Elder Football - The 1950's

1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959

The decade of the 1950's saw the retirement of legendary coach "Babe" Bartlett and the arrival of Coach Virgil Scardina. Coach Scardina led the Panthers to achieve what had long been only a dream--the "perfect" season. The 1954 team accomplished what had never been done in Elder history before, going undefeated and untied in 10 games to win the City Championship. Interestingly enough, it was a decade of powerful teams in the league and in the city--Purcell was undefeated (and tied once) in 1952 and Roger Bacon was undefeated and untied in 1958; St. Xavier was 9-1 in 1957. The Panthers continued their dominance over rivals St. Xavier (8-2 on the decade), Roger Bacon (6-3-1) and Western Hills (7-3), but still were unable to overcome the powerful Cavaliers of Purcell, going 3-7 on the decade and 10-18-2 since the rivalry began in 1928. As the 1950's ended, the long-standing Elder-Western Hills series stood at 17 wins for the Panthers, 13 wins for the Mustangs, with one tie. Paul Umberg '58 led the Panthers in scoring for the decade, with 110 points, just topping Dick Selcer '55 with 108 and Ken Bockenstette '52 with 103. Coach Bartlett's coaching career ended with his record standing at 111-95-15; his teams won four GCL Championships and were co-champs twice. As the decade ended, Coach Scardina's teams had a record of 41-26-3, and had 2 league championships and one co-title.