midnight
The backfield had been built around him ; his experience had been relied upon as a stabilizer for the entire eleven which was comprised mostly of green , untried material . Removing Mooney from the team was like jerking the center pole out from under a tent and expecting the tent to remain standing upright . At least that is the way members of the eleven felt about it . And the reason Coach Brown was kicking Mooney off the team was because he had stayed out past midnight on several occasions with his co-ed sweetheart , Ruth Chesterton . One of John Brown 's rules was that every football man must be in bed by ten and those acquainted with his usually strict disciplinary measures had become accustomed to obeying . But Mooney 's case had somehow been regarded as different . Folks had come to consider him , because of his outstanding athletic prowess , a law unto himself .