Not for the faint of heart

Around here these days, a young man’s entertainment on a Sunday afternoon or evening, if he’s not watching TV or sitting in the movie theater, is likely to be golf, hunting, fishing or some other low-impact activity.

But in the early 1950s in Scranton, for 22 men in their early 20s, and sometimes for as many as 2,000 fans, it was smash-mouth football with the Scranton Rams semipro football team.

The 22 athletes had all played high school football, most of them at Scranton High School.

According to Ron Juergens, of Scranton, they missed the gridiron experience after their graduation, and “just wanted to play football again.”

“It was really fun — it really was,” Ron recalled.

It must have been that way for the local fans, too.

When the Jefferson Rockets, Jefferson’s semipro team, arrived at the Scranton field for a Sunday evening intracounty contest, more than 2,000 enthusiasts were on hand.

Some habitually arrived as early as 3 p.m. to park their cars close to the sidelines and end zone facing the field to get ideal viewing spots, but latecomers often stood in front of their cars, provoking bad blood between the car-sitters and the standers, Juergens chuckled.

Scranton won a 1951 game against Jefferson 26 to 0.

The Scranton Rams got their start from the 10 Scrantonites who started playing with the Jefferson Rockets in 1949. They, and many Scranton area residents, decided it would be more fun to have their own team, so in August 1950, the Scranton Athletic Association called a town meeting.

Estimated budget for the town team was pegged at $1,500 for uniforms, pads and other necessities. Some 78 businesses and private contributors chipped in $25 each, and the goal was met.

The association arranged for season tickets, with five home games that first year. Since the donations handled the cost of equipment, the association decided to pay the players something from the gate receipts.

That’s where the “semipro” designation comes from — Juergens said the players each got $5 per game.

Ron, a halfback and quarterback on the squad, said he was “the baby of the team” at 19 years of age the first year. He had graduated from Scranton High in 1949.

Most of the other players were three or four years older, having earned their high school diplomas shortly after the end of World War II.

The Scranton Rams practiced three nights a week, after the players had completed their regular workday. After a weekend game, the squad would go drink beer somewhere, Ron said.

Travel to and from games was by private car, and the schedule covered a lot of miles — opponents included Sutherland, two Des Moines teams, South Sioux City, Milford, Waterloo, Newton, and Blair and Decatur in Nebraska, and possibly others.

Coaches were school superintendent Allen Colbert and Burl Place, and Francis Laursen (after he sustained a broken leg in the first game).     

Laursen’s leg was placed in a cast, Juergens recalled, but the cast eventually started to swell.

Laursen went back to the doctor to see what was wrong, and the doctor decided to take the cast off and investigate.

Chinks and crevices in it had filled up with soybeans, which slowly swelled from moisture, thereby causing the cast itself to swell.

The games against Decatur, Neb., which took place both in Scranton and in Decatur, were particularly hard-hitting, Juergens recalled.

Decatur’s squad included several Native Americans, who played very tough football, and earned high praise from Juergens.

“We always won, but not by much, and we got beat up pretty bad,” Ron said.

Juergens recalled that Waterloo had recruited half a dozen former players from the University of Iowa. That, too, was a tough game, he said, with Scranton pulling out a narrow 7-6 victory.

The Scranton Ram roster reportedly included Don Strausser, Colbert, Don and Bob Subbert, Duane Duff, Cleo Brown, Paul Oxenford, Burl and Leroy Place, Bob Shaffer, Curt Franzeen, Alvin Flack, John Olmstead, Ron and Jerry Juergens, Frank Geier, Bob Cadden, Bob and Paul Happe, Bud Terrill, Harry Rust, John Thornton, Beryl Johnson, Elmer Daiker, Andy Kasperbauer, and a Drier.

Most of the players were from Scranton, but others came from a few other towns in the area.

After playing eight to 10 games a season for a few years, the Scranton Rams disbanded when insurance eventually got too expensive for the local athletic association to afford.

The community thanked them in style with a post-season November banquet. Wives of the members of the athletic association board prepared the turkey and trimmings, and board members handled the serving.

A trophy from the team’s accomplishments was placed in the Scranton school trophy case, where it remained.

“It was great fun,” Ron summed up.