Washington & Jefferson On November 9, Harry Keck of
The Pittsburgh Post noted: "The war may not be over just yet, but the flu ban is or will be at noon today, and the Pitt football team's period of idleness halts at 2:30 p. m., so that about evens up matters." The Red and Black were led by first-year coach
Ralph Hutchinson and sported a 2–0 record. Tackle
Pete Henry and end John Tressel were named to the Walter Camp All-American team. "Both teams are in the best of shape. Two more fit Pitt and Wash-Jeff teams never took the field than those that will trot out this afternoon. Having had lots of time, they have been able to prime well for the meeting." Richard Guy of
The Gazette Times noted: "There was not one feature in which the players from Washington showed to better advantage than did Pitt's, and it was therefore a comparatively easy matter for Glenn Warner's charges to score the 34 points, distributed throughout the first three periods: 14 in the first, 13 in the second and 7 in the third. They represented touchdowns by Easterday, twice; McLaren, twice; and Davies once; with four resultant goals, two each by Gougler and Davies." Harry Keck of
The Pittsburgh Sunday Post was impressed: "It was the initial contest of the season for the Panthers and, for them, an impressive opening indeed. The game was anything but impressive from a Wash-Jeff viewpoint. If there are any players on his squad whom Pop Warner did not press into service before the final whistle was blown, they must have been hiding under the bench. He gave his entire string the once over in action. On the whole, the Pitt team this season looks every bit as strong as last year's eleven, and by the time the Georgia Tech game rolls around it should be much better." The Pitt lineup for the game against Washington & Jefferson was Harry McCarter (left end), Leonard Hilty (left tackle), Edward Stahl (left guard), Herb Stein (center), Vance Allshouse (right guard), Lou Mervis (right tackle), William Harrington (right end), William Horner (quarterback), Roscoe Gougler (left halfback), Roy Easterday (right halfback) and George McLaren (fullback). Substitutes appearing in the game for Pitt were Fred Ewing, Ray Allshouse, David Pitler, Clyde Mitchell, Leland Stanford, Harvey Harman, Thomas Kendrick, Herb McCracken, Bernard Sandomire, Tom Davies, Braden Swaney, T. Hamburger, A. Herskowitz, Louis Markowitz, C. Teemer, Alex Meanor and Henry Maggarrall. The game was played in 15-minute quarters. The 1918 Penn Quakers were coached by both
Bob Folwell and
Bill Hollenback and had a 3–2 record. The Quakers right end Robert Hopper was named to Walter Camp's 1918 first team All-American squad. Robert W. Maxwell of the
Evening Ledger (Philadelphia) wrote "The only things which interfered with Penn's weekend visit to Pittsburgh were the University of Pittsburgh football team, five touchdowns, four goals and a goal from field, all of which totaled 37 points. This constituted the margin of victory, or something like that, and sent the Red and Blue off the field with the fourth defeat in as many years. Outside of that, however, a good time was had by all." Harry Keck of
The Pittsburgh Sunday Post was impressed: "The Pitt Panther juggernaut ran roughshod over another foe at Forbes Field yesterday. The Hollenback-Folwell coached University of Pennsylvania eleven was the victim and the steam-rollering was accomplished to the tune of 37–0. A fumble by a Pitt substitute halfback on the three-yard line late in the fourth quarter prevented another touchdown being added to the total. Penn did not make a single first down in the game, either by rushing or aided by Pitt penalties. A small crowd witnessed the game, the devotees evidently saving up their appetites and loose coin for the Georgia Tech War Fund attraction next Saturday." "Pitt scored a touchdown five minutes after the game began after Easterday's gains had carried the ball to the one-yard line, and then over. Gougler missed goal. The visiting team held pretty well for a while, and Pitt could not get nearer the goal line than the 32-yard line, from where Davies kicked a field goal." First quarter score: Pitt 9 to Penn 0. Early in the second quarter, Davies, McCracken and Gougler advanced the ball to the Penn one-yard line "and then McCracken bucked over. Davies kicked the goal." Pitt forced the Quakers to punt. A few plays later, "Davies got tired of fooling around. He carried the ball into the line, was stopped, and, as previously recorded, wriggled his way clear and ran over the goal line after a 37 yard dash. He also kicked goal." Pitt missed two field goals to close out the half and led 23 to 0. The Pitt lineup for the game against Penn was Harry McCarter (left end), Leonard Hilty (left tackle), Edward Stahl (left guard), Herb Stein (center), Vance Allshouse (right guard), Lou Mrevis (right tackle), Ray Allshouse (right end), Roscoe Gougler (quarterback), Tom Davies (left Halfback), Roy Easterday (right halfback) and Herb McCracken (fullback). Substitutes appearing in the game for Pitt were Louis Markowitz, William Horner, T. J. Hamburger, Thomas Kendrick, Nathan Friedman and Clyde Mitchell. The game was played in 12-minute quarters. Dick Jemison of
The Atlanta Constitution was excited: "The Jackets are set, ready for the whistle, in the best possible condition that careful nursing can put them in and with as much football crammed into their respective and collective beans as it is possible to cram into a green aggregation. The Young Tornado is as fit as one season of football can make it. About the proudest and happiest man in the bunch (going north) will be the writer. He is going along to endeavor to tell the readers of The Constitution in Sunday morning's paper how the green Yellow Jackets of 1918 upheld the traditions of Georgia Tech and trampled the colors of the veteran Panthers in the dust." On November 23,
John Heisman, on a 33-game winning streak, brought his undefeated (5–0) 1918 Georgia Tech Golden Tornadoes north for the United Work War Fund game against the Panthers, owning a 30-game winning streak of their own. The Golden Tornadoes had out-scored their opponents 425–0 in their previous five games. But Coach Heisman was not optimistic according to the
Daily Post interview: "We do not expect to beat Pitt, and, in fact, if we should win, I would be the most amazed man on the field. Last year we had a great team and might have won from your Pittsburgh team, but not now. We realize that we have been invited North to play for the War Work Fund merely on the strength of our 1917 reputation. We are willing to do anything to help along the good cause, and, for that reason, if need be, will take a beating and stand to have our long string of victories broken. ...We will fight Pitt to the last ditch and hope for the best...While my boys are husky, they are green – not ripe for a meeting with such a team as Pitt....This is the first time they have ever played off their home field." In spite of being a “green” team, four members of the Yellow Jackets received All-American honors at the conclusion of the season:
Bill Fincher (end),
Joe Guyon (tackle),
Bum Day (center) and
Buck Flowers (halfback). "The Pitt players are all in good shape for the big test today. The men who were on the crippled list have been carefully nursed and have been brought back to the pink of condition. 'Katy' Easterday had two bothersome legs for several days, but he was given special treatment and is o.k. now. Capt. McClaren is absolutely fit, and the same holds true of Tom Davies, Pitt's latest wizard, and 'Skip' Gougler, the other dependables in Pitt's backfield." Coach Warner in 1928 recalled: "The Georgia Tech - Pittsburgh game was arranged as a charity affair and the southerners came to Pittsburgh with a beating of drums and a great blare of trumpets. They brought their band with them, together with a large delegation of rooters, and they fully expected to clean up on Pittsburgh." Pitt dismantled Georgia Tech 32–0 in front of many of the nation's top sports writers including
Walter Camp, ending Tech's 33-game streak without a loss. Warner historian Francis Powers wrote: At Forbes Field, the dressing rooms of the two teams were separated only by a thin wall. As the Panthers were sitting around, awaiting Warner's pre-game talk, Heisman began to orate in the adjoining room. In his charge to the Tech squad, Heisman became flowery and fiery. He brought the heroes of
ancient Greece and the soldier dead in his armor among the ruins of
Pompeii. It was terrific and the Panthers sat, spellbound. When Heisman had finished, Warner chortled and quietly said to his players: 'Okay, boys. There's the speech. Now go out and knock them off.' Pitt's first score came on a pass from
Tom Davies to
Katy Easterday.
The New York Times was not pleased with the Golden Tornado: "The Southern football menace, which for the last three years has been exciting followers of the sport throughout other sections of the country, has been wiped out and flung aside almost in the twinkling of an eye. The enviable football record achieved by dint of hard work by Georgia Tech failed to stand up under the wrecking methods adopted by Glenn Warner's Pittsburgh Panthers. In one game, Georgia Tech becomes only a team which basked in the limelight of its own supporters and failed miserably when crowded out into the open and given battle by another of mightier mien." The starting lineup was Harry McCarter (left end), Leonard Hilty (left tackle), Edward Stahl (left guard), Herb Stein (center), Vance Allshouse (right guard), Lou Mervis (right tackle), William Harrington (right end), Roscoe Gougler (quarterback), Roy Easterday (left halfback), Tom Davies (right halfback) and George McLaren (fullback). Coach Warner made only one substitution - Ray Allshouse for Harry McCarter at left end. The game was played in 15-minute quarters. "The Pitt game is the one big game on their schedule this fall. They can forget all about the other defeats they sustained if they can make a respectable showing against the team which crushed Georgia Tech's hopes, and humbled Penn and W. & J. Today Bezdek's men are in grand fettle, brimful of confidence in their ability to give their celebrated Thanksgiving Day opponents a genuine fight for honors. State may be defeated, but they will not be disgraced nor outclassed." Pitt was not in as grand fettle as their opponent. Some players (Harry McCarter, Edward Stahl, Herb Stein, Vance Allshouse and Roy Easterday) were nursing injuries from the Georgia Tech game. The starting lineup had Ray Allshouse at end, Harvey Harman and Leland Stanford at guard, Thomas Kendrick at center and Herb McCracken at halfback. Harry Keck of
The Pittsburgh Post praised Penn State: "The final score was 28 to 6 in Pitt's favor, and those six points by State represented a touchdown – scored before Pitt itself broke into the tallying column! Incidentally, they were the first points scored against Pitt this season. And, incidentally, too, as a result of having shoved over that touchdown in the first quarter, the green State team completed a record of having scored in every game in which it has participated this fall...Further it was a big boost for Hugo Bezdek, coach of the Blue and White, who in the summer time is manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates...Only two of the men who faced Pitt yesterday are players from last year's squad. Bezdek has turned out a wonderful team."
The New York Tribune had the facts: "The visitors scored after a few minutes of play when they secured the ball on a poor kick by McLaren, the ball being covered in mud. Line smashing sent Captain Unger over for the touchdown, but C.W. Brown failed in his kick at goal. After that play the home team played superior football throughout and scored four touchdowns, Davies kicking four goals." Captain George McLaren scored three touchdowns in his final game at Forbes Field and Tom Davies added one. Coach Warner replaced Davies, McLaren and Gougler for the final period. The final game of the season at
Cleveland Naval Reserve resulted in "Pop" Warner's first loss at Pitt and is one of the most controversial in school history. Warner, along with some reporters covering the game, insisted Pitt was robbed by the officials who, claiming the official timekeeper's watch was broken, arbitrarily ended the first half before Pitt was able to score and then allowed the Reserves extra time in the fourth quarter to pull ahead 10–9 before calling an end to the game. Coach Warner was livid: "We were robbed outright, and that is all there is to it. I can take a beating when it is fairly administered, as well as anyone, but I never liked to be cheated, and Pitt was certainly cheated at Cleveland. There was no attempt at fairness on the part of the officials. We hadn't a chance in the world." Thirty years later, Oct. 2, 1948, a seventy-seven year old Warner returned to Pitt as guest of honor for the Pitt versus Notre Dame football game.
Al Abrams of the
Post-Gazette reminisced with Warner and recalled how he had come to Pitt and led the Panthers to four unbeaten campaigns. Warner corrected him "No, we lost one," he recalls with a grim laugh. "We got rooked out of a victory in a postseason game with Great Lakes one of those years. That was the rawest bit of officiating I ever saw."
Robert W. “Tiny” Maxwell, football official and sports editor of the Philadelphia Evening Ledger, did not witness the game but was concerned about the controversy and gathered partisan reports: “There always are two sides to a story, and Cleveland now comes to bat with a yarn of its own regarding the Naval Reserve – Pitt football upset of last Saturday. According to Jim Lanyon, sports editor of the Plain Dealer, who is known throughout the land as a fair and competent critic, Pitt was not handed the worst of it, so far as he could see, but was beaten by a better team. 'Not only myself, but experts like Xen Scott and Henry Edwards also declare that Pitt has no kick to make over the game last Saturday,' wires Lanyon. 'Pitt was treated fairly and squarely and that's all there is to it.' I still maintain that Pittsburgh went into the game entirely too confident and beat themselves. The team is too good and too well coached to be beaten by any service or college team in the country if conditions are normal.”
Judy Harlan, formerly of Georgia Tech, and
Moon Ducote, formerly of
Auburn starred for the Cleveland Naval Reserves. Ducote kicked the winning field goal. Warner declared him "the greatest football player I ever saw". Harlan stated: "I intercepted a pass and returned it to midfield in the fourth quarter. I felt I at least had evened up some of the losses we had at Tech." The Pitt lineup for the game against the Naval Reserves was Harry McCarter (left end), Leonard Hilty (left tackle), Edward Stahl (left guard) Herb Stein (center), Vance Allshouse (right guard), Lou Mervis (right tackle), William Harrington (right end), Roscoe Gougler (quarterback), Tom Davies (left halfback), Roy Easterday (right halfback) and George McLaren (fullback). Substitutes appearing in the game for Pitt were Harvey Harman and David Pitler. The game was played in 15-minute quarters. ==Scoring summary==