Shoeless Wonders Football Team

Q-6-48

The nearby Presbyterian Orphans' Home (later HumanKind) fielded its first football team by 1922. The players, boys under the age of 18, received minimal coaching, wore second-hand uniforms, and soon began competing without shoes, except for a boot used during kickoffs. In 1926, news reports about the “Shoeless Wonders” propelled the team to national fame. The New York Times, Universal Pictures newsreels, and a Ripley’s Believe it or Not cartoon featured the squad, which was undefeated for at least six straight seasons before 1931 and held opponents scoreless for at least five of those years. Later teams won consistently in the city league and against opponents from other Virginia localities.

Department of Historic Resources, 2018

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Lynchburg News, 1, 9, 10, 31 Dec. 1926, 1 Jan. 1927. Miami News-Record, 18 Nov. 1926. New York Evening Post, 27 Jan. 1927. New York Times, 5 Dec. 1926. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1 May 1922, 11 Dec. 1926, 1 Jan. 1927, 28 Nov. 1929, 1, 8, 26 Nov. 1931, 21 Nov. 1948, 26 Aug. 1951. Ripley’s Believe It or Not, 28 Oct. 1929. Washington Evening Star, 5 Dec. 1926, 1 Jan. 1927. Washington Post, 13 Dec. 1925, 14, 23 Oct., 3 Nov. 1927, 2 Sept. 1928. https://ahcuah.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/colorful-characters-the-shoeless-wonders/ Joseph E. Blackburn, “The Shoeless Wonders” (date unknown). Bernard E. Bain with Dale Kramer, My One Hundred Children (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954). Mary Jo Shannon, Feed My Lambs: A History of Presbyterian Homes & Family Services, Inc., 1903-2003 (2003).