1917–18 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team

The 1917–18 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University during the 1917–18 NCAA Division I college basketball season. John O'Reilly coached the team in his fourth season as head coach.[1] Georgetown was an independent and played its home games at Ryan Gymnasium on the Georgetown campus in Washington, D.C.,[2] and finished the season with a record of 8-6.

1917–18 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball
ConferenceIndependent
1917–18 record86
Head coach
  • John O'Reilly (4th season)
CaptainBob O'Lone (2nd year)
Home arenaRyan Gymnasium

Season recap

Although the Hoyas struggled on the road this year, their home winning streak at Ryan Gymnasium reached eight games at the end of the season, dating back to a victory against Bucknell on the last day of the previous season; it would reach 52 before finally coming to an end during the 1923-24 season.[3][4][5] Georgetown also defeated crosstown rival George Washington twice this season, giving the Hoyas an eight-game winning streak against George Washington seven of the wins at Ryan Gymnasium dating back to 1915.[3][4][5]

Forward Fred Fees, a Georgetown University Law School student, was in his second season with the Hoyas. A free-throw shooting specialist in an era when the rules of college basketball allowed teams to choose which player shot its free throws, Fees exploited his free-throw prowess to establish himself as one of the top scorers in college basketball in the United States in each of his seasons with the Hoyas. This season he played in 11 games and scored 201 points, the most by any college player in the country, and his 18.3 points per game set a Georgetown single-season record that would stand until the 1958-59 season. In the game at Navy on January 23, 1918, he scored 15 of the Hoyas's 17 points.[6][7]

Roster

Forward Bill Dudack, seen in 1920, was a freshman in 1917-18. After graduating in 1921, he returned to Georgetown to coach the 1929–30 team.

Sources[6][8][9]

Georgetown players did not wear numbers on their jerseys this season. The first numbered jerseys in Georgetown men's basketball history would not appear until the 1933-34 season.[10]

Freshman forward Bill Dudack later served as the Hoyas' head coach during the 1929-30 season.[1] Sophomore guard Alexander "Pat" Finnegan left school after the season for military service and was killed in action in 1918 during World War I.[11]

Name Height Weight (lbs.) Position Class Hometown Previous Team(s)
James Coughlin N/A N/A G N/A N/A N/A
Fred Devereux N/A N/A F So. N/A N/A
Bill Dudack N/A N/A F Jr. New Britain, CT, U.S. New Britain HS
Fred Fees 5'6" N/A F Grad. Stud. Carrolltown, PA, U.S. St. Francis College (Pa.)
Alexander "Pat" Finnegan N/A N/A G So. N/A N/A
Don Keresey N/A N/A G N/A N/A N/A
Joseph Longshak N/A N/A G So. N/A N/A
Jack McNulty N/A N/A F So. N/A N/A
Jim McNulty N/A N/A C Sr. N/A N/A
Charles Monaghan N/A N/A F N/A N/A N/A
Bob O'Lone N/A N/A F Sr. N/A N/A

1917–18 schedule and results

Sources[5][12][13][14]

It was common practice at this time for colleges and universities to include non-collegiate opponents in their schedules, with the games recognized as part of their official record for the season, so the games against a United States Army team from Camp Meade, Maryland, a United States Army Amphibious Corps team, and the Georgetown University Medical School counted as part of Georgetown's won-loss record for 1917–18. It was not until 1952, after the completion of the 1951–52 season, that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ruled that colleges and universities could no longer count games played against non-collegiate opponents in their annual won-loss records.[15]

Trinity College of North Carolina was the future Duke University.

Date
time, TV
Opponent Result Record Site
city, state
Regular Season
Fri., Dec. 7, 1917
no, no
Mount St. Joseph W 4410  1-0
Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Wed., Dec. 12, 1917
no, no
at Loyola Maryland cancelled N/A 
Baltimore, MD
Wed., Dec. 12, 1917
no, no
Georgetown University Medical W 469  2-0
Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Sat., Jan. 12, 1918
no, no
at Loyola Maryland cancelled N/A 
Baltimore, MD
Wed., Jan. 16, 1918
no, no
Lehigh W 3726  3-0
Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Fri., Jan. 18, 1918
no, no
Randolph–Macon W 3411  4-0
Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Wed., Jan. 23, 1918
no, no
at Navy L 1749  4-1
Dahlgren Hall 
Annapolis, MD
Sat., Jan. 26, 1918
no, no
at George Washington W 368  5-1
YMCA Hall 
Washington, DC
Mon., Jan. 28, 1918
no, no
at Mount St. Joseph L 3134  5-2
Mount St. Joseph Gymnasium 
Baltimore, MD
Fri., Feb. 1, 1918
no, no
George Washington W 5318  6-2
Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Mon., Feb. 4, 1918
no, no
West Virginia Wesleyan cancelled Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Thu., Feb. 7, 1918
no, no
at United States Army Amphibious Corps L N/A[note 1]  6-3
N/A 
Allentown, PA
Fri., Feb. 8, 1918
no, no
at Lafayette L 2636  6-4
N/A 
Easton, PA
Sat., Feb. 9, 1918
no, no
at Lehigh L 2628  6-5
Taylor Gymnasium 
Bethlehem, PA
Sun., Feb. 10, 1918
no, no
at Camp Meade L 2533  6-6
Meade Gymnasium 
Fort George G. Meade, MD
Tue., Feb. 12, 1918
no, no
Virginia Tech cancelled Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Fri., Feb. 15, 1918
no, no
Trinity (N.C.) cancelled Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Fri., Feb. 15, 1918
no, no
Gallaudet W 5625  7-6
Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Sat., Feb. 23, 1918
no, no
Lafayette W 4329  8-6
Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
Tue., Feb. 26, 1918
no, no
Bucknell cancelled Ryan Gymnasium 
Washington, DC
*Non-conference game. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Notes

  1. The Georgetown Basketball History Project: 1910s Records and The Georgetown Basketball History Project: Records vs. Non-Collegiate Opponents Archived 2017-02-12 at the Wayback Machine both list the score of this loss to the United States Army Amphibious Corps as "37-32." The project uses the convention of placing the Georgetown score first for both wins and losses, so this is a typographical error. It is possible that the scores are reversed, and that the Army Amphibious Corps won by a score of 37-32, but that is only one possibility for the actual final score. It is clear that Georgetown lost this game, as this is consistent with the school's final 8-6 record for the season, upon which all sources used for this article agree.

References

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