The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Mentor threw a shutout for entire season in 1940
Keeping a zero on the scoreboard is a worthwhile talking point.
Doing it for a few straight weeks is a statement.
Going the whole season with that zero in place is a legacy for all time.
In 1940, Mentor recorded a perfect season. Unbeaten. Untied. Unscored upon. The Cardinals went 8-0, scored 185 points — and yielded none.
“But it’s not the points printed in black and white in the record books that Cardinal rooters will remember,” the Painesville Telegraph wrote Nov. 2, 1940. “Rather it is the stirring goal line stands of the courageous Crimson line that kept the Mentor goal clean of any invaders’ march.”
Put another way, it was a brick wall adorned in red.
Coach Edward Masonbrink awarded letters to just 13 players that fall, his two-way lineup holding fairly steady throughout. Offensively, Earl Troop was the quarterback, with Norman Reeves at fullback and John Renally and Frank Hengesbach at halfback. Ed Barber and Chuck Stange occupied the end spots, with a line of Bob Agard and Bob Jenks at tackle, Al Lang and Don Horn at guard and Dick Allchin at center.
Mentor opened with a 6-0 victory Sept. 13 over Fairport. Reeves capped a 73-yard fourthquarter drive with a 1-yard plunge on fourth-and-goal.
In Week 2, down went Orange, 20-0. Reeves ran for a pair of touchdowns and Stange recovered an Agard blocked punt in the end zone for the other TD.
“The Cardinals bogged down in the second half,” the Telegraph said. “But considering the mercury was in the 80s, a tendency to ease up was natural.
“If Mentor had more reserves, however, she might have kept up the pace.”
Mentor was a much different — i.e. rural — community in 1940, after all.
In their Western Reserve League opener against Chagrin Falls, the Cardinals posted a 26-0 win. Reeves found paydirt three times, and Chagrin got to the Mentor 7 on one possession, only to turn the ball over on downs.
On Oct. 4, it was Perry’s turn. Avenging a loss the year prior, the Cardinals rolled, 28-0. Renally had a pair of TD runs, including a 44-yard jaunt, and also contributed an interception.
Mentor got to 5-0 with a 19-0 victory over Madison on Oct. 11. The outcome was not in doubt late, but the scoreless streak was.
“It was the old battle all over again,” the Telegraph reported. “Madison wanted to score. Mentor wanted to keep her goal line uncrossed.”
In the final minute, Madison fullback Ernest Rhoads took a handoff.
“From the 36,” the Telegraph wrote, “(Rhoads) slipped through the center of the Mentor’s line, broke loose in the field, shaking off tacklers and around left end outran a herd of Mentor back for an apparent touchdown.
“At the last minute, Hengesbach, coming from nowhere, threw his body before (Rhoads) and carried (Rhoads) out of bounds on Mentor’s onefoot line. The gun ended the game before Madison had another crack at that precious Mentor goal line.”
Three games remained on the Cardinals’ schedule: Chardon, the Shaw reserves and Willoughby Union.
“Nothing can cause more interest and suspense than a winning streak such as Mentor has run,” wrote the Telegraph on Oct. 17, 1940. “For in every game the question is always posed: Will they get over this hurdle safely? And in Mentor’s winning streak, not only are the Cardinals trying to win all their games, but they are trying to keep their goal from being crossed.”
It didn’t come close to happening the next two weeks, as Mentor hammered Chardon, 40-0, and the Shaw reserves, 33-0.
That left a trip to Willoughby Union on Oct. 31.
In the first quarter, Reeves found the end zone twice on 1-yard runs to open a 13-0 lead. That’s where it stayed to the fourth quarter, when Willoughby drove all the way to the Cardinals’ 4 with a first-and-goal.
“Stafford gathered one, Myers made another, Stafford picked up a third and the touchdown try was assigned to Myers, the hardhitting, rangy fullback, who ordinarily is a good for a yard under any circumstances,” the Telegraph reported. “But last night’s circumstance wasn’t ordinary. Mentor was determined not to be scored upon. When Myers pounded toward the line, the Mentor forward wall and its secondary catapulted ahead, seemingly synchronized, and threw him for a yard loss.”
Mentor saw through its perfect season in the wonlost column — and on the scoreboard — from there with a 13-0 win.
In the 1941 Mentor yearbook, Masonbrink said, “To finish a football season undefeated, untied and unscored upon is the dream of every team, but the accomplishment of few.”
Reeves, with a teamhigh 65 of their 185 points, was one of five Cardinals to earn all-WRL honors. He also made the United Press International AllOhio team.
On Nov. 10, the school held a banquet to honor their historic squad, complete with a turkey dinner, game film in the auditorium and a dance to the tune of Belmont Club, the high school’s orchestra.
The tune for an entire fall at Mentor — remarkably – featured no flat notes, a legacy for all time.
“Mentor’s football team of 1940 has gone down in history,” the Telegraph stated. “And football talk for decades has been given an indelible stamp by the thrilling record of the Mentor team.
“In future years, when pigskin lovers gather round ... conversation will always reach the point where some old grad will say, ‘But let me tell you about that Mentor team back in 1940. Now there’s a record for you.’ ”