Chippewas Football (IIAC, 1950)

1950 Regular Season:
Chippewas vs. Ferris Institute Bulldogs

     Central Michigan football opened the 1950 football season with not only a new head coach, but also a new conference. The Chippewas were now part of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC), a 7-team league featuring the following schools:

Western Illinois

Central Michigan

Northern Illinois

Illinois State

Eastern Illinois

Southern Illinois

Michigan State Normal (Eastern Michigan)

     The new coach was a familiar face: Warren Schmakel. Schmakel, 28, was an alumnus of Central and a Little All-American guard for the Chippewas in 1942. He was the third coach at Central in the past five seasons, taking over for Lyle Bennett.

     Schmakel led the Chippewas to their first winning season since 1946, finishing in third place with a 6-4 record (2-2 IIAC). The Chippewas outscored their opponents, 209-125, posting three shutouts during the season. They placed three players on the IIAC First Team that year, including quarterback Andy MacDonald, end John Partenio and tackle Jim Schultz. MacDonald, who later coached in the NFL with Seattle and Buffalo, still ranks ninth in school history for most touchdown passes thrown in a career, with 27 and was elected to the CMU Sports Hall of Fame in 1992. 

1950 Chippewas Team Photo
(Note Finch Fieldhouse in the back)

     This program is from the final home game of the 1950 season vs. Ferris Institute (now Ferris State) Bulldogs at Alumni Field. This was the first game against Ferris since that school became a state college. According to Central Michigan Life, a "large crowd braved 20 degree weather" to watch MacDonald pass for 243 yards and backup Dick Mysliewiec for 106 yards. Central piled up over 500 yards of offense that day and blew out the Bulldogs, 40-0. That was the Chippewas' fifth-straight win to improve to 6-3 on the season.

     This is a 21-page program, all in black and white, except for the roster pages in the middle and the RCA ad in the back. The artwork on the cover is by Lon Keller, who designed beautiful cover artwork for high school to professional football from 1938-70. In this one, Uncle Sam was seeing stars, football stars, that is.

     

1950 Chippewas Coaching Staff

President Charles L. Anspach welcomed fans of both schools to the game on page 1. The Chippewa coaching staff is featured on page 3, including freshman coach Bill Theunissen and line coach Doc Sweeney. The team photo is on page 7, along with a pick of Coach Schmakel and his co-captains, center Arch Ellerthorpe and end Hall Sheets. Pages 9-12 are the only color pages in this program. Pages 9 and 12 feature each team's lineup for offense and defense, next to Coca-Cola advertisements. Pages 10-11 feature the rosters of both teams, with a Chesterfield cigarette ad, which stated that Chesterfield cigarettes were "the largest selling cigarette in America's colleges". It was a different time, to be sure. A preview of that day's game is on page 16 and "Chippewa Sketches" (quick player bios) are on page 18. Local advertisements include Roosevelt Oil & Refining, Ken's Men's Shop (Central Michigan's Finest), Fortino Food Market at 416 N. Mission, Super Giant Market at 317 N. Mission, and Jhonson Motors, Inc., which was a Studebaker Sales and Service company.

     

Aftermath: Despite the successful season, Schmakel resigned as head coach to join the coaching staff at Miami of Ohio for 1951. He would eventually become head coach at Boston University. Central would replace Schmakel with former Saginaw Arthur Hill head coach Kenneth "Wild Bill" Kelly. Kelly would turn Central Michigan football into a powerhouse in the IIAC, winning 7 league championships in his 16 years on the sideline. 

References:

"The Official 2018 Chippewas Football Media Guide", Central Michigan University Athletics, 2018.

"Ferris Trampled in Last Home Game", Central Michigan Life, 18 November 1950. 

"Ferris vs. Central Michigan Program", Central Michigan University Athletics, November 11, 1950.