Dave Myers

Black Quarterback

N.Y.U. 1929

Nov. 5, 1924 New York Times
MORRIS H.S. BEATS COMMERCE, 7 to 0
STUYVESANT ALSO VICTOR BEFORE 30,000 AT YANKEE STADIUM
Strengthens Position in Race for Manhattan-Bronx Title by Beating Clinton, 25-0.
...Stuyvesant's Scarlet and Blue warriors trounced the Red and Black squad of De Witt Clinton in their annual struggle by a score of 25 to 0.
...The work of Bill Sheldrick, Stuyvesant captain, Massari, Schreefter and Myers, stood out in the Scarlet and Blue triumph....In the fourth period Myers twice crossed the De Witt Clinton goal line, once on a forward pass from Sheldrick and later after he had retrieved a blocked kick.
Nov. 28, 1924 New York Times
STUYVESANT BEATS MORRIS FOR TITLE
Captures Manhattan - Bronx Championship, 35 to 0, in Lewsohn Stadium.
...Myers picked up a fumble within a few strides of the Morris goal line in the second period and scored the second touchdown, coming back soon after and, after recovering a blocked kick, racing forty yards for another touchdown.
Oct. 17, 1929 New York Times
MYERS, N.Y.U. GUARD USED IN BACK FIELD
Replaces O'Herin at Quarter in Latest Shake-Up on the Violet Eleven.
  Dave Myers, veteran guard, replaced John O'Herin, varsity quarterback, on the New York University eleven in yesterday's drill at Ohio Field. The move was the second change in the makeup of the Violet team in two days. Coach Chick Meehan having substituted Ed Bella, a sophomore halfback, for Beryl Follet.
...Myers has been used by Meehan as a running guard for the past two seasons and is considered the fastest man on the squad. During the training period at Farmingdale this season the Violet coach experimented with Myers in a back field position, , where the veteran lineman showed real aptitude and it was thought for a time that Meehan had decided to use Myers in a halfback position.
  However, with the swift development of Charlie Jones, until then unknown, and the inability to discover a lineman to play Myer's position, Meehan decided to start the season with Myers at a guard post, using him to play safety man on the defense and to run back kicks, which he has been doing expertly.
  Yesterday the former Stuyvesant High School back field star, who was converted into an end in his freshman year at N.Y.U., and a varsity guard, worked well with the back field, which included himself, Bella, Jones and Herman La Mark.
Oct. 20, 1929 New York Times
Penn State Bows to N.Y.U Eleven, 7-0, Before 30,000 Crowd at Yankee Stadium
30,000 See Myers Star
MYERS PREVENTS TOUCHDOWN
By Arthur J. Daley
  Standing at the crossroads of its season and facing the pathways to future success or failure, New York University strode in the right durection by repelling a stubbornly fighting Penn State eleven, 7 to 0, yesterday at the Yankee Stadium before a crowd of 30,000.
  Scoring on the sixteenth play of the game, before it was five minutes old, the Violet team rose in all its might to batter back the advances of the Nittany Lions as Coach Hugo Bezdek's team fought valiantly but vainly. Two fifteen-yard penalties aided materially in the triumph of N.Y.U., the last of these placing the ball on the 3-yard line, where Herman La Mark tumbled over the goal-line for a touchdown as a New York cannon boomed the message of a Violet score. But it was not La Mark who was the hero, nor was it Ed Bella who kicked the point after touchdown. It was a human catapult, Dave Myers, who flung himself recklessly at the white-shirted Penn State line and who reaped all the N.Y.U. glory.
  Myers, in his first game in the back field was the only Violet man that could consistently gain. Follet did not traverse ten yards all day; La Mark was halted and Bella was stopped, but Myers carried on to give the Violet the punch it has lacked all season.
Myers Prevents Touchdown
  Once he tore around right end from the N.Y.U. 10-yard line to midfield, where Cooper French, Penn State safety man, tossed him down. Again he tackled Frank Diedrich for the latter had a clear path for a touchdown. No matter whether it was defense or offense, Myers was half the N.Y.U. team yesterday.
...The Lions also had a brilliant back field in French, Diedrich, Lasich, and Evans. This quartet could carry the ball around end or through the line but N.Y.U. had Myers and that was enough.
  It was Myers who started the way to the Violet score. When State kicked off to the Violet 39-yard line, two plays were halted and Myers sped around right end for eleven yards and first down....A plunge by La Mark and two by Myers netted first down.
...Zealous State tacklers were penalized for unecessary roughness and the Violet received the ball on the 3-yard strip....
Ed Hughes editorial cartoon, sports section, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 8, 1929. Titled The New Mason & Dixon Line!, picturing Dave Myers standing ona football field with a line in front of him titled The Color Line.
Oct. 24, 1929 New York Times
MEEHAN WILL NOT USE MYERS AGAINST GEORGIA
N.Y.U. Coach Will Assign Another Quarterback in Game With Southerners Nov. 9.
  Dave Myers, star negro quarterback of the New York University football team, will not play against the University of Georgia when the Southern eleven invades New York City to engage the Violet at the Yankee Stadium on Nov. 9, according to a statement made by coach Chick Meehan last night.
  “We had no intention of playing Myers against Georgia when we scheduled the game,” said the N.Y.U. Coach “and we do not intend to play him now.”
  Meehan said that when he and Al Nixon, graduate manager of athletics at N.Y.U., arranged the game, no mention of Myers was made. He added, “We understood the feeling of Southern colleges in regard to playing against negroes, and I made up my mind then that Myers would remain out of that game. The name of Myers did not enter into the negotiations with Georgia.”
Oct. 27, 1929 New York Times
N.Y.U. TURNS BACK BUTLER ELEVEN, 13-6
75-Yard Run by Follet for Score in 3d Period Features Game at Yankee Stadium
...The Violet was quite business like about its first touchdown. Shortly after the kick-off Dave Myers reeled off thirty yards and though this advantage was wiped out when an exchange of punts found Cavosie punting the ball almost the length of the field over the N.Y.U. goal line, the Violet immediately went back to work again.
  The ball being put in play at the N.Y.U. 20-yard line, Myers again broke loose and dashed fifty-five yards before being brought down by Walsh. Two line plunges by Lamark and Myers carried the ball to the Butler 17-yard mark, from where O'Herin hurled a pass to Nemecek and the Violet had its first touchdown.
...The Violet, for its part, swarmed all over the Hoosiers. Line smashes by O'Herin, Lamark and Myers soon had the ball on the Butler 20-yard line as the second period opened. A few minutes more and these three had a first down on the 9-yard line. On the fourth down, N.Y.U. had it on the ½-yard line. the ball was passed to Myers, who hit a brick wall and N.Y.U. missed chance number one.
Nov. 7, 1929 New York Times
SAYS MYERS WILL PLAY IF CONDITION PERMITS
Courtney Declares Examination Will Determine If He Can Appear Against Georgia
  Dave Myers, negro star of the New York University eleven, will play in the game against the University of Georgia at the Yankee Stadium on Saturday, if his physical condition permits, it was announced yesterday by Professor Giles L. Courtney, chairman of the Board of Athletic Control of N.Y.U.
  In making the announcement, Professor Courtney pointed out that there was no stipulation in the contract with the University of Georgia pertaining to race, color or creed and he further brought out the fact that the University of Georgia officials at no time made any demands relative to the playing of Myers.
  It was pointed out by Professor Courtney that Myers suffered a shoulder injury in the game against Penn State and that this injury was aggravated in the Georgetown contest. Myers was witheld from scrimmage on Monday because of this injury. He will be examined by a committee of physicians, the announcement stated, and if it pronounces his condition as satisfactory, Myers will start as a member of the N.Y.U. eleven on Saturday.
editorial cartoon, sports section, Brooklyn Daily Eagle for November 9, 1929, by Ed Hughes. Titked The Ball For Today's Game? picturing a big football with Georgia vs. N.Y.U. written on it and a tag attached saying Myer's Ball.
Nov. 9, 1929 New York Times
N.Y.U. AND GEORGIA HOLD FINAL DRILLS
MYERS UNABLE TO PLAY
...It was definitely established yesterday that Dave Myers, star Negro quarterback, around whom a controversy has been waged, would be out of today's game.
  Myers was examined by a committee of surgeons composed of Dr. George David Stewart, past president of the American College of Surgeons; Dr. Edward A. King of St. Vincent's Hospital and Dr. Michael Tetelman of the French Hospital and pronounced unfit for duty, not only for the Georgia game but possibly the remainder of the season.
Danger of Permanent Injury
  Their finding was that Myers has damaged the acromioclavicular ligaments of his left shoulder and that there is danger of permanent injury.
Nov. 23, 1929 New York Times
...N.Y.U.'s line-up against Rutgers this afternoon will differ little from that of previous games. Dave Myers, the negro star, who failed to appear in the Georgia game because of injuries, is again in condition and will start at quarterback. Shorty Hormel, the midget halfback, who did so well against the Scarlet last year, will get a starting chance to repeat today....
Nov. 24, 1929 New York Times
N.Y.U.'S RUNS BEAT RUTGERS ELEVEN, 20-7
Myers Races 50 Yards for the Second Violet Touchdown After Score Is Tied at 7-7
By Roscoe McGowan
  Swiftly and accurately thrown footballs from the arm of young Jack Grossman threatened to discomfit completely a powerful N.Y.U. eleven at Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon, but in the pinch the Rutgers youths couldn't quite hit on all cylinders, and the Violet took the game by 20 to 7.
  A crowd of 20,000, chilled by the penetrating cold of the day, was warmed by the exploits of both teams, the climactic feat being a 70-yard run for the Violet's third touchdown by Beryl Follet, the scampering halfback of the Meehan militarists, But even though they went down to defeat, and an unexpected defeat, the boys from the banks of the Raritan acquitted themselves gloriously.
...Dave Myers, who was at right half, then got loose and carried the ball to the Scarlet's 48-yard line on a 35-yard run, but the Violet attack dwindled after this.
...The first Violet touchdown, which seemed to have inspired the Scarlet to great deeds, had come shortly after the start of the second half, when young Vic Connor, brother of the famous Jack, had replaced Roland at left half. Connor, taking the Rutger kick-off, ran it back five yards to his own 25-yard line.
  Here, Myers, who had threatened momentarily to get loose, finally succeeded, and in a run featured by fine interference by the Violet forward raced 50 yards to the Scarlet 20-yard mark. From the 25-yard line Beryl Follet threw a forward pass to Jerry Nemecek...for a touchdown.
...A last-minute thrill for the N.Y.U. fans came with the substitution of Shorty Hormel, the 125-pound midget, for Follet. When the diminuitive back took the ball on his first play and carried it thirty yards before he was catapulted out of bounds by the Scarlet secondaries, the ball, in Hormel's arms, was on the Scarlet 30-yard line as the game ended.

Dave Myers played 13 games in the National Football League
   6 games for the Staten Island Stapletons in 1930 (1 rush for 10 yards, 1 interception)
   6 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1931.
   He also played for the all-Black independent All-Southern Collegiates, a New York based team.

•Myers also set the then intercollegiate record for the javelin throw (196' 3¾"), at the Penn Relays, Franklin Field, Philadelphia, 4/27/1929. On 6/22/1929, at the Metropolitan A.A.U. Senior Track & Field meet in Weequahic Park in Newark, the lefty with the underhand wind-up threw the spear 192' 31/8 for a new AAU record, besting by almost 6 feet the old (pre-war) mark."

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