I’ve been busy this week finishing up stories for the fall issue of Widener Magazine that will be due out in October, and thought I’d share one of the photographs that will go with a story about the history of athletics on campus dating back to when baseball started way back in 1866. Above is a shot of the Boardwalk Bowl in Atlantic City from 1967, Pennsylvania Military College’s last game of that season (click on image to enlarge).
In 1934, PMC played one of the earliest indoor football games on record in Convention Hall in Atlantic City, now known as Boardwalk Hall, the arch-roofed arena famous for being home to Miss America pageants until 2004. The football team played six more games in Atlantic City in the thirties.
After a hiatus, PMC returned to Atlantic City in 1961 to play the Merchant Marine Academy, more commonly referred to as Kings Point for its location in New York state. “Beat Kings Point,” became the mantra on campus. PMC played a game annually in Atlantic City until 1970.
After that, there was only one more game in Atlantic City, that in 1973 when Widener beat Fordham 49-20 in the last game of the season. It also was Billy “White Shoes” Johnson’s final game in a Widener uniform before he went on to stardom in the NFL.
You can see scores of the games online in the Widener Football media guide. There also are oral histories with PMC alumni talking about the game accessible on the PMC Museum web page.
–Sam Starnes, Editor
