Ralph "Horse" Chase: Pitt star from Wilkes-Barre reached sport's highest highs
Grantland Rice chose Chase on the first All-America team he selected.
Walter Camp, the father of American football, had been recognized as the official selector of college football’s All-America teams since he began the practice in 1889.
When Camp died in March 1925, his magazine, Collier’s Weekly, sorely needed a new authority of the sport to pick its best and brightest.
Camp’s successor was Grantland Rice, arguably the most famous sports writer of all-time. By this point, Rice, 44, was the chief tastemaker among U.S. sports scribes. A person or event mattered if Rice wrote about it in his nationally syndicated “Sportlights” column.
It’s safe to say that in 1925, Ralph “Horse” Chase, of Wilkes-Barre, mattered to Rice and sportsmen across America.
Rice selected Chase, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, as one of two All-America tackles, alongside Ed Weir, of Nebraska.
“The two simplest selections were at tackle,” Rice said, picking his 11. “Coaches whose teams played against Pittsburgh rated Captain Chase the best tackle they had seen in five years … 6 feet, 3 or 4 inches in height, 215 pounds in weight and fast as a back.”
One of those opposing coaches was Lou Young, of the University of Pennsylvania. Pitt beat Penn, 14-0, in Philadelphia. After the game, Young, who guided Penn to a 7-2 record after going 9-1-1 in 1924, described Chase as the game’s X-factor.
“Chase, the big tackle, was one of the best linemen I have seen in a long time,” Young told reporters. “He had everything necessary for a first-class tackle and I don’t doubt his work inspired the Panthers. Chase smothered forward pass attacks almost single-handed.”
In that same newspaper article by the Philadelphia Inquirer, legendary Pitt coach Jock Sutherland heaped similar praise upon his giant tackle.
“Captain Chase played one of the greatest tackle games I have ever seen,” Sutherland said.
Chase was born Dec. 19, 1902, in Wilkes-Barre. He grew up in the city’s East End and graduated in 1920 from Wilkes-Barre High School. He then attended Wyoming Seminary for a postgraduate year.
Chase was an All-American and captain of Pitt in his final season, 1925. The Panthers went 8-1, losing only to Lafayette in the second game.
While Sutherland, who coached Pitt from 1924 to 1938, would mine the Wyoming Valley for numerous All-Americans in years to come, Chase was his first All-American from the area.
In 1935, George Trevor, a football writer for the New York Sun, selected Chase as a second-team tackle on the All-Time All-Star Pitt Team.
After graduation, Chase coached football at several institutions, including Ursinus College and Kingston High School. A 1986 article stated Chase was living in Somerton, South Carolina.
Unfortunately, I’m missing key details from Chase’s post-football life because I’ve been unable to find a newspaper obituary (he died in 1989, age 86) or his burial record on Find A Grave. If you can help with this research, I’d welcome your email at mattbufanophoto@gmail.com.
View the constantly updated list of all the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre region’s major college football All-Americans by clicking this link.