he was going to take it easy on us.  He isn't! He's going to wallop us!"

I never had a team so keyed up in my life.  I said, "Now, doggone you guys, you gotta fight and you gotta play for inches...inches...and you got to hit with all your might!"

Well, we went out there.  I've never seen such a football game.  That big Beloit College football team...cocky, smart...they were going to run all over us.  Well, boy, our team wasn't good, but we matched them touchdown for touchdown.  We did beat them one touchdown, 33-27.  I couldn't believe it!  Bob Tvrdik threw a pass, and Bud Collette.....I don't think he ever caught a touchdown pass in his life!  He grabbed that pass in the end zone, just jumped up over that Beloit half-back, and pulled it in and we won the ball game.

After the game you usually greet the other coach.  I never did see Dolph Stanley.  That night before we left we didn't get our contract check.  He was so disappointed, he was so mad, he was so upset, that the check, our guarantee, was mailed to me.  Oh, listen, that Coe team defeated Beloit up there when we weren't supposed to even have a team on the field.

The full text of Harris Lamb's history of Coe can be found here.  These are the stories the alumni tell of the 'good ol' days' sprinkled with a few wrong twin clarifications.  It is all around a good time.

~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant