Above is a clip from the New Orleans States newspaper from nearly 111 years ago. The article previews the HBCU football clash of Crescent City crosstown rivals Straight University and New Orleans University. The two schools would eventually merge in 1935 to form Dillard University, which is still thriving today.

As some people might know, New Orleans University produced none other than Gentleman Dave Malarcher, my favorite pre-1947 player and a native of Convent, La., who manned third base for several local clubs, such as the New Orleans Eagles, before being signed by the Indianapolis ABCs, serving in World War I and gaining national renown as a third baseman and eventual manager of the Chicago American Giants.

But before his pro career, Dave attended NOU and captained its highly successful baseball team. However, I recently uncovered (quite by accident) this article in the States that lists a “Malarcher” as NOU’s right halfback. I didn’t previously know that he might have donned the pads for the school’s football team. While we seemingly can’t know for 100 percent sure that it’s Dave — he might have had relatives who also went to NOU — it’s a good bet that it is, in fact, him.

And just today, I found this article from the Nov. 15, 1915, New Orleans Item newspaper:

As you can see in both articles, NOU shut out Straight, 13-10. I haven’t been able to find any more information about the NOU football team of 1915 or if Dave Malarcher did indeed play for the team. I need to dig through my files on him, but there’s another complication: the Dillard University Archives and Special Collections are apparently closed to the public, and there’s no word on when they might re-open.

I made a couple calls to the DU library, and the decision to close the archives indefinitely came down from the university president herself after the university had trouble finding a permanent curator/director of the archives.

Hold on, though. It turns out that the Tulane University library, as well as the Amistad Research Center on the Tulane campus, have copies of “Seventy Years of Service: New Orleans University,” a little book assembled by the NOU faculty and published in 1935 that chronicles the history of the HBCU up until that point.

And here’s an excerpt from pages 60-61:

“The first football team of the University was organized in 1914 by Earl U. Harrison, then a student in the school. He was given encouragement and assistance by several interested friends of the city, notably Mr. O. C. W. Taylor, who gave some time to coaching the team. The men who composed this first team were: B. Lockley and T. Slaughter, guards; A. Jordan and U. Short, tackles: A. McNeal and R. Moses, ends; C. Williams, center; E. Harrison, J. Wilson, C. Wester, W. Chinn, D. Malarcher, P. Taylor, and D. Jordan, backs. The team played its first game on October 13, 1914 and defeated a veteran team of Straight College 13-0. John Wilson, quarterback, and Charles Wester, halfback were the stars of that season. Wilson later single-handed[ly] led teams of N. O. U. to victory by his phenominal [sic] kicking. In 1917 with a forty-yard drop kick from a difficult angle he changed a score that had stood until the last two minutes of a game 14-12 in favor of Straight College into a 15-14 victory for N. O. U.”

That’s right. It does indeed look like Dave Malarcher played football for his alma mater as well as baseball! Bo Jackson 70 years before Bo Jackson!

If I come across anything else about Malarcher playing football — and there might be an item or two in my files — I’ll post an update. …

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