Hall of Fame
After the 1928 Kohawk football team shut out Knox, a Galesburg sportswriter wrote, "Frisbee tore through the Siwash line like it was tissue paper." Those laudatory words properly described Frank Frisbee's play as fullback and punter on Coach Moray Eby's Midwest Conference championship teams of 1928, 1929, and 1930. Frank Frisbee was captain of the 1929 team, which had an undefeated Conference record. The Kohawks challenged bigger schools in those days and that team beat Iowa State Teachers College, now University of Northern Iowa, and lost to the University of Minnesota and to St. Louis University. Coach Eby's offense was fairly predictable in those days. Behind devastating blocking, it was Frank Frisbee up the middle and either Ed Barrows, Fred Hild, or Buddy Byrnes around the ends. It was simple, but marvelously effective. The title-winning 1928 team was scored on only by Big Ten champion University of Illinois. The championship team of 1930 scored 105 points to the opposition's 9 and defeated both Iowa State Teachers and Chicago Loyola. Frank Frisbee scored 30 of the 105 points. Frank Frisbee was an All-Conference fullback in 1929. As we all focus on the upcoming 100th game between Coe and Cornell this fall, one memory that can remind us today of that long rivalry was Coe's 19-0 win over Cornell in 1929. One of Coe's three touchdowns came when Frisbee returned a pass interception 41 yards for the score. Frisbee was a native of Garner, Iowa, and folks from around there said he must have inherited his father's athletic ability. His father, Frank G. Frisbee, attended Coe before the turn of the century and played professional baseball from 1900 to 1906. Both father and son each eventually moved to Hawaii and worked for the Dole Pineapple Company. Frank C. Frisbee died in 1985. We induct him posthumously into the Kohawk Hall of Fame today in recognition of his key role on three championship football teams, and with perhaps just a touch of longing for the days when football was a tough, but uncomplicated, game for players and spectators alike.
