This Week in High School Sports History: The WWII Veteran Who Returned to Football and Scored a Touchdown

Also this week: National records in football and field hockey, plus a look back at the most recent 100-point high school football game.

Larry Bacon is pictured is pictured in the last row of players, wearing No. 44 for City College in 1945. | MD Football Archives

High school sports history is filled with remarkable moments that have largely disappeared from the larger story of American sports. This Week in High School History looks back at significant, unusual, and sometimes forgotten events in high school athletics.

For the Week of Sept. 21-27:

Baltimore City College (Md.) and Fork Union Military Academy (Va.) played to a 6-6 tie on Sept. 21, 1945, at Baltimore Stadium in a game that might have been largely forgotten if not for Larry Bacon's return.

Bacon, 19, started at right tackle for City College that day, his first game back after losing his left arm below the elbow while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.

Bacon had started at end for City College in 1943 before entering military service. He was wounded in August 1944 in the Marshall Islands, honorably discharged in February 1945, and returned to City College in March 1945. He completed his studies the following school year.

Bacon was allowed to play only the 1945 fall high school season because he would turn 20 in December.

Bacon’s biggest advocate at City College was football coach Charley Rudo, a 27-year-old first-year head coach who had just returned from 30 months of overseas military service.

“If I had 10 others like Bacon, there’d be little to worry about,” Rudo told the Baltimore Sun in a Sept. 11, 1945, article.

“I don’t care where the coach puts me – just so I’m in there,” the 6-foot, 190-pound Bacon told The Sun. “I’ll only be eligible for football, and I want to make the most of it.”

And that he did.

Bacon was a regular starter, and his season highlight happened in his final game, Nov. 22, 1945, in front of 25,715 spectators at Baltimore Stadium in the annual City-Poly showdown.

The game was still scoreless in the first quarter when Poly punter Ray Finn was forced to kick from his own end zone. City College defensive end Russ Traulfelter blocked the punt, and Bacon pounced on the loose ball just before it was headed out of the end zone, scoring a touchdown. The play was immortalized in a photograph that appeared with The Baltimore Sun's game coverage in its Nov. 23 edition.

Unfortunately for Bacon and City College, the touchdown was not enough. Poly won, 7-6, to claim the Maryland Scholastic Association championship.

The loss capped City College's 1-5-1 season. It also marked the end of Bacon's football career and Rudo's tenure at City College. Rudo did not return for the 1946 season.

Also This Week in History

Sept. 21

2005 – Krisha Giammarco of Bethlehem Catholic (Pa.) was on the losing end of a lopsided field hockey contest, but secured a national record in the process. Giammarco was credited with 65 saves during a 17-0 loss to national field hockey power Emmaus (Pa.), which went on to a 28-0, state title-winning season.

1990 – Dominic Gutierrez of Albuquerque Menaul (N.M.) set a national record with nine field goals in a game against Newcomb (N.M.). Interestingly, Gutierrez's longest field goal was only 29 yards.

Sept. 23

1990 – Bill Boor of Fenwick (Ill.) caught six touchdown passes against St. Martin de Porres (Ill.), breaking an Illinois high school football record that was set in 1971. No Illinois receiver has matched or topped Boor's performance since.

Sept. 25

2009 - Mark McDonagh of Riverside-Brookfield (Ill.) caught a state-record 25 passes against Elmwood Park. It was the first 20-plus-catch performance in Illinois history. Since then, six other players have caught at least 20 passes in a game, but none has matched McDonagh's record.

Sept. 26

2025 – Williamson (Ala.) defeated Murphy (Ala.), 100-0, becoming the most recent high school football team to score 100 points in a game. Triple-digit scores are rare in modern 11-man football, in part because of scheduling practices and running-clock rules. The game also drew attention to Alabama's running-clock rule, which does not take effect until the fourth quarter unless both coaches agree to start it earlier. According to reports, Murphy's coach declined to implement the running clock before the fourth quarter. Williamson led 73-0 at halftime. It was the only 11-man football game in 2025 in which a team reached 100 points and the first such game since 2023.

Sept. 27

1985 – Dirk Borgognone of Reno (Nev.) converts a national record 68-yard field goal in a football game against Sparks (Nev.). Borgognone's kick bettered the previous mark of 64, set by Erik Affholter of Agoura Oak Park (Calif.) in 1982.

This Week in High School History is compiled by Sheldon Shealer, a sports historian and lecturer at Mount St. Mary’s University, whose research focuses on the history and development of American high school football. Shealer compiles entries from newspaper accounts, state and school records, historical publications, archival collections, and other documented sources. Special thanks to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), whose records help preserve high school sports history.