1921 Pink Wade was captain of the
1921 Vanderbilt Commodores football team. Wade played a part in the drive which resulted in the second touchdown of a 21 to 14 victory over
Kentucky. Following an exchange of punts, Vanderbilt started a drive on Kentucky's 32-yard line.
Jess Neely connected with Pink Wade on a 22-yard pass. Rupert Smith would run for a gain of some seven yards. A slight gain by
Lynn Bomar was then followed by
Rupert Smith running around right end for a touchdown. The next game pitted Vanderbilt against
Texas. Vanderbilt
upset the Longhorns 20 to 0. The first score came thus: On a third down, at some point near the middle of the second quarter, Texas' Ivan Robertson, with the Commodores' Tom Ryan and
Tex Bradford running after him, threw a pass not near a single Longhorn; which was intercepted by Wade. Wade returned the interception for 65 yards and the touchdown. Wade did not play in the following game against the
Tennessee Volunteers due to a case of
lumbago.
Doc Kuhn served as captain in his absence and scored all of Vandy's touchdowns in the 14 to 0 victory. To decide the conference champion, Vanderbilt tied the
Georgia Bulldogs 7 to 7. In the game with
Sewanee to finish the season, the Commodores won 9 to 0. The game went scoreless until the fourth quarter, when Sewanee fumbled the snap on a punt and the punter was smothered by Neely, Frank Godchaux, and Wade for a safety. A touchdown was scored later by
Hek Wakefield. The regular season closed with four undefeated teams in the
south:
Centre,
Georgia Tech,
Georgia, and Vanderbilt. Centre, which
upset Harvard, lost to
Texas A&M in the
1922 Dixie Classic, leaving Vanderbilt as the only one of those four undefeated in all its games. Georgia coach
Herman Stegeman, in the section on southern football in Spalding's football guide, wrote that Vanderbilt had a good year, but was unable to play up to its full capabilities; and that the Commodores should prepare for a fine season the next year. For Stegeman, the contest for the mythical title of the greatest southern team in 1921 was between
Centre,
Georgia Tech, and Georgia. Clyde Berryman listed Vanderbilt as
national champion. ==References==