Colorado State University Athletics
This Week in CSU Football History -- Veteran’s Day Salute
11/13/2018 11:23:00 AM | Football
The last game of 1942 marked a two-year break in football
by John Hirn
CSU Athletics Historian
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, the armistice signed on Nov. 11, 1918 and a day that is now marked by Veteran's Day. As we honor the hundreds of Aggies and Rams, whether athletes or not athletes that have served our country we look back on the only break in CSU football since 1899.
The last game of the 1942 season was played in Greeley, Colo., at Jackson Field against the Colorado State College of Education Bears. First-year head coach Julius "Hans" Wagner and his Aggies entered the game with a 3-3 record in a season that was cut to just seven games to prevent travel during the first year of WWII. The furthest the Aggies traveled that year was to Salt Lake City and the last game of the season against the school known today as the University of Northern Colorado was added due to the long-distance travel ban.
Many of the Aggies that took the field in Greeley that day would eventually go on to fight in the war in both the Pacific and European Theatres. Lewis "Dude" Dent, the conference's scoring champion would fight with General Patton's 5th Army. A freshman from Fort Morgan, Don "Tuffy" Mullison would suspend his college career after the 1942-43 school year to fight in the Pacific. Then there was a senior named John Mosley who would famously become a member of the Tuskegee Airmen at the end of the war and become one of the first black officers in US history to pilot bombers.
The game that day was played on Nov. 14, 1942 and started off as a lopsided one in the Bears' favor with an early 6-0 score. Aggie senior quarterback Chet Maeda and Dude Dent helped fight back to win the contest 14-6. The first Aggie score was by sophomore Dave Phillipson, who a year later was fighting in the Army, scored a touchdown on a pass from Maeda. Then in the fourth quarter, Maeda hit Dent for the second touchdown of the day; Dent provided the extra point kicks for both touchdowns.
After the season some men finished their college careers, but Dent decided his country needed him more and he joined the Army just a few credits shy of graduation. In August of 1944, Lewis "Dude" Dent was acting as a forward observer in Troyes, France where he was killed in action by German troops. He was not the only Aggie to be killed in action, but he was the most famous football player.
The 1945 Silver Spruce Yearbook listed 36 Aggie students or alums killed in action or in training including former guard Owen Graham who played football 1936-1938. The yearbook also listed a total of 1,528 former or current students, dating as far back as the class of 1897 who were fighting in the war. There were also 13 faculty members fighting in action. With 177 men from the class of 1944 alone fighting in the war, it is easy to see why the school suspended football for the 1943 and 1944 seasons.
From the fall of 1943 to the spring of 1945, the student population diminished greatly and was almost a women's college with so few men enrolled at the college. The military did train men using the campus buildings and housing, but there was no possible way a football team, or any other sports team could be formed during these years. Colorado A&M, as it was renamed in 1945, was not the only school to suspend football due to a lack of men. Wyoming, Utah State and many other schools around the country did not play football during the war years.
Colorado State University has a long history of athletes and non-athletes that have served our nation in times of conflict and in peacetime as well. From the Spanish American War to modern times, there have been thousdands of CSU alums that have served. None as high-ranking as four-star general Lewis Walt, a football and track star of the early 1930s that during the Vietnam War was second in command of the United States Marines.
We hope that another conflict never happens again that football will be suspended due to war, but we can remember and respect the thousands of Aggie students and student-athletes that put their lives on hold more than 75 years ago.
CSU Athletics Historian
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, the armistice signed on Nov. 11, 1918 and a day that is now marked by Veteran's Day. As we honor the hundreds of Aggies and Rams, whether athletes or not athletes that have served our country we look back on the only break in CSU football since 1899.
The last game of the 1942 season was played in Greeley, Colo., at Jackson Field against the Colorado State College of Education Bears. First-year head coach Julius "Hans" Wagner and his Aggies entered the game with a 3-3 record in a season that was cut to just seven games to prevent travel during the first year of WWII. The furthest the Aggies traveled that year was to Salt Lake City and the last game of the season against the school known today as the University of Northern Colorado was added due to the long-distance travel ban.
Many of the Aggies that took the field in Greeley that day would eventually go on to fight in the war in both the Pacific and European Theatres. Lewis "Dude" Dent, the conference's scoring champion would fight with General Patton's 5th Army. A freshman from Fort Morgan, Don "Tuffy" Mullison would suspend his college career after the 1942-43 school year to fight in the Pacific. Then there was a senior named John Mosley who would famously become a member of the Tuskegee Airmen at the end of the war and become one of the first black officers in US history to pilot bombers.
The game that day was played on Nov. 14, 1942 and started off as a lopsided one in the Bears' favor with an early 6-0 score. Aggie senior quarterback Chet Maeda and Dude Dent helped fight back to win the contest 14-6. The first Aggie score was by sophomore Dave Phillipson, who a year later was fighting in the Army, scored a touchdown on a pass from Maeda. Then in the fourth quarter, Maeda hit Dent for the second touchdown of the day; Dent provided the extra point kicks for both touchdowns.
After the season some men finished their college careers, but Dent decided his country needed him more and he joined the Army just a few credits shy of graduation. In August of 1944, Lewis "Dude" Dent was acting as a forward observer in Troyes, France where he was killed in action by German troops. He was not the only Aggie to be killed in action, but he was the most famous football player.
The 1945 Silver Spruce Yearbook listed 36 Aggie students or alums killed in action or in training including former guard Owen Graham who played football 1936-1938. The yearbook also listed a total of 1,528 former or current students, dating as far back as the class of 1897 who were fighting in the war. There were also 13 faculty members fighting in action. With 177 men from the class of 1944 alone fighting in the war, it is easy to see why the school suspended football for the 1943 and 1944 seasons.
From the fall of 1943 to the spring of 1945, the student population diminished greatly and was almost a women's college with so few men enrolled at the college. The military did train men using the campus buildings and housing, but there was no possible way a football team, or any other sports team could be formed during these years. Colorado A&M, as it was renamed in 1945, was not the only school to suspend football due to a lack of men. Wyoming, Utah State and many other schools around the country did not play football during the war years.
Colorado State University has a long history of athletes and non-athletes that have served our nation in times of conflict and in peacetime as well. From the Spanish American War to modern times, there have been thousdands of CSU alums that have served. None as high-ranking as four-star general Lewis Walt, a football and track star of the early 1930s that during the Vietnam War was second in command of the United States Marines.
We hope that another conflict never happens again that football will be suspended due to war, but we can remember and respect the thousands of Aggie students and student-athletes that put their lives on hold more than 75 years ago.
Colorado State Football: Jay Norvell Weekly Press Conference - Week 5 (2025)
Monday, September 29
Colorado State Football: Jay Norvell Post-Game (Washington State, 2025)
Saturday, September 27
Colorado State Football: Karas (L) and Evans (R) Postgame (Washington State, 2025)
Saturday, September 27
Colorado State Football: Jay Norvell Weekly Press Conference - Week 4 (2025)
Monday, September 22