1934 Football Team

If 1933 was the warmup act, then 1934 was the Grand Finale for Trinity football, a perfect 7-0 season, only the third undefeated, untied season in Trinity sports history. 

"Expert coaching, an unusually fine cooperative spirit, and a keen comprehension and execution of the basic fundamentals of football on the part of the players were the secret behind this remarkable success, rather than any startling individual efforts,” wrote the Ivy.

And yet there were some startling individual efforts, notably those of super soph, Mickey Kobrosky ’36. In his first varsity game, a walloping of Hartwick 39-0 at Trinity Field, Kobrosky, who soon became known as simply the “Cobra,” scored five touchdowns and accounted for 30 of Trinity’s 39 points. This was during a driving rainstorm when the field was covered in mud.

The following week, Trinity delivered another drubbing to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 27-0, also at Trinity Field. In this case, Webber, at guard, “starred on a stubborn Blue and Gold line which yielded the Engineers hardly any more ground than Hartwick had been able to gain in the week previous,” read the Ivy. (In fact, Hartwick gained only 12 yards the whole game.)

In its first road test, Trinity triumphed again, defeating Worcester Tech 34-0. Eigenbauer, who had been out the first two games with injury, accounted for four of Trinity’s five scores, and helped the team rack up 22 first downs. Amport was reliable as ever with his placekicking while Captain Maher, at center, Kellam, at tackle, were praised for their line play.

Coast Guard had been one of just two teams who beat Trinity’s 1933 football team, and so the Bantams came in looking for sweet revenge. They walked away with a 14-6 victory. Kobrosky was let loose early on, and ran for a “thrilling 40-yard touchdown run.” Coast Guard had an effective air attack and soon put six points on the board, the first by a Trinity opponent all year. But the defense held tough, and a blocked punt resulted in another Trinity score and ultimate victory.

Next up was Connecticut State, who fell 25-0 at Trinity Field, the third blanking of an opponent in just four games.

On November 3, 1934, Wesleyan arrived in Hartford, looking to avenge its loss the previous year at Middletown. They went home defeated 27-0, before “one of the largest crowds to gather at Trinity in over a decade.” Eigenbauer accounted for 150 yards on the ground. “Many of his runs were of the spectacular nature,” concluded the Ivy.

“All in all, the fans witnessed one of the most impressive demonstrations of pure offensive power ever displayed on Trinity Field, as the Blue and Gold rolled up 25 first downs and gained an aggregate of 500 yards over and through the Wesleyan line and secondary.”

The season closed as it had begun, “in a blaze of glory,” reported the Ivy, with a 27-7 victory over a solid University of Vermont team at their home field in Burlington. Kobrosky and Sampers did the lion’s share of ball carrying while Luke Kellam ’34 registered “his sixth touchdown of the season on his tricky tackle-round play which fooled the opposition completely all Fall.” Kellam was also praised for his punting ability. Captain Maher and Weber “led a gallant Trinity” line, that opened up huge holes on offensive, and stifled opponents on defense.

The conquest marked the tenth straight for Trinity football over the past two years. As the Ivy summarized, “In retrospect, little remains to be said. The team’s great record more than speaks for itself.”

There was only one other undefeated small college team in New England that fall, and it was Tufts. The two teams shared only one common opponent, Connecticut, and while the Bantams had blanked them 25-0, Tufts had had a much harder time. Many claimed Trinity the best small college team in New England, but sportswriters were angling for a Trinity-Tufts matchup to settle the matter. Apparently, Trinity was up for it, but Tufts declined, causing the team to summarize its 1934 season: “Undefeated. Untied. Uninvited.”