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The 1917 Team
Wisconsin started its 1917 football season under the most difficult circumstances in its his-
tory. War conditions caused the loss of many "W" and prospective '. men, and enlistments
during the season itself lent an air of uncertainty to the situation. Due to those conditions work
was slow getting under way and, after several men new to varsity football had reported and the
eligibility handicap had been lifted, Coach Richards had a squad of only 23 men from which to
construct a team.
The team, after several weeks of practice, showed latent strength in its preliminary games,
but emerged from the scoreless tic game with Notre Dame in a crippled condition and unable to
put up its best fight against Illinois the following Saturday. The Wisconsin schedule was the
hardest any team ever faced, not so much because of the strength of the opposing teams, but because
the hard games followed one another so closely that the team was continually crippled and unable
to prepare for important contests as fully as otherwise might have been done. The Illinois game
found Wisconsin in poor shape from the gruelling Notre Dame game the Saturday previous.
The team recuperated from the Illinois contest, meeting the weak Iowa eleven the follow-
ing Saturday, and then beat Minnesota decisively a week later. The latter game, however,
crippled the squad again and when Ohio State came the next Saturday, the team did not possess
its full strength. With an open week, however, before the Chicago game, the hospital squad
diminished and the Maroons proved easy victims in the last game of the season
Too much credit cannot be given Coaches Richards, Jones, and Lowman for their efficint
work in developing the team. With these men retained as a permanent coaching staf, Wiscon-
sin will be assured of a successful football record for years to come.

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