It's been more than 100 years since Oil City's Jack Cleaves and his Princeton Tigers were the darlings of college football.

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They weren't supposed to do anything in 1922, but finished 8-0 under coach Bill Roper and were delcared outright national champions by two "namers" or co-champs by three others.

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Princeton entered the season with only three returning starters --  end Whoops Snively, tackle Pink Baker and the team's best back, the speedy Cleaves, an outstanding triple threat fullback. Average size of the starters was 5-11, 180 -- small for that era. The quarterback was 5-7, 154. Scribes picked the Tigers to finish last in the Ivy League. 

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But they kept winning and challenged Cornell and California for the national championship.

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Princeton's big game was a 21-18 victory at the University of Chicago on Oct. 28, 1922. It was the first game ever to be broadcast coast-to-coast on radio.

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Cleaves wasn't the big star of the team, but he was a star for sure and all of Oil City was proud of him -- along with Princeton grads from throughout northwestern Pa.

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I tried to take a couple of action clips of Cleaves from the Princeton Class of 1923 film on YouTube. They're not perfect, but you can see him run around end in the Chicago game in the top video and punting for the photographers in the bottom one.​

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Other big games

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The Tigers beat both Harvard (10-3) and Yale (3-0) that season, the first time they defeated both Ivy League rivals in the same season since 1911. 

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Jack's dad, Stephen Cleaves, saw his first college game when Princeton played Yale that year. Jack averaged 50 yards on punts and completed a 25-yard pass in that game, the Tigers' finale.

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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote, "Cheering thousands in the street and campus tell, to, of the craving of a new niche in Princeton's half of fame by Cleaves, whose triple threat of kick, run and pass was effective against a great Yale team that never gave in."

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Earlier, Cleaves made two interceptions, apparently returning one 80 yards for the game's only touchdown in a 10-0 victory over Colgate. He also caught a pass to set ups a field goal.

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Joe Villa, a scribe for the New York Sun, named Cleaves to his all-Eastern team. 

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In a game against Virginia in 1921, Cleaves scored a touchdown, passed for another and posted gains of 40 and 35 yards on two carries from scrimmage.

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Cleaves coached the Princeton freshman team in 1923 when he and other former Tiger coaches and players were picked to play in a benefit game against Vanderbilt. Proceeds were to go to Nashville Children's Hospital.

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Cleaves also played for a Princeton alumni team against Harvard at Yankee Stadium in 1927. Apparently there was a rift between the two schools and the game was played to patch things up. Proceeds were to go to the Red Cross.

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The Cleaves family lived near the library in Oil City. Jack Cleaves spent most of his adult life in the Bradford/Smethport area. 

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But after he died in the 1960s, Cleaves was buried in Oil City -- at the Grove Hill Cemetery near the former Heath's Market.

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