#ThrowbackThursday - Have you ever heard of the Jackson State Tigers' "Iron Thirteen"?
With the resignation of head coach Jubie Bragg in 1919, the Jackson State University (then Jackson College) football team was left without a head coach to begin the 1920 season. For at least two weeks, there were only five to six players present at practices. With great reluctance, JSU President Zachary T. Hubert suggested the players forget about football that year.
The students, however, ...continued to practice daily until they had a total of 13 players on the squad. The team, known as the “Iron Thirteen,” selected Earnest Richards, a French teacher who had never played football, to serve as coach. The players needed only a supervisor, since they drew their own plays and directed their own practices.
Led by team captains, Edgar Stewart and Percy Greene, the team's 1920 season included victories over Tougaloo College (13-0), Utica (63-0) and Mississippi Industrial College (21-14). The "Iron Thirteen" went undefeated and won the Mississippi-Louisiana Conference Championship. The team went undefeated for two more seasons.
(Source: 2011 Centennial Football Guide)
