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The Grays Harbor American Legion football team was composed of men from the 1,100 members of the Aberdeen and Hoquaim posts in 1920 that included former Camp Lewis 91st Division Rose Bowl (1917) player Harry Craig at halfback. Basil Doane, Cole and Harry Craig served as the first coaches while the team organized. Doane was a star halfback with the 1916 & 1917 Washington State College teams. Cole was a former B.P.I. and M.A.C. of Baltimore, MD. Capt. Ted Faulk, Bob Abel, Ed Hobi, and Robert Ingram of the University squad were slated to play against their Harbor friends in a January 1, 2021 Legionnaire Bowl Game pitting WSU Legion vs the Grays Harbor squad. The game was ultimately canceled. 15 new uniforms, white with cardinal stripes, were ordered for the first teammers, while 10 reserves would use the 1920 garb entered the 1921 season. Steele returned an INT 60 yards for the only touchdown in the 1921 opener with Aberdeen High. The undefeated Legionnaires chartered buses for the Nov 27 trip to Tacoma as a large delegation of football fanatics was prepared to root on their team, however, Tacoma would cancel the game. Aberdeen had not been scored upon all season, with no team crossing the Legion 20-yard line, including Tacoma in a 28-0 defeat earlier. 15 former high school and college athletes banded together under the banner of the Aberdeen Smoke Shop in 1922. The team was basically the same as the 1921 team that went undefeated in five games. This team only managed one outing against Astoria before breaking up. Marion Ashmore, former lineman at Gonzaga and 1925 starter with the Legionnaires headed east to play professionally with the Milwaukee Badgers. His Badgers lost 7-0 to the Green Bay Packers Oct 17, 1926. Howard Maddox scored 7 touchdowns and 6 PATs on the season for 48 points to lead Aberdeen in 1926. Maddox was ranked by grid fans as being as good as any college or university fullbacks playing. Atkinson totaled 20 points, Ellis Johnson and Neil Eddy scored 12. In the 1928 opener, Leo Little blocked a Saratoga kick, but the Legion could not capitalize settling for a 0-0 tie. The Legionnaires defeated Tacoma the following week then struggled to get other teams to commit to play. "Gil" Skeate, a former Gonzaga star was the focus of an article proclaiming he was getting better with age. Entering his 14th year of football, he was the only remaining member of the Legionnaires who actually was a war veteran having served with the Marines. Playing for Aberdeen in 1925, Skeate, moved over to the Tacoma Athletic Club for two seasons before he was picked up by the Green Bay Packers as the starting fullback for the 1927 season. He returned to the Harbor to play the 1928-1930 seasons. Starting with his 1917 high school season, Skeate then played for the Mare Island Marines in 1918 re-entering high school after World War I. Skeate joined Gonzaga from 1921-1923 as the starting fullback. After Gonzaga, Gil played in Aberdeen, Tacoma, and professionally with Green Bay from 1924-1930 to account for his 14 years from 1917-1930. Neil Eddy caught a Merlin Davidson pass to tie St. Martins College 6-6 in 1929. Davidson would enroll at Grays Harbor Junior College and try out for quarterback in 1931. John Mashin in 1931, was designated as Coach of the Aberdeen alumni team that was originally slated to be sponsored by the Grays Harbor National Guard unit, with the high school loaning out equipment for a charity game to benefit the unemployed during the Great Depression. The Legion was replaced by the Athletic Club organization in 1934 ending the American Legion involvement in football in the harbor. Neil Eddy would coach the team in 1935. DO YOU HAVE INFORMATION TO CONTRIBUTE? CONTACT US! (email)
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