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Mr. Christian "Chris" Cagle (Deceased)
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Home Phone: -- Contents of the Footnote Section: * * * * * * * * * * * June 14, 2007 Some say Christian Keener Cagle was the best football player ever to set foot on the then-SLI campus and that the comparison holds even today. What I didn’t know was he also was pretty fair at the shot put. That’s according to a 1925 letter from the school’s president to John Foster, sports editor of the New York Sun, who’d written about Cagle’s exploits on the gridiron in the fall of 1924. “In 1924,” Foster wrote, “Southwestern, with a total of 125 forward passes, completed 67 successfully. That is a percentage of 53.5, and the students and coaches of the institute are quite sure that they made a world’s record when they did it. “Anyhow, they have claimed the record for proficiency in that respect and if there is any other college in the United States which can produce better figures, the Southwestern boys would like to see them. “Cagle was their best passer. … All told, Cagle passed 199 yards in seven plays, which made as many touchdowns, and that is surely football of a high degree of skill, even if the Louisiana boys did not play against big elevens. They surely had all they could do in their own class and proved their fitness against teams which they were qualified to meet.” Dr. E.L. Stephens wrote to Foster to brag on the SLI track team, which had just taken five first places in the junior division of the Southern AAU meet in New Orleans. “Edwin Richardson won the broad jump with a leap of twenty-two feet six inches,” Stephens wrote, “which is several inches better than Princeton versus Harvard last Saturday. Cagle put the shot better than forty feet, the same Cagle who did the world record in forward passing last season.” * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * C’EST VRAI by Jim Bradshaw Jim Bradshaw Christian Keener “Red” Cagle may have been the best athlete ever seen in these parts. He was almost certainly the only one to have his likeness on the cover of Time magazine. He was killed in a freak accident in New York City in December 1942. According to The Advertiser report, “Cagle tripped and fell the full length of a flight of subway steps.” “The sandy-haired, 37-year-old athlete, unanimous choice for all-American halfback in 1928 and 1929, died in a Queens hospital. [He had been] found semiconscious Saturday night in the lobby of a Queens apartment house where he lived with his wife. “A native of Merryville, La., Cagle played for Southwestern Louisiana Institute … before going to the U.S. Military Academy. At the time of his death he was employed by an insurance company. Originally published December 29, 2004 * * * * * * * * * * * * Keener Cagle put program on map Even the New York sports writers took notice in 1924, when the Southwestern Bulldog football team claimed a world record. This was the heyday of Christian Keener Cagle, a kid from the little town of Merryville in Beauregard Parish, who was arguably the best football player ever to set foot on the collegiate gridiron here. He was an incredible broken-field runner, but that was not what the world record was all about. Jim Bradshaw: Beginning Traditions” * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Courtesy College Football Hall of Fame Chris “Red” Cagle Member Biography Courtesy of the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame AN Footnote: Christian K. Cagle was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame posthumously in 1954. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Chris Cagle (football player) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Christian “Red” Keener Cagle (May 1, 1905-December 26, 1942) was a professional American football halfback and quarterback from 1930 to 1934, who also was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954. College football career He first starred at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (then named Southwestern Louisiana Institute or SLI) from 1922-1925. In his career at Louisiana-Lafayette, he scored 235 points from touchdowns, extra points and field goals, a school record that lasted until 1989. Besides being the football captain (1925), he also was a star in basketball and track and field sports at Louisiana-Lafayette, where he received a degree in arts and sciences. Cagle then played college football for four years at the United States Military Academy (Army) 1926-1929. Known as the “Red Thunderbolt of West Point,” he was an All-American halfback for the last three years. His longest runs were 75 yards against Yale, 1928; 70 yards against Ohio Wesleyan and 65 yards against Yale, 1929. In four years at Army he scored 169 points, averaged 6.4 yards per attempt in rushing and 26.4 yards on kickoff returns. Team captain at Army in 1929, he was featured on the September 23 cover of Time magazine of that same year. Cagle was noted for playing with the chin strap loose from his helmet, and sometimes without helmet. Sportswriters liked to refer to him as “Onward Christian” because of his ability to advance the ball. Professional football career He played professional football for five seasons. He was with the New York Giants from 1930 to 1932. In 1933, he and fellow former New York Giants player John “Shipwreck” Kelly became co-owners of the NFL’s Brooklyn Dodgers franchise. Cagle played for the team in 1933 and 1934. Dan Topping bought Cagle’s half of the team in 1934. Personal life Born in De Ridder, Louisiana, he was one of eight children, including five brothers and two sisters. Cagle was named after an uncle, who in turn was named after the late Bishop Christian Keener of the Methodist church. Cagle was forced to resign before graduating from West Point for breaking an Army rule that prohibited cadets from marrying. He had secretly wed Marian Haile, whom he had met at Louisiana-Lafayette. Cagle died in 1942, at 37 years of age, from a peculiar mishap the day after Christmas (Dec. 26). He was discovered unconscious at the bottom of a Manhattan subway stairwell. According to The Advertiser report, “Cagle tripped and fell the full length of a flight of subway steps.” [2] He died three days later of a fractured skull. At the time of his death he had lived in a Queens apartment house with his wife and was employed by an insurance company. Sources: College Football Historical Society, volume XIII, No. 1, November 1999. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Louisiana Jackrabbit By Matthew Tarver From the first moment he touched a football in a game for SLI, Christian Cagle was a star. And from the moment he met Marian Haile, his destiny began to unfold. their love would prove to be greater than football stardom or his planned career in the military. Christian Keener “Red” Cagle enrolled in SLI in 1922 with the intent to graduate and enter West Point to serve as an officer in the U.S. Army. At SLI, later renamed USL, the Merryville, La., native became known for his natural athletic ability and heroics on the football field. By the time he graduated in 1926, he had become one of the most popular students on campus and one of the best college athletes ever. It was during his football career at SLI that the red-haired gridiron great met Haile, who was from New Roads, La. Their relationship later blossomed into marriage, but it altered the future All-American’s military ambitions. In his first college game, freshman Cagle returned two punts for touchdowns – one for 70 yards and one for 75 yards – in a 31-6 victory over Tulane University freshmen. That performance would be typical of Cagle’s college career. A triple threat, Cagle rushed, passed and kicked for points. He was known for booming kicks and crowd-pleasing aerial attacks. Rushes around left end for 30 yards or more were common for Cagle. He was an improvisational runner. His sideline-to-sideline antics usually resulted in big gains for his team, meandering runs that left opponents grasping at air when they tried to corral him. Although not blessed with blinding speed, Cagle was adept at open-field running. He possessed superior balance and had the ability to stop and change direction – reversing his field two and three times in one run – at will. After a 66-0 win over the Mississippi Normal Team in November 1923, a sportswriter for The Vermilion, the campus newspaper, wrote that the “excellent broken-field running by Cagle brought the crowd to its feet on three different occasions. Once, he dodged and sidestepped his way through the whole pack of wildcats for a gain of 50 yards and a touchdown.” Cagle had many such touchdown dashes in his SLI career, but it was in his final two years that he set school records and gained national attention. And while his athletic career developed, so did his relationship with Haile. In his final season at SLI, Cagle scored 93 points, a school record that stood until 1989. He rushed for 1,048 yards and passed for 904 more yards in leading the team to a 7-2 record. In his four years as a star player for SLI, the Bulldogs posted a 23-11-3 record, including consecutive Louisiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships in 1924 and 1925. He was team captain those two years. Cagle was a football pioneer with his passing exploits. He took up forward passing as his specialty in an era in which the run was emphasized. He set records for passing – some of which still stand – although a football was less aerodynamic and more difficult to throw than the pigskin used today. In the Sept. 14, 1925, issue of The Vermilion, Cagle was said to be “considered by many to be the greatest forward passer ever developed in the South.” Cagle still ranks second all-time on USL’s career scoring list with 235 points, behind only Brian Mitchell, an All-Pro punt returner and running back now with the NFL’s Washington Redskins. Cagle also had 26 career rushing TDs, a record that stood until 1989 when Mitchell surpassed him. A versatile athlete, Cagle was a forward on the SLI basketball team, a member of the track team and a letterman on the baseball squad. Described by many as the ideal student athlete, Cagle was treasurer of Phi Kappa Alpha fraternity. “Keener Cagle was a prince of a fellow,” said then-student body president Victor Blackwell. He was “a good student, a modest boy. He was a super player and model young man.” In an address to students in the Dec. 22, 1925, issue of The Vermilion, after his last game as an SLI bulldog, Cagle expressed what he felt as he and others realized their college careers in Lafayette were over. He wrote: “It was a moment of stillness and sadness as our minds wandered back over the days of pleasure and happiness, thinking of the glory that covered the winner as well as a few sad thoughts that went out for defeat. Those short four years have passed like a dream and changed us from freshmen to men.” Cagle graduated from SLI with a degree in arts and sciences and was awarded an appointment to West Point. He was able to continue his college football career at Army because in the earlier part of the century, athletes were not limited to four years of playing eligibility as they are today. While Cagle played at Army, Haile taught school in Louisiana. On Saturdays, she would tune the radio to Army games and would listen as Cagle made a scrambling touchdown run or pinpoint pass to help win the game. But amid the roar of 80,000 fans at Army games, the admiration of his teammates, and the fame of being a young celebrity in New York, Cagle longed to see Haile. Letters between the two would have to suffice until they could meet again. For two years, while Cagle was at West Point, they were apart. He anxiously waited for leave, a break from the Academy that would enable him to go ot Louisiana and to Haile. Finally, the day came, and Cagle traveled home. On an August afternoon, he proposed – knowing that it was against the West Point cadet code: “Cadets may not ride on bicycles, chew tobacco, nor have a horse, dog, wife or mustache.” Haile, also aware of the regulation, accepted his proposal. That same week, the couple traveled to Gretna in Jefferson Parish and had a small, quiet ceremony. They managed to convince a courthouse clerk to keep their union a secret. The couple decided to wait until after his graduation – which was almost another two years away – to have a formal military wedding and announce their marriage to the world. So Cagle went back to playing football and military drills. Haile returned to teaching and listening to Army games on the radio each Saturday afternoon – their life together again put on hold. Keeping his marriage a secret did not detract from Cagle’s athletic achievement. He was an All-American choice at West Point for three years (1927-29) and was College Football Player of the Year in 1929 – an award that became known as the Heisman Trophy in 1935. In his four years at West Point, Cagle became captain of the team and rushed for 2,669 yards, passed for another 1,432 yards and scored 169 points in his career. Largely because of his scampering style of running, he became known as the “Louisiana Jackrabbit at West Point.” With less than a month remaining before his graduation from West Point and a reunion with his wife, Cagle sent a telegram to Louisiana, informing Haile of some bad news. West Point had discovered their marriage. He was forced to resign from the Academy. His dream of a military career was over. He was not allowed to graduate from the Academy with fellow students. After leaving West Point to rejoin his wife, Cagle coached briefly at Mississippi A&M in 1930 before playing six years of professional football, three of those years with the New York Giants. He became part owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1933. In 1942, a life that had been guided by fate came to a tragic end. One winter day, Cagle slipped on some icy steps in a New York subway and fractured his skull. Soon after the accident, he contracted pneumonia and died on Dec. 22. Although fame propelled Cagle far from Louisiana, he is still remembered here. A monument in the southwest corner of Cajun Field on USL’s campus honors the football hero who followed the urgings of his heart rather than the dictates of West Point. Courtesy of Kathleen Thames, Editor, La Louisiane, May 13, 2008 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Prides of Acadiana by Bruce Brown (1980) is a copyrighted enterprise. Christian Keener Cagle: One of Football’s Finest Heroes Red Grange was honored. So was Ernie Nevers, and so was George Gipp. And so was Chris Cagle. Those four immortals comprised the Sports Illustrated backfield on its Collegiate Football Team of the 1920s. Red Grange was known as the Galloping Ghost in his days at Illinois. Ernie Nevers will never be forgotten at Stanford. And George Gipp became famous in Notre Dame lore as much for the line “Win one for the Gipper” as for his considerable feats on the football field. But those three greats had to share space on that squad with Oberlin’s Christian Keener “Red” Cagle, who blew through Southwestern Louisiana Institute like a hurricane in 1922-25 before going on to all-America fame at West Point. Just as the other three honorees have endless stories told about them, so too are tales told over and over to this day of the shifty Cagle, the 160-pound single wing tailback who drove defenses crazy with pinpoint passing and broken field running. Nicknamed “Red” for a shock of flaming, curly red hair, Cagle served as a team captain and fraternity officer, and apparently as a model for other student-athletes of his day. When Cagle finished his dazzling career at then-SLI and moved on, as was allowed in those days, to West Point to star for Army, Cajuns would sit around pool halls and wait for partial Army scores to come over the ticker tape by quarters. While at West Point, Cagle played against the likes of such powers as Navy, Notre Dame, Harvard, Yale, Nebraska, and Stanford. He was an all-America choice for three years (1927-29) and was named team captain at West Point and College Football Player-of-the-Year in 1929. In 1935, that Player-of-the-Year award came to be called the Heisman Trophy. Despite resigning from the Academy for breaking the rules by marrying Marian Mumford Haile while a student there, Cagle is included in the lists on the all-time West Point backfield. He moved from thrilling crowds of 2,000 fans at SLI’s Institute Field, to playing before 85,000 fans for Army-Navy and Army-Notre Dame games, to being part-owner of the Brookly Dodgers in 1933 with “Shipwreck” Kelly, to being good friends with the famed Red Grange and being a toast of New York along with such heroes as Babe Ruth. Then, in December of 1942, Chris Cagle slipped down some icy steps of a New York subway and suffered a skull fracture. He contracted pneumonia, and soon died. A monument to his feats is erected in his wife’s hometown of New Roads, and he is honored in the USL, Helms Hall of Fame, and is joined in the all-time Louisiana backfield by Billy Cannon of LSU, Y.A. Tittle of LSU, and Grambling’s Tank Younger. Cagle, whose career scoring record at Southwestern Louisiana was only broken in the 1979 season, was the most dazzling athlete of his day at the school. And, considering his further achievements at West Point and as a professional player, the man who came to be called the Louisiana Jackrabbit might have been the finest of any era. Coaxed off of a Merryville farm to attend SLI in 1922, Cagle was soon impressing T. Ray Mobley’s coaching staff with his remarkable ability to run, pass, and kick the football. It took a year of learning to set the stage, but by 1923 Mobley was ready to build a team around the redhead with a double clutch in his hips. That 1923 club recorded a 7-3 record, including a narrow 7-3 loss to LSU in which Cagle provided his team’s only points with a field goal. In a 31-10 win over Louisiana College, Cagle hit on a remarkable 22 of 30 passing attempts. The 1923 team had one runaway win of 81-0 and scored some 270 points. The year 1924 was the first of two years in which Cagle served as SLI’s team captain, a year in which he also served as the Phi Kappa Alpha treasurer and was well on his way to being “the name” on campus. The opener that year was against Tulane and its famed “Seven Wonders of the World” as a front line. Tulane also had C.P. Flourney, an all-American and national scoring leader, but could only defeat SLI 14-0. En route to a 6-3 mark that season, Cagle skittered for 60 and 40-yard punt return touchdowns in a 28-6 win over Sam Houston State, had a 48-yard TD ramble against Pensacola, reversed his field twice on a 73-yard scoring jaunt against Louisiana College, hit Nig Bujard with an 80-yard score, and passed 50 yards to Wayne Ruger for yet another touchdown against Louisiana Tech. On the year, Cagle compiled remarkable statistics – even for today. In only 61 carries, he gained 752 yards rushing. He hit 20 of 25 drop kick field goals. He hit 67 of 125 passes for 859 yards, and his 53.6 percent completion figure was the nation’s best. Institute Field was located just behind, and parallel to, old Martin Hall at SLI, and 2,000 fans somehow found a way to squeeze into the quadrangle when Cagle and his mates were playing. He never disappointed them, one time even scrambling back under end zone bleachers for a kickoff, and then returning it for a score. Because of the fever pitch of interest developed by Cagle’s heroics, Southwestern Stadium was constructed between McKinley and Hebrard avenues on campus in 1929, after Cagle had moved on to West Point. His play set the stage for further frenzied development of the game’s popularity at SLI. __________________________________________________________________________ “He was an unassuming, gentlemanly athlete, a walking legend drifting through the adulation.” Then in 1925, his final year at SLI, Cagle guided the team to a 7-2 record and the Louisiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship. He scored an amazing 108 points, a school record still on the books, rushed for 1,048 yards, and passed for 904 more for a total offensive output of 1,952. Some 3,500 fans showed up for Cagle’s last game in the bayous. His senior campaign was just as remarkable as those which preceded it. He shredded LSU’s defense with 22 of 33 passing, serving as a one-man show in a 38-6 loss. Against Louisiana College, he zig-zagged for 304 years in only 21 rushing attempts. And against Louisiana Tech, he notches his tenth career punt return score with a 90-yard scamper. All the time Cagle was thrilling football fans, he was leaving behind another legacy – that of being an unassuming, gentlemanly athlete, a walking legend drifting through the adulation. “Keener Cagle was a prince of a fellow,” student body president Victor Blackwell would say at the time. “A good student, a modest boy. He was a super player and a model young man.” Then it was on to the United States Military Academy, where Cagle became the only player ever honored by the immortal sportswriter Grantland Rice as a three-time all-American choice. As a three-time national selection, Cagle joined Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis as the only cadets to be honored on three occasions. At West Point, the same player who made 40 and 70-yard runs common at SLI proved just as adept at feinting and at passing against the major foes of the day. Army, in fact, developed a special offensive strategy developed around Cagle’s unique improvisational skills. Sergeant Marty Meher, in his Bringing Up the Bass, wrote: It was at West Point that Cagle was presented with the nickname The Louisiana Jackrabbit, a name which best described his sideline-to-sideline antics as the trigger of his team’s offensive attack. Cagle coached at Mississippi A&M in 1930, before playing six years of pro football, three of those with the New York Giants. He teamed up with “Shipwreck” Kelly to buy the Dodgers in 1933, selling out in 1934 to Dan Topping, who was later to own the New York Yankees. The forward pass is as much a part of football today as modern uniforms and rapid travel between cities for contests. But when Cagle first came on the scene, it was a rarely used weapon. In Cagle’s day, the ball was rounder that its modern, pointed shape, and was therefore more difficult to heave skyward. For most except Cagle, of course. The stories are many about the strength of Cagle’s throwing arm, an arm that caused many a receiver red hands and arms from the velocity of his passes. He threw, literally threw, the shot put as a 170-pound athlete, so powerful was his right arm. Baseball was also part of Cagle’s remarkable repertoire, that being another sport where his high-velocity arm came handily into play. But perhaps what made Keener Cagle such a dangerous passer was his maddening scampering rushes – runs which were liable to find him at any part of the field and which left defenders gasping as he either lined up a downfield target or skirted upfield for the goal line. Broken field running was his delight, and reversing his field was a speciality. Not blessed with great speed, Cagle nonetheless had the unique ability to stop and go at full tilt – appearing to be headed one way, only to suddenly be dashing off in the other. He often reversed his field two or three times in one run, putting much extra yardage into each modest or lengthy gain. He baffled defenders with balance that enabled him to cut while almost parallel to the ground. Idolized on the field and respected off of it, Cagle was the model for his breed in the 1920’s. After being discovered to have been secretly married as a Cadet, Cagle cried upon having to resign, but he did so nonetheless. After all, the code at West Point read that a Cadet could possess, “no horse, mustache, or wife.” A player so determined on the field to make a tackle that he split his head going against the famed Bronko Nagurski, Cagle also walked many hours at the Point for his reluctance to follow discipline. Christian Keener “Red” Cagle will be remembered for many a zig-zag run, many a booming kick, many a scrambling aerial. But one of his contests stands out as best exemplifying his way of earning lasting respect. West Point was in definite scoring position in one particular game when Cagle was an underclassman. Cagle had been having another outstanding day, and his number was called again down close to the goal. But Cagle chose instead to have the team call on “Lighthorse” Harry Wilson, a senior and a team captain, to do the honors. It was an unselfish gesture by the star running back. Cagle must have figured his efforts had already spoken for themselves. Throughout his career, they did. Prides of Acadiana by Bruce Brown (1980) is a copyrighted enterprise.
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