five minutes after four
Team members instinctively knew that , so far as Tim Mooney was concerned , John Brown would regard him as though he had never lived . The coach would chalk up the defeat -- not against Mooney 's absence from the line-up -- but against the team individually or collectively failing to come through in some particular . They knew this because John Brown had emphasized , in some outstanding past instances , that `` Games are never won by the men on the sidelines but by the eleven on the field . '' At the clubhouse the hands of the old wooden-faced clock pointed to five minutes after four . This was fifteen minutes past the time that the Monday talk usually began . Players , lounging in the locker room , looked at one another in silent wonderment and then strolled toward the windows and gazed out down the walk which led through a lane of trees to the campus . As the clock droned the quarter hour , Red Murdock -- assistant coach -- got up , with an air of uneasiness , and sauntered to the door and stood , peering .