Knox College Athletics

 
Betram Bennett was an all around athlete at Knox College where he lettered four times each in football and baseball, and a single year in track.  He was captain of the undefeated Knox football team of 1919.  He was the “sixty minute center” for the Siwash, playing every minute of both offense and defense.  The football team outscored their opponents 295 to 7 during that season.
              
The Knox Alumnus contained an interesting description of the Siwash’s only close game that year versus Cornell. “Two splendid small college elevens had fought to a half time scoreless deadlock.  Late in the second half when it appeared that neither team would score, a well placed punt rolled dead, close to the Cornell goal line.  The Knox Captain and Center “Bert” Bennett broke through the line and chested the Cornell punter’s attempted kick so squarely that it rolled over the goal line.  “Fatty” Campbell, Siwash left tackle, pounced on the ball for a touchdown.  When the referee secured the ball from the tangle of humanity upon it, he found it to be completely deflated.  Using a substitute ball Knox failed to kick the point after the touchdown, and a few minutes later the game ended 6-0 in favor of the home team.   Six weeks later Knox ended a perfect season with eight victories and no defeats.
 
               
To this day however there has been no end to the argument of “who punctured the Pigskin.”  Campbell claims that Bert burst the ball when he met it with his chest.  Bennett is still convinced that Fatty’s fall flattened the ball.  Despite this argument of nearly thirty years both are in complete agreement that the 1919 team was the greatest to ever represent their Alma Mater.
                 
              
Bennett’s successes in baseball as a pitcher drew the attention of Charles Comiskey of the Chicago White Sox.  Comiskey invited him to play for the Sox.  Partly because the sox were just coming out of the Black Sox Scandal”, Bennett chose to decline the offer.
 
           
 In 1922 Bennett joined the Caspers Tin Plate Company as an office manager.  He became Vice President in 1935, President in 1938, and the Chairman of the Board in 1957.  He stayed with the company for 40 years.
 
 Bertram Bennett remained active in Beta Theta Pi and Knox college his entire life.  He was elected National President of Beta Theta Pi from 1954-1957.  He was a Knox Trustee from 1939 to 1972.  Mr. Bennett established the Mary Elizabeth Wallace Bennett Scholarship and the Bertram W. Bennett Scholarships at Knox.