This Week in Benedictine Football

Week 10

October 27, 1933

Cathedral Latin 18, Benedictine 0

This game was expected to be a mismatch.

The Cleveland Press wrote that Benedictine High, “a squad of ambitious but untested football players is preparing to be led to the slaughter Friday afternoon. Benedictine’s green eleven, without a single contest under its belt, will face Cathedral Latin’s Catholic and city champions on Latin’s field.”

In this era, Cathedral Latin was the polished machine of Cleveland area high school football.  Latin had begun its football history in 1917 and had finished the 1932 season with a 9-1 record.

                Benedictine was in its infancy and would be fielding only its fifth football squad. Since the school’s first game in 1929, Benedictine had managed only a 5-16-1 record. By comparison, Latin had an impressive 33-9-7 in that same time frame.

In addition, Latin had won all three games between the schools by a cumulative score of 123-6. Latin defeated Benedictine 26-6 in 1930, 40-0 in 1931 and 57-0 in 1932.

So maybe the skepticism was well-placed.  

                There was enough doubt whether Benedictine would be able to field at least 11 players for a football team that school officials did not attempt to arrange a football schedule for that season.

                But the small student body at Benedictine wanted to play football. A total of 30 students turned out for the team. It was an impressive number considering the entire enrollment at Benedictine at the time was only 125 students.

It was too late to schedule games against Catholic League rivals Holy Name and St. Ignatius. A game with an alumni squad was scheduled for later in the season.

                Fullback Ray Uhlman and center Marty Dolak were the only two returnees. Frank Peregrin would play at halfback and the quarterback would be Mike Bires. The rest of the starting lineup was a question mark, even to the coaches.

                Rev. Paul Taracko and Rev. Michael Jasko became the team coaches only after the expressed interest from the student body.

                In the week prior to the game, Fr. Paul told the Cleveland Press, “No, there’s not a chance of us beating Cathedral Latin, but we’ll make it as interesting as we can for them.”

                The Benedictine squad fought valiantly. Latin scored a touchdown in the first quarter on a short plunge and then was held scoreless until the fourth quarter. Latin passed for one touchdown and then intercepted a Benedictine pass that was returned for another touchdown to make the final score of

18-0.

                A big reason for Benedictine’s outstanding performance was the play of Captain Marty Dolak. Here’s what the Plain Dealer said in the game story: “Smashing through the Latin forward wall to break up plays time and again, Capt. Marty Dolak played a raging defensive game for Benedictine.”

The Cleveland News wrote, “Fighting stubbornly and yielding only when sheer man-power forced them to, eleven Benedictine warriors, held the city champion Cathedral team to an 18-0 victory at Latin Field.”

The Plain Dealer reported, “Facing insurmountable odds, but fighting furiously, little Benedictine High made one of its best showings in its history by holding Cathedral Latin’s city champions to an 18-0 victory at Latin Field.”

From these humble beginnings, Benedictine High School grew into the Home of Champions.

Wally Mieskoski ’71

Benedictine Football Historian

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