Brown Iron Men
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The 1926 Brown Bears football team, often called "the Iron Men", were led by first-year head coach Tuss McLaughry. The Bears compiled a 9–0–1 record, outscored their opponents 223–36 and recorded seven defensive shutouts. In the middle of the 1926 season the “Iron Men” came into being capturing the imagination of football fans throughout the United States.
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The same eleven men played against Yale for sixty minutes and a 7-0 win. The next week the same eleven played without substitution against Dartmouth and won 10-0. Two weeks later the Iron Men played 58 minutes against Harvard in the 26–0 shutout of the Crimson. In the last two minutes the substitutes came in to earn their letters. Brown won all its games that year until the Thanksgiving game against Colgate ended in a 10-10 tie. They won the Ivy League football championship and the 9–0–1 record remains Brown's only undefeated season to date.
Two of the the famed “Iron Men” were former Rhode Island high school football players. Thurston Towle ’28 (Pawtucket High and Moses Brown) would go on to play one season in the National Football League with the Boston Bulldogs in 1929 and stayed with Coach McLaughry for eight years as varsity end coach. Lou Farber ’29, a former All-Stater at tackle, also at both Pawtucket High and Moses Brown, earned Honorable Mention All-American honors in 1928. His nickname was "Tarzan" for his speed, toughness and agility. He was captain of the freshman football team and participated in track all four years at Brown. He would go on to have a long distinguished high school coaching career at Pawtucket High and in Tucson, Arizona. Both standouts would later be inducted into the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame.
