VOLUME 12, NO. 2     JANUARY 1999

Reuniting the Undefeated

n the fall of 1938, WPI's football and soccer teams completed undefeated seasons and accomplished something that had never been done before at the University. The football team was a solid veteran group with Ivan "Pete" Bigler leading the battle each Saturday against some of the best teams in New England. The team was two-deep in every position, with five of the starters playing their fourth year on the first string.

The 1938 soccer team made the fall doubly perfect. Not a single defeat was suffered in the six-game schedule. Because most of the games were won by overwhelming margins, the scores sound more like baseball slugfests than soccer games. Coach Edwin "Higgie" Higgenbottom knew his soccer and played it the "team" way, not the "star" way. He believed that one or two men could never beat 11 and told 11 men to play. His strategy worked. Every team met by the Engineers that season reckoned them as the best ever.

Left, from left, Frank Gustafson '40 (football), Richard Wilson '39 (football), Edwin Putnam '39 [friend], Kenneth Blaisdell '40 (soccer), Ronald Brand '40 (soccer), Norman Wilson '42 (soccer), William Bosyk '41(soccer), John Peters '40 (football) and Ray Forkey '40 (football).