nine o'clock
Let me get an inspiration , and then Thor will once again gently but firmly thrust entire football elevens down the field before him ! '' As evidence of how intensely serious was the situation , let it be chronicled that , for the first time in his scatter-brained campus career , T. Haviland Hicks , Jr. , did not dare strum his banjo and roar out ballads to torture his long-suffering colleagues . Popular and beloved as he was , the gladsome youth hesitated to shatter the quietude of the campus with his saengerfest , knowing as he did what a terrible blow Thor 's utterly astounding announcement had been to the college . It was nine o'clock , one night two weeks after the day when John Thorwald , better known as Thor , the Prodigious Prodigy , so mysteriously produced by Hicks , had stolidly paralyzed old Bannister by unemotionally stating his decision to play no more football . Since then , to quote the Phillyloo Bird , `` Bannister has staggered around the ring like a prizefighter with the Referee counting off ten seconds and trying to fight again before he takes the count . '' In truth , the students had made a fatal mistake in building all their hopes of victory on that blond giant , Thor ; seeing his wonderful prowess , and beholding how , in the first week of the season , the Norwegian Colossus had ripped to shreds the Varsity line which even the heavy Ballard eleven of the year before could not batter , it was but natural that the enthusiastic youths should think of the Championship chances in terms of _ Thor _ . For one week , enthusiasm and excitement soared higher and higher , and then , to use a phrase of fiction , everything fell with a dull , sickening thud !