Becoming Crusaders

Not only did Ownie Carroll ’25 bring athletic glory to Holy Cross with his sensational 50-2 pitching career, he played a strong role in the adoption of the College’s nickname, the Crusaders.

The story goes something like this:

In 1923, the Boston Herald sent sportswriter Stanley Woodward to cover the Red Sox, who were playing a series against Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics. The Holy Cross baseball team, coached by Jack Barry, was staying at the Hotel Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. So was Woodward—a Worcester native who had started his newspaper career with the Worcester Evening Gazette.

Woodward met up with Barry in the hotel lobby. Barry invited him to come to Holy Cross’ practice as the team prepared to play Princeton the next day.

In his 1964 autobiography Paper Tiger, Woodward recalls the scene:

“I went out to the park with the team and hung on a strap in the trolley car between Owen Carroll, the great pitcher, and Doc Gautreau, the second baseman who later played for the Braves. On the way out to the park the Doctor, always a great conversationalist, brought up a matter that was bothering him.

‘They have a new paper up at the college called the Tomahawk,’ he (Gautreau) said. ‘They are trying to get a name for Holy Cross teams and I am afraid they are going to call us “the Chiefs” to go with the name of the newspaper. It is a lousy name and we would like you to help us get a better one. Ownie and I think ‘the Crusaders’ would be a good name—what do you think of that?’”

Woodward reports he started calling Holy Cross teams the “Crusaders” in the Boston Herald. “I disclaim credit for the name. It originated either with Gautreau or Carroll,” writes Woodward.

This recollection by Woodward came 41 years after his confab with Gautreau and Carroll in Philly. He also recalls that Carroll lost to Princeton, 2-0, the next day. However, the minor details in his book are a bit shaky. The Tomahawk wasn’t inaugurated until February 1925, so the Tomahawk reference attributed to Doc Gautreau may be inaccurate due to Woodward’s faulty memory. Perhaps Woodward confused the 1923 trip—during which Carroll beat Princeton, 1-0, on April 25—with the 1925 trip when Carroll beat Princeton, 4-1, on April 15.

Woodward died shortly after the 1964 publication of the autobiography. Long out of print, the book was republished in paperback last year.

In any event, because a Boston newspaper had adopted Crusaders, that sobriquet carried a certain cachet when the students put the issue of an official nickname to a vote in the fall of 1925. With the support of graduating heroes Carroll and Gautreau, “Crusaders” won in a landslide and the unofficial “Chiefs” bit the dust.

Woodward’s career moved upward as he went from the Boston Herald in 1930 to the New York Herald Tribune where he became a legendary sports editor known as “The Coach.” There he mentored a stable of gifted writers—including the incomparable Red Smith.