midnight
`` Not for five years has a Gold and Green team won the Championship -- not since the year before Butch and I were Freshmen ! We 've got a splendid bunch of material to build a team with , and -- '' `` Our biggest problem is this , '' spoke Coach Corridan , as with a phenomenal display of strength he took Beef McNaughton between thumb and forefinger and placed him on the field . `` We must strengthen both line and backfield , for we lost by graduation Babe McCabe , Heavy Hughes , and Jack Merritt . Now , to replace that lost power -- '' Just then , from directly beneath the open window by which they had gathered , like the midnight serenade of a romantic lover , sounded the well-known foghorn voice of T. Haviland Hicks , Jr. , as to the plunkety-plunk of a banjo accompaniment , he warbled melodiously : `` Gone are the days -- I used to spend with Car-o-li-nah ! She had the sunshine in her laughter -LRB- _ plunkety-plunk _ -RRB- Just like that state they named her after -- '' '' _ Hicks _ ! '' announced Butch , stealthily approaching the window , and beckoning his companions . `` Easy -- look at him , Deke , there he is , Hicks , the irrepressible !