Playing Career
Clevenger was a star 5'7", 145-pound left halfback on the Indiana Hoosiers football team at Indiana University from 1900 to 1903. Although little more than jockey-sized, he was the school's first great Hall of Fame athlete. Clevenger also played baseball (as a shortstop) and basketball at Indiana as well, and was captain of all three squads.
In 1902 the Indiana baseball team closed their season at home against Minnesota. Clevenger came to bat down 10-8, two on, two out, last of the ninth. He hit a home run to win the game. Later he said, "It wasn't a big school then, but the students got together, took up a collection, and went uptown and bought me a gold watch. It's one of my most prized possessions."
As a senior and captain on the football team in 1903, Clevenger kicked a field goal, ran a punt back for a touchdown, and led his team to a shocking 17-0 win over Illinois. The crowd of 1,500 carried Clevenger and other Hoosiers off the field, then marched behind the band downtown for a celebration that lasted into the night.
Read more about this topic: Zora G. Clevenger
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or career:
“Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity,
Flames and ether making a rush for my veins,
Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help them,
My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly
different from myself,
On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs,”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)