Hillsborough Athlete Featured In Book About Historical Football Game

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — A Hillsborough athlete will forever be apart of football history as he played in a historically significant college game 100 years ago under the legendary Coach John Heisman.

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Sam Hatcher’s first book, “Heisman’s First Trophy” goes into details of the game, the players and how this national championship between Georgia Tech and Cumberland University changed the perception of a nation about the quality of football being played in the South.

Georgia Tech, coached by the Heisman — the same man in which the Heisman Trophy is named after — won the game by a score of 222-0, still a record in college football today.

Among those on the Georgia Tech squad playing in this historic game was a young student from Hillsborough named J.C. Funkhouser.

Funkhouser graduated from Georgia Tech in 1918 and was a junior in college during the historic game. He was one of the 13 founding charter members of the Hillsborough Rotary Club and worked locally at a business in town.

Research for this book was difficult for Hatcher as the primary sources for the game were dead.

Hatcher began researching and writing in July 2015 and came across a New York Times article that listed all of the players.

Funkhouser was listed as a substitute player, but they didn’t list his position. However, Hatcher is sure he played in the game

“There was one reference about how John Heisman went down the the Georgia Tech bench and made sure every player got into the game,” Hatcher said. “There was one kid at end of bench covered with a blanket and it turned out to be a Cumberland player. He asked if he was alright since he was on the wrong side of the field, thinking maybe he had a concussion. The player just said he didn’t want to play in the game anymore.”

Until this game, 100 years ago in October, the only winning schools were in the northeast such as Harvard, Yale, Army.

With the score of 222 to 0, it made sports writers take another look at the south and lead to football in the south getting rise, Hatcher said.

Books are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million and generally where books are sold.

(Images provided)

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