Army Basketball vs. McGill, 1924
This is a 1924 Pointer account of Army vs. McGill basketball played at West Point, NY in January of 1924. The full text is below, but you can also listen to a transcription here or watch an audiogram of the story on YouTube, embedded below.
Army Basketball versus McGill. Wednesday, January 2, 1924
As reported in the January 12, 1924 edition of The Pointer, p.4.
Christmas Leave had hardly ended when Army encountered her first Canadian court foe, McGill University of Montreal, Canadian intercollegiate champions. Army’s strongest men were in the line-up for the first time this season and rolled up an impressive 40 counters while the Canucks were occupied with placing a 14 on their side of the score-board.
CDT Johnny Roosma
Class of 1926
It seemed like old times when the Army five took the floor and Bill Forbes and Johnny Roosma were espied among those present. Bill did not remain very long in the game but the seven minutes that he played were entirely sufficient to establish the fact that Bill has few peers in intercollegiate circles at running guard. As for Johnny Roosma, he is still the same crackerjack basketeer that he was last season; not much more praise can be given a basketball player. Another pleasing feature of the game was that Parker and Ellinger, who substituted for Forbes and Wood, played basketball of a higher calibre than they had shown previously this season. The other three members of the team, Dab., Strickler, and Vich., played like men possessed. If Christmas Leave was responsible it should be made a weekly affair.
Though the Army outplayed the visitors by far in the final period, Army’s banner half was the first. The team was working like a well-oiled and high class machine which totaled basket after basket. At one time such was its efficiency, that within fifty seconds four field goals were made. The Canadians displayed no offensive; they were too busy trying to hold down the rising tide of Army points. Mendelsohn, their star forward, found himself against a tartar in the person of Strickler and went through the first half without scoring a field goal. When the first twenty minutes were finished the score was 20-4.
In the second half the Army defense let down slightly; the offensive of the Cadets, however, suffered no let-up at all, Vichules and Roosma again caging three field goals each, while Parker repeated his two of the first period. In an effort to halt this successful offense, the McGill coach made numerous substitutions, but the final score of 40-14 shows how ineffective these efforts were. As it was, for the visitors, Mendelsohn at forward and Hilton at guard played excellent basketball until an excess of personal fouls removed Mendelsohn from the game in the second half.