The fire engine that came back

RELEASED: June 15, 2006

The Praying Colonels and the 1920 vintage Ahrens fire truck, past and present. The photo on the left was taken in 1921; the two photos on the right were taken this past weekend, with cutouts of the Centre football heroes created for the 75th anniversary celebration of the C6H0 game.

DANVILLE, KY—One of the biggest stars of last weekend's Great American Brass Band Festival didn't play trumpet, trombone or tuba. It did, however, play a major role in Centre College lore. The 1920 vintage Ahrens fire engine on display on Main Street figured prominently in one of Centre's—and, some say, the nation's—greatest sporting moments, the "Praying Colonels'" glorious 1921 victory over the No. 1 ranked Harvard team.

Valarie H. Ziegler '76 describes the engine's importance to the festivities when the Centre heroes returned to Danville:

The entire town, plus the Governor of Kentucky and the Superintendent of Public Education, met the players at the station. The team was hustled into the town's fire engine to begin a parade in which most of the citizens joined. [T]he parade included bands, goats dressed to represent Centre and Harvard, a battered old Ford representing Harvard, a man dressed like "Old John Harvard," cars decorated gold and white, and hundreds of other cars, all blowing their horns, followed by thousands of people on foot. The triumphal procession ended at the town courthouse, which became the site of innumerable speeches.

Everywhere, plastered over every building, was the jubilant C6-HO, Centre's "poison formula" for victory. There was even a cow running loose, painted green, with C6-HO on its side to proclaim the results of the game. The town, in short, was in utter pandemonium. Even today, sharp-eyed observers can discover in Danville signs of that celebration. Until its recent renovation, the C6-HO on the front of Old Centre was, though painted over, still visible; and buildings near the rail yard may still be found that bear the C6-HO mark.

For those unfamiliar with the C6-H0 story, here is a brief recap. In 1921, Harvard, the nation's dominant football power, was riding a five-year winning streak when the Crimson invited Centre up to Cambridge for what they thought would be a "warm-up" game, a light workout before facing mighty Princeton the following week.

On Oct. 29, before 45,000 stunned fans, the Colonels shocked the Crimson, in what some consider the twentieth century's greatest sports upset. Back in Danville, overjoyed students painted the "impossible chemical formula" C6H0 (Centre 6, Harvard 0) on everything in sight, including some cows. One such marking can still be seen on the side of the Centre post office.

The Centre victory was no fluke. The team went undefeated in regular season play, going on to beat other national powerhouses.

On the 75th anniversary of C6H0, Centre challenged Harvard to a rematch. Harvard declined.

But back to the fire engine. The state-of-the-art Ahrens served Danville and Boyle County with distinction into the 1950s. Near the middle of the decade it was traded in on a newer model and local firemen lost track of it. In 1996 when Centre celebrated the 75th anniversary of C6-H0 with a major exhibition at the College's Norton Center, officials attempted to locate the fire engine, but to no avail.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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