13 Hard luck in the game. It is as true in football as it is in life, that we have no use for a quitter. The man who shirks in time of need, indeed, there is no part in this chapter or in this book for such a man. Football was never made for him. He is soon discovered and relegated to the sideline. He is hounded throughout his college career and afterwards he is known as a man who was yellow. As Gary Cochrane used to say, if I find a man on any football squad showing a white feather, I'll have him hounded out of college. Football is a game for the man who has nerve, and when put to the test, under severe handicap, proves his sterling worth. A man has to be game in spirit. A man has to give every inch there is in him. Optimism should surround him. There is much to be gained by hardy cooperation of spirit. There is much in the thought that you believe your team is going to win, that the opposition team cannot beat you, that if your opponent wins, it is going to be over your dead body. This sort of spirit is contagious and generally passes from one to the other until you have a wonderful team spirit, and eleven men are found fighting like demons for victory. Such a spirit generally means a victory, and so it gets its reward. There must be no dissenting spirit. If there is such a spirit discernable, it should be weeded out immediately. Some years ago the Princeton players were going to the field house to dress for the Harvard game. The captain and two of the players were walking ahead of the rest of the members of the team. The game was under discussion when the captain overheard one of the players behind him remark, I believe Harvard will win today. Shocked by this remark, the captain, who was one of those thoroughbreds who never saw anything but victory ahead, full of hope and confidence in his team, turned and discovered that the remark came from one of his regular players. Addressing him, he said, well, if you feel that way about it, you need not even put on your suit. I have a substitute who is game to the core. He will take your place. It is true that teams have been ruined where the men lack the great quality of optimism in football. When a man gets in a tight place, when the odds are all against him, there comes to him an amazing superhuman strength which enables him to work out wonders. At such a time, men have been known to do what seemed almost impossible. I recall being out in the country in my younger days and seeing a man who had become irrational near the roadside where some heavy logs were piled. The man, who ordinarily was only a man of medium strength, was picking up one end of a log and tossing it around, a log which ordinarily would have taken three men to lift. In the bewildering and exciting problems of football, there are instances similar to this where a small man on one team lined up against a giant on the opposing rush line and game though handicapped in weight, there comes to him at such a time a certain added strength by which he was able to handle successfully the duty which presented itself to him. I found it to be the rule rather than the exception that the big man in football did not give me the most trouble. It is the man much smaller than myself. Other big linemen have found it to be true.  Bill Caldwell, who used to weigh over 200 pounds when he played guard on the Cornell team, some years ago has this to say, I want to pay tribute to a young man who gave me my worst 70 minutes on the football field. His name was Payne. He played left guard for Lehigh. He weighed about 145 pounds was a slight build and seemed to have a sort of sickly pallor. I had never seen him since, but I take this occasion to say this was the greatest little guard I ever met. At least he was great that day. Payne had been playing back of the line during part of the season, but was put in at guard against me. I had a hunch that he was going to bite me in the ankle when he lined up the first time, for he bristled up and tore into me like a wildcat. I have met a good a few guards in my day and was accustomed to almost any form of warfare. But this pain went around me like a cooper around a barrel and broke through the line and down the runners in their tracks. On plunger straight at him, he went to the mat and grabbed every leg in sight and hung on for dear life. He darted through between my legs would vault over me. What he did to me was a shame. He was not rough but was just the opposite. I never laid a hand on him all the afternoon. He would make a world beater in the game as it is played today. Whenever Brown University men get together and speak of their wonderful quarterbacks, the names of Sprackling and Crowther are always mentioned. Both of these men were all American quarterbacks. Crowther filled the position after Sprackling graduated. He weighed only 134 pounds, but he gave everything he had in him game though handicapped and weight. In the Harvard game of that year, about the middle of the second half, Houghton sent over word to Robinson, the Brown coach, that he ought to take the little fellow out that he was too small to play football and was in danger of being seriously injured. Crowther, however, was like an India rubber ball and not once during the season had he received any sort of injury. Robbie told Crowther what Houghton had suggested and smiling, the latter said, Tell him not to worry about me, better look out for yourself. On the next play, Crowther took the ball and went around Harvard's end for 40 yards scoring a touchdown. After he had kicked the goal, the little fellow came over to the sideline and said to Robbie, send word over to Houghton and ask him how he likes that. Ask him if he thinks I'm all in. Perhaps he would like to have me quit now. In the Yale game that year, Crowther was tackled by Pendleton, one of the big Yale guards. It so happened that Pendleton was injured several times when he tackled Crowther and time had to be taken out. Finally, the big fellow was obliged to quit. And as he was led off the field, Crowther hurried over to him, reaching up, placed his hands on his shoulder and said, Sorry, old man, I didn't mean to hurt you. Pendleton, who weighed well over 200 pounds, looked down upon the little fellow, but said never a word.  In the Brown game of 1898 at Providence, Bozy writer Princeton star Halfback made a flying tackle of a brown runner. The latter was struggling hard, trying his best to get away from writer. At this moment, I was coming along and threw myself upon the brown man to prevent his advancing further. In the mix-up, my weight struck Bozy and fractured his collarbone. It was a severe loss to the team. And only one who has had a similar experience can appreciate my feelings, as well as the teams on the journey back to Princeton. We were to play Yale the following Saturday at Princeton. I knew writer's injury was so serious that he could not possibly play in that game. The following Saturday is that great football warrior laying his bed at the infirmary. The whistle blew for the start of the Yale game. We all realized writer was not there, not even on the sidelines. And Arthur Poe said at the start of the game, Play for Bozy writer. He can't play for himself today. This spurred the team onto better teamwork and to victory. The attendance at the hospital told us later that they never had such a lively patient. He kept things stirring from start to finish at the gridiron battle. As the reports of the game were brought to him, he joined in the thrill of the play. My injury proved a blessing, said writer, as it gave me an extra year. For in those days, a year did not count in football unless you played against Yale. And when I made the touchdown against Yale the following season, it was a happy moment for me. All is not clear sailing in football. The breaks must come sometime. They may come singly or in a bunch. But whenever they do come, it takes courage to buck the hard luck of the game. Just when things get nicely underway, one of the star players is injured, which means the systematic teamwork is handicapped. It is not the team as a whole that I am thinking of, but the pangs of sorrow which go down deep into a fellow's soul when he finds that he is injured, that he is in the hands of the doctor. It is then he realizes that he is only a spoke in the big wheel, that the spirit of the game puts another man in his place. The game goes on. Nature is left to do her best for him. Let us for a while consider the player who does not realize until after the game is over that he is hurt. It is after the contest, when the excitement has ceased, when the reaction sets in, that a doctor and trainer can take stock of the number and extent of casualties. When such injured men are discovered at a time like that, we wonder how they ever played the game out. In fact, the man never knew he was injured until the game was over. No more loyal supporter in football follows the big games than Reggie Wentworth, Williams 91. He was most loyal to Bill Hotchkiss, Williams 91. At Williamstown one year, Wentworth says, Hotchkiss, who was a wonderful all-around guard, probably as great a football player as has ever lived, at least I think so, played with the Williams team on a field covered with mud and snow three inches deep. The game was an unusually severe one, and Hotchkiss did Yeoman's work that day. As we ran off the field after the game, I happened to stop, turned and discovered Hotchkiss standing on the side of the field, with his feet planted well apart, like an old bullet bay. I went back where he was and said, come on Bill, what's the matter? I don't know, said he. There's something that matter with my ankles. I don't think I can walk. He took one step and collapsed. I got a boy's sled, which was on the field, laid Hotchkiss on it, and took him to his room, only to find that both ankles were sprained. He did not leave his room for two weeks and walked with crutches for two weeks more. It seemed almost unbelievable that a man handicapped as he was could play the game through. Splints and ankle braces were unknown in those days. He went on the field with two perfectly good ankles. How did he do it? Charles H. Huggins of Brown University, better known perhaps simply as Huggins of Brown, recalls a curious case in a game on Andrews Field. Stuart Jarvis, one of the Browns End, made a flying tackle. As he did so, he felt something snap in one of his legs. We carried him off to the field house, making a hasty intervention. We found nothing more apparent than a bruise. I bundled him off to college in a cab, gave him a pair of crutches, told him not to go out until our doctor could examine the injury at six o'clock that evening. When the doctor arrived at his room, Jarvis was not there. He'd gone to the training table for dinner. The doctor hurried to the union dining room only to find that Jarvis had discarded the crutches and with some of the boys had gone out to Rose, then as now a popular resort for the students. Later we learned that he danced several times. The next morning an x-ray clearly showed a complete fracture of the tibia. How it was possible for a man with a broken leg to walk around and dance as he did is more than I can fathom. What is there in a man's makeup that leads him to conceal from the trainer an injury that he received in the game that makes him stay in the field of play? Why is it that he disregards himself and goes on in the game suffering physical as well as mental tortures plucky though handicapped? The playing of such men is extended far beyond the point of their usefulness yet even into the danger zone such men give everything that they have in them while it lasts. It is not intelligent football however and what might be called bravery is foolishness after all. It is an unwritten law in football that a fresh substitute is far superior to a crippled star. The keen desire to remain in the game is so firmly fixed in his mind that he is willing to sacrifice himself and at the same time by concealing his injury from the trainer and coaches he unconsciously is sacrificing his team his power is gone. One of the greatest exhibitions of grit ever seen in a football game was given by Harry Watson of Williams and a game at Newton Center between Williams and Dartmouth. He was knocked out about eight times but absolutely refused to leave the field. Another was furnished by W.H. Lewis the Amherst captain in center rush against Williams in his last game at Amherst. The score was 0-0 on a wet field. Williams was a big favorite but Lewis played a wonderful game and was all over the field on the defense. When the game was over he was carried off but refused to leave the field until the final whistle. One of the most thrilling stories of man who was game though handicapped is told by Morris Eli quarterback of Yale 1898. My most vivid recollection of the Harvard Yale game of 1898 is that Harvard won by the larger score Yale had ever been beaten by up to that time 17 to 0. Next that the game seemed unusually long. I believe I proved a great exponent of the theory of being in good condition. I started the game at 135 pounds and the best physical condition I have ever enjoyed. And while I managed to accumulate two broken ribs a broken collarbone and a strange shoulder I was discharged by the doctor in less than three weeks as good as ever. I received the broken ribs in the first half when Percy Jaffrey fell on me with a proper intention of having me drop a fumbled ball behind our goal line which would have given Harvard an additional touchdown instead of a touch back. I did not know just what had gone wrong but tried to help it out by putting a shin guard under my jersey over the ribs during the intermission. No one knew I was hurt. In the second half I tried to stop one of Ben Dibley's runs on a punt and got a broken collarbone but not Dibley. About the end of the game we managed to work a successful double pass and I carried the ball to Harvard's 10 yard line when Charlie Daley who was playing back on the defense stopped any chance we had of scoring by a hard tackle. There was no getting away from him that day and as I had to carry the ball in the wrong arm with no free arm to use to ward him off I presume I got off pretty well with only a sprained shoulder. The next play ended the game when Stubb Chamberlain tried a quick place goal from the field and on a poor pass and on my poor handling of the ball hit the goal post and the ball bounced back. I admit that just about that time the whistle sounded pretty good as apparently the entire Harvard team landed on us in their attempt to block a kick. Val Flood once a trainer at Princeton recalls a game at New Haven when Princeton was playing Yale. Frank Bergen was quarterback he says I saw he was not going right and surprised the coaches by asking them to make a change they asked me to wait in a few minutes I went to them again with the same result I came back a third time and insisted that he be taken out a substitute was put in I will never forget Bergen's face when he burst into tears and asked me who was responsible for his being taken out I told him I was it almost broke his heart for he had always regarded me as a friend I knew how much he wanted to play the game out he lived in New Haven when the doctor examined him it was found that he had three broken ribs there was a great danger of one of them piercing his lungs had he continued in the game of course there are lots of boys that are willing to do such things for their alma mater but the gamest of all is the man who with a broken neck to start with went out and put in four years of college ball I refer to Eddie Hart who was not only the gamest but one of the strongest quickest cleanest men that ever played the game and anyone who knows Eddie Hart and those who have seen him play know that he never saved himself but played the game for all it was worth he was the life and spirit of every team he ever played on at Exeter or Princeton Ed Wiley an enthusiastic hill school alumnus football player at Hill and Yale tells the following anecdote the nerviest thing I saw on a football game was in the Hill Hotchkiss zero to zero game in 1904 at the start of the second half Arthur Cable who was Hill's starting quarterback broke his collarbone he concealed the fact and until the end of the game no one knew how badly he was hurt he put in every play and never had time called but once he caught a couple of punts with his one good arm and every other punt he attempted to catch and muffed he saved the ball from the other side by falling on it in the same game a peculiar thing happened to me I tackled Ted Coy about 15 minutes before the end of the game and until I awoke hours later lying in a drawing room car pulling into the grand central station my mind was a blank yet I am told the last 15 minutes of the game I played well especially when our line was going to pieces I made several gains on the offensive never missed a signal and punted two or three times when close to our goal line no less noteworthy is the spirit of University of Pennsylvania player who's handicapped during his gridiron career with pen by many severe injuries this man had worked as hard as anyone possibly could to make the varsity for three years his last year was no different from previous seasons injuries always worked against him in his final year he had broken his leg early in the season a short time before the Cornell game he appeared upon the field and football talks full of spirit and determined to get in the game if they needed him this was his last chance to play for the pen team I was an official in that game near its close I saw him warming up on the sideline his knee was done up in a plaster cast he could do no better than hobble along the sidelines but in the closing moments when pen had the game well in hand a mighty shout went up from the sidelines and that gallant fellow who had been handicapped all during his football career rushed out upon the field to take his place as the defensive halfback Cornell had the ball and they were making a tremendous effort to score the Cornell captain not knowing of this man's physical condition sent to play in his direction the interference of the big red team crashed successfully around the pen end and there was left only this plucky though handicapped player between the Cornell rusher and a touchdown putting aside all personal thought he rushed in and made a wonderful tackle then this hero was carried off the field and with him the tradition of one who was willing to sacrifice himself for the sport he loved Andy Smith a former University of Pennsylvania player was a man who was game through and through he seemed to play better in a severe game when the odds were against him Smith had formerly been at Pennsylvania State College in a game between Penn State and Dartmouth Fed Corleas of Dartmouth says of Smith Andy Smith was one of the gamest men I ever played against this big determined husky offensive fullback and defensive end when he wasn't butting his head into our impregnable line was smashing an interference that nearly killed him in every other play battered and bruised he kept coming on and everyone's surprise he lasted the entire game years afterward he showed me the scars on his head where the wounds had healed with the naive remark some team you fellows had that year Fred some team was right and we all remember Andy and his own individual greatness there is no finer unselfish spirit brought out in football than that evidenced in the following story told by Shep Holmans an old time Princeton fullback a young fellow named Hodge who was quarterback on the Princeton scrub was making a terrific effort to play the best he could on the last day of practice before the Yale game he had hoped even at the last hour that the opportunity might be afforded him to be a substitute quarter in the game however his leg was broken in a scrimmage as he lay on the ground in great pain realizing what had happened and forgetting himself he looked up and said I'm mighty glad it is not one of the regulars who was hurt so that our chance against Yale will not be affected Corleas one of the hardest men to stop that Dartmouth ever had tells of Arthur Poe's gameness when they played together on the Homestead Athletic Club after they left college Arthur Poe was about as game a man as the football world ever saw he was handicapped in his playing by a knee which would easily slip out of place we men who played with him on the Homestead team were often stopped after Arthur had made a magnificent tackle and had broken into heavy interference with this quiet request pulled my bum knee back into place after this was done he would jump up and no one would even know that it had been out this man who was perhaps the smallest man playing at that time was absolutely unprotected his suit consisted of a pair of shoes stockings unpadded pants jersey and one elastic knee bandage Mike Donahue a Yale man who had been coach at Auburn for many years vouches for the following story when Mike went to Auburn and for several years thereafter he had no one to assist him except for a few of the old players who would drop in for a day or so during the latter part of the season one afternoon Mike happened to glance down at the lower end of the field where a squad of grass cutters the name being given to the fourth and fifth teams were booting the ball around when he noticed a pretty good sized boy who was swinging his foot into the ball with a good stiff leg and was kicking high and getting fine distance Mike made a mental note of this fact and decided to investigate later as a good punter was very hard to find later in the afternoon he again looked towards the lower end of the field and saw the grass cutters were lining up for a scrimmage amongst themselves using that part of the field which was behind the goal post so he dismissed the squad with which he had been working and went down to see what the boy he had noticed earlier in the afternoon really looked like when he arrived he soon found the boy he was looking for he was playing left end and Mike immediately noticed that he had his right leg extended perfectly straight behind him stopping to play Mike went over to the fellow and slapping him on the back said don't keep that right leg stiff behind you like that pull it up under you bend it at the knee so you can get a good start with a sad expression on his face and tears almost in his eye the boy turned to Mike and said coach that damn thing won't bend it's wood Vonobald Gammon one of the few players who met his death in an intercollegiate game lived in Rome, Georgia and entered the University of Georgia in 1896 he made the team his first year playing quarterback on the 11 which was coached by Pop Warner and which won the Southern Championship he received the injury which caused his death in the Georgia Virginia game played in Atlanta, Georgia on October 30th, 1897 he was a fine fellow personally and one of the most popular men at the University as a football player he was an excellent punter a good plunger and a strong defensive man on account of his kicking and plunging ability he was moved full back in his second year in the Virginia game he backed up the line on the defense all that afternoon he worked like a Trojan to hold and check the powerful masses Virginia had been driving at the tackles early in the second half Von Dovin and stopped a mass aimed at Georgia's right tackle but when the mass was untangled he was unable to get up an examination showed that he was badly hurt in a minute or two however he revived and was set on his feet and was being taken from the field by coach McCarthy when captain Kent thinking he was not too badly hurt to continue in the game said to him Von you're not going to give up are you? No Bill he replied I've got too much Georgia grit for that these were his last words for upon reaching the sidelines he lapsed into unconsciousness and died at two o'clock the next morning Gammon's death ended the football season that year at the University it also came very near ending football in the state of Georgia as the legislature was in session and immediately passed a bill prohibiting playing the game in the state of Georgia however Mrs. Gammon Von's mother made a strong earnest and personal appeal to Governor Atkinson to veto the bill which he did had it not been for Mrs. Gammon football would certainly have been abolished in the state of Georgia by an act of the legislature of 1897 I knew a great guard whose whole heart was set on making the Princeton team and on playing against Yale this man made the team in a Princeton Columbia game he was trying his best to stop that wonderful Columbia player Harold Weeks who with his great hurdling play was that seasoned sensation in his hurdling he seemed to take his life in his hands going over the line of the opposing team feet first when the great guard of the Princeton team to whom I refer tried to stop Weeks his head collided with Weeks feet and was badly cut the trainer rushed upon the field sponged and dressed the wound and the guard continued to play but that night it was discovered that blood poisoning had set in there was gloom on the team when this became known but John Dana lying there injured in the hospital and knowing how badly his services were needed in the coming game with Yale with his ambition unsatisfied uses widths to appear better than he really was in order to get discharge from the hospital and back on the team the physician who attended him has told me since that Dana would keep his mouth open slyly when the nurse was taking his temperature so that it would not be too high and the chart would make it appear that he was all right at any rate he seemed to improve steadily and finally reported to the trainer Jim Robinson two days before the Yale game he was full of hope and the coaches decided to have Robinson give him a tryout so that they could decide whether he was as fit as he was making it appear he was I shall never forget watching that heroic effort as Robinson took him out behind the training house to make the final test with a headgear especially made for him Dana settled down into his regular position ready for the charge anticipating the oncoming Yale halfback and throbbing with eagerness to tackle the man with the ball then he plunged forward both arms extended but handicapped by his terrible injury he toppled over upon his face heartbroken the spirit was there but it was physically unfit for the task the Yale game started without Dana and as he sat there on the sidelines and saw Princeton go down to defeat he was overcome with the thought of his helplessness he was needed but he didn't have a chance end of chapter 13 chapter 14a of football days this is a Libervox recording all Libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libervox.org recording by Mark Harrington football days by William Edwards chapter 14a bringing home the bacon happy is the thought of victory and while we realize that there should always be eleven men in every play each man doing his duty there frequently comes a time in a game when some one man earns the credit for winning the game and brings home the bacon maybe he has been the captain of the team with a wonderful power of leadership which had held the eleven together all season and made his team a winning one from the recollections of some of the victories from the experiences of the men who participated in them and made victory possible let us play some of those games over with some of the heroes of past years Billy Bull one of the truly great bacon-getters of the past is Yale's Billy Bull football history is full of his exploits when he played on the Yale team in 85, 86, 87, and 88 old-time players can sit up all night telling stories of the games in which he scored for Yale his kicking proved a winning card and in happy recollection the old-timers tell of Bull the hero of many a game being carried off the field on the shoulders of an admiring crowd of Yale men after a big victory in the course of my years at Yale six big games were played says Bull four with Princeton and two with Harvard I was fortunate in being able to go through all of them sustaining no injury whatsoever except in the last game with Princeton in this game Channing came through to me in the full-back position and in tackling him I received a scalp wound which did not however necessitate my removal from the game of the six games played only one was lost and that was the Lamar game in the fall of 85 in the five games one I was the regular kicker in the last three and in two of these kicking proved to be the deciding factor thus in 87 Yale 17 Harvard 8 two place kicks and one drop kick were scored in the three attempts totaling nine points considering the punting I did that day and the fact that both place kicks were scored from close to the sidelines I feel that that game represents my best work the third year of my play was undoubtedly my best year in fact the only year in which I might lay claim to being anything of a kicker thus in the Rutgers game of 87 I kicked 12 straight goals from placement counting the two goals from touchdowns against Princeton I had a batting average of a thousand in three games through the last year I was handicapped with a lame kicking leg and was out of form from the final game with Princeton that year 88 I tried at least four times before scoring the first field goal of the game in the second half I had but one chance and that was successful this was the 10 nothing game in which all the points were scored by kicking although the ground was wet and slippery it is of interest to note in connection with drop kicking in the old days that the proposition was not the simple matter it is today then the ball had to go through the quarter's hands and the kicker in consequence had so little time in which to get the ball away that he was really forced to kick in his tracks and immediately on receipt of the ball fortunately I was able to do both and I never had a try for a drop blocked and only one punt the latter due to the fact that the ball was down by the sideline and I could not run to the left which would have taken me out of bounds before kicking perhaps one of the greatest sources of satisfaction to me speaking of punting in particular was the fact that I was never blocked by Princeton and yet it was extremely fortunate for me that I was a left-footed kicker and thus could run away from Cowan who played a left tackle before kicking if I had had to use my right foot I doubt if I could have got away with anything for Cowan was certainly a wonderful player and could get through the Yale line as though it were paper he always brought me down but always after the ball had left my foot I know that it has been thought at Princeton that I stood 12 yards back from the line when kicking this was not so 10 yards was the regular distance always but I either kicked in my tracks or directly after running to the left the day Columbia beat Yale Columbia men enthusiastically recall the day Columbia beat Yale a Columbia man who is always on hand for the big games of the year is Charles Halstead-Mapes the ever-reliable loyal ruder for the game he is told the tale of this victory so wonderfully well that football enthusiasts cannot but enjoy this enthusiastic Columbia version 15 years ago Yale was supreme in football runs Mapes story occasionally but only very occasionally one of their great rivals Princeton or Harvard would win a game from them but for any outsider anybody except one of the eternal triangle to beat Yale was out of the question an utter impossibility and by the way that triangle at times got almost as much on the nerves of the outside public as the Frenchman celebrated three wife husband lover the foundation of their plays the psychological effect of Yale's past prestige was all powerful in every game the blue jerseyed figures with a white Y would tumble through the gate and spread out on the field the stands would rise to them with a roar of joyous welcome that would raise the very skies Y A L E Y A L E Y A L E small wonder that each man was right on his toes felt as though he were made of steel springs all other Yale teams had won we will win of course but the poor other side they might just as well throw their canvas jackets and mole skin trousers in the old suitcase at once and go home beat Yale boys were crazy but every man must try his damnedest to keep the score low and so the game was won and lost before the referee even blew his starting whistle this was a general rule but every rule needs an exception to prove it and on a certain November afternoon in 1899 we gave them their belly full of exception we had a very strong team that year with some truly great players Harold Weeks and Bill Morley there were never two better men behind the line and Jack Wright old Jack Wright playing equally well guard or center as final linesman as I have ever seen Weeks Morley and Wright were on the All-American team of that year and Walter Camp and selecting his All-American team for all time several years ago picked Harold Weeks as his first halfback I can see the game now there was no scoring in the first half to the outside of the team seemed evenly matched but we who knew our men thought we saw that the power was there and if they could but realize their strength and that they had it in them to lay low at last that armor-plated old rhinoceros the terror of the college jungle Yale with an even break of luck the game must be ours in the second half our opportunity came by one of the shifting chances of the game we got the ball on about their 25-yard line one yard three yards two yards four yards we went through them there was no stopping us and at last over well over for a touchdown through some technicality in the last rush the officials instead of allowing the touchdown took the ball away from us and gave it to Yale they were right probably quite right but how could we think so Yale at once kicked the ball to the middle of the field well out of danger the teams lined up on the very next play with every man of that splendidly trained 11 doing his allotted work Harold Weeks swept around the end aided by the magnificent interference of Jack Wright which gave him the start he ran half the length of the field through the entire Yale team and planted the ball squarely behind the goalposts for the touchdown which won the game if we had ever had any doubt that cruel wrong is righted the truth and justice must prevail it was swept away that moment in a great way of a thanksgiving I shall never forget it Columbia had beaten Yale tears running down my cheeks shaken by emotion I couldn't speak let alone cheer my best girl was with me she gave one quick half frighten glance and I believe almost realized all I felt she was all gold I feel now that timid little pressure on my arm as she tried to help me regain control of myself God why has life so few such moments behind the scenes let us go into the dressing room of a victorious team which defeated Yale at Manhattan Field a good many years ago and let us read with that great lover of football the late Richard Harding Davis as he describes so wonderfully well some of the unique things that happened in the celebration of victory people who live far away from New York and who cannot understand from the faint echoes they receive how great is the enthusiasm that this contest arouses may possibly get some idea of what it means to the contestants themselves through the story of a remarkable incident that occurred after the game in the Princeton dressing room the team were being rubbed down for the last time and after their three months of self-denial and anxiety and the hardest and roughest sort of work that young men are called upon to do and outside in the semi-darkness thousands of Princeton followers were jumping up and down and hugging each other and shrieking themselves hoarse one of the Princeton coaches came into the room out of this mob and holding up his arm for silence said boys I want you to sing the doxology standing as they were naked and covered with mud blood and perspiration the 11 men that had won the championship sang the doxology from the beginning to the end as songly and as seriously and I am sure as sincerely as they ever did in their lives while outside the no less thankful fellow students yelled and cheered and beat at the doors and windows and held for them to come out and show themselves this may strike some people as a very sacrilegious performance and as a most improper one but the spirit in which it was done has a great deal to do with the question and anyone who has seen a defeated team lying on the benches of the dressing room sobbing like hysterical school girls can understand how great and how serious is the joy of victory to the men that conquer introducing Vic Canard opportunist extraordinary where is the Harvard man Yale man or indeed any football man who will not be stirred by the recollection of his remarkable goal from the field at New Haven that provided the winning points for the 11 Percy Haughton turned out in the first year of his regime to Canard himself the memory is still vivid and there are side lights on that performance and indeed on all his football days at Cambridge of which he alone can tell I'll not make a conversation of this but simply say as one does over the phone Canard talking many of us are under the impression that the only real football fan is molded from the male sex and that the female of the species attends the game for decorative purposes only I protest listen in 1908 I had the good fortune to be selected to enter the Harvard Yale game at New Haven for the purpose of scoring on Yale in a most undignified way through the medium of a drop kick Haughton realizing that while a touchdown was distinctly preferable he was not afraid to fight it out in the next best way my prayers were answered for the ball somehow or another made its way over the crossbar and between the uprights making the score Harvard 4 Yale 0 my mother who had made her way to New Haven by a forced march was sitting in the middle of the stand on the Yale no I'm wrong it was on second thought on the Harvard side accompanied by my two brothers one of whom forgot himself far enough to go to Yale and will not even to this day acknowledge his hideous mistake five or six minutes before the end of the game one EH Coy decided that the time was getting short and Yale needed a touchdown so he grabbed a Harvard punt on the run and started yes he did more than start he got well underway circled the Harvard end and after galloping 15 yards apparently concluded that I would look well as minced meat and headed straight for me stationed well back on the secondary defense he had received no invitation whatsoever but owing to the fact that I believe every Harvard man should be at least cordial to every Yale man I decided to go 50 50 and meet him halfway we met informally that I know I will never forget that he weighed only 195 pounds but I am sure he had another couple of hundred tucked away somewhere when I had finished counting a great variety and number of stars it occurred to me that I had been in a ghastly railroad wreck and that the engine and cars following had picked out my right knee as a nice soft place to pile up on there was a feeling of great relief when I looked around and saw that the engineer of that train Mr. EH Coy had stopped with the train and I held the greatest hopes that neither the engine nor any one of the 10 cars following would ever reach the terminal mother who had seen the whole performance was little concerned with other than the fact that EH had been delayed his mission had been more than delayed as it turned out it had been postponed in the meantime Dr. Nichols of the Harvard staff of first aid was working with my knee and from the stands it looked as though I might have broken my leg at this point someone who sat almost directly back of my mother called out loud that's young canard it looks as though he'd broken his leg my brother feeling that mother had not heard the remark and not knowing what he might say turned and informed him that Mrs. Canard was sitting almost directly in front of him requesting that he be careful what he said mother however heard the whole thing and turning in her seat said that's all right I don't care if his leg is broken if we only win this game my mother who was a great football fan after following the game for three or four years learned all the slang expressions typical of football she tried to work out new plays criticized the general ship occasionally and fairly eat and slept football during the months of October and November while the season was in progress I usually slept at home in Boston where I could rest more comfortably I occupied the adjoining room to my mother's and when I was ready for bed always opened the door between the rooms one night I woke up suddenly and heard my mother talking wondering whether something was the matter I got out of bed and went into a room appearing just in time to see my mother's arms outstretched she was calling fair catch I spoke to her to see just what the trouble was and she in a sleepy way mumbled we won she had been dreaming of the Harvard Dartmouth game early in the fall of 1908 hot and heard rumors that the Indians were equipping their backfield in a very peculiar fashion Warner had had a piece of leather the color and shape of a football sewed on the jerseys of his backfield men in such a position that when the arm was folded as if carrying the ball it would appear as if each of the backfield players might have possession of the ball and therefore disorganized somewhat the defense against the man who was actually carrying the ball instead of one runner each time there appeared to be four hot and studied the rules and found nothing to prevent Warner's scheme he wrote a friendly letter to Warner stating that he did not think it for the best interest of the game to permit his players to appear in the stadium equipped in this way at the same time admitting that there was nothing in the rules against it taking no chances however hot and worked out a scheme of his own he discovered that there was no rule which prevented painting the ball red so he had a ball painted the same color as the Crimson jerseys had the Indians come on the field with the leather ruse sewed on their jerseys hot and would have insisted that the game be played with the Crimson ball what did I learn in my football course I learned to control my temper to exercise judgment to think quickly and act decisively I learned the meaning of discipline to take orders and carry them out to the best of my ability without asking why I had through the training regular habits knocked into me I learned to meet no and size up men I learned to smile when I was the most discouraged fellow in this great wide world the importance of being on time a better control of my nerves and to demand the respect of fellow players I learned to work out problems for myself and to apply my energy more intelligently to stick by the ship I secured a wide friendship which money can't buy what Eddie Mahan was to Harvard Charlie Barrett captain of the victorious 1915-11 was to Cornell the Ithaca captain was one of those powerful runners whose remarkable physique did not interfere with his shiftiness like his Harvard Contemporary he was a fine leader but unlike Mahan with whom he clashed in the game with the Crimson in his final year he was not able to play the play through what was to him probably the most important gridiron battle of his career nevertheless it was his touchdown in the first quarter that sounded the knell of the Crimson hopes that day and Cornell men will always believe that his presence on the sideline wrapped in a blanket after his recovery from the shock that put him out of the game had much to do with inspiring his 11 Barrett was one of the products of the Cleveland University School when so many star players have been sent up to the leading universities on the occasion of his first appearance at Ithaca it became a practical certainty that he would not only make the varsity 11 but would someday be its captain in course of time it became a habit for the followers of the Carnelian and White to look to Barrett for rescue in games that seemed to be hopelessly in the fire in his senior year the team was noted for its ability to come from behind and this team spirit was generally understood as being the reflection of that of their leader the Cornell captain played the second and third periods of his final game against Pennsylvania in a dazed condition and it is a tribute to his mental and physical resources that in the last period of that game he played perhaps as fine football as he had ever shown it was from no weakened Pennsylvania 11 that Barrett snatched the victory in this his crowded moment the Quakers had had a disastrous season up to Thanksgiving day but their pluck and rallying power which had become a tradition on Franklin Field was never more in evidence the Quakers played with fire with power and aggressiveness that none saved those who know the Quakers spirit had been led to expect there were heroes on the red and blue team that day and without a Barrett at his best against them they would have won it was up to Eddie Hart with his supreme personality and indomitable spirit which has always characterized him from the day he entered Exeter until he forged his way to the leadership of one of Princeton's finest 11s to bring home the long deferred championship when the final whistle rang down the football curtain for the season of 1911 had found Hart in the ascendancy having fulfilled the wonderful promise of his old Exeter days for he had made good indeed Yale and Harvard had been beaten through a remarkable combination of team and individual effort in which Sam White's alertness and DeWitt's kicking stood out a combination which was made possible only through Hart's splendid leadership at a banquet for this championship team given by the Princeton Club of Philadelphia Lou Reichner the Toastmaster in introducing Sam White the hero of the evening quoted from first Samuel 3 chapter 2 12th and 1st verses and the Lord said unto Samuel behold I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle in that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house when I begin I will also make an end and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord Eli Mr. Reichner then presented to the child Samuel the souvenir sleeve links and a silver box containing the genuine soil from Yale field after Sam had been sufficiently honored Alfred T. Baker Princeton 85 a former varsity football player and his son Hobie Baker who played on Eddie Hart's team were called before the Toastmaster there was a triple cheer for Hobie and his father Reichner said that he had nothing for Papa Baker but a souvenir for Hobie and if the father was man enough to take it away from him he could have it and speaking of the Yale Princeton game at New Haven some of the things incidental to victory were told that evening by Sam White who said in the Yale game of 1911 Joe Duff the Princeton guard came over to Hart captain of the Princeton team and said Ed I can't play anymore I can't stand on my left leg that's all right answered Hart go back and play on your right one Joe did and that year he made the all-american guard it was less than a week before the Harvard Princeton game at Princeton 1911 a friend of mine wrote down and asked me to get him four good seats and said if I'd mentioned my favorite cigar he'd send me a box in appreciation I got the seats for him but was more or less of a struggle but in writing on did not mention cigars he did send me a check to cover the cost of the tickets and in the letter enclosed a small scarf pin which he said was sure to bring me luck he had done quite a little running in this time and said it had never failed him and urged me to be sure and put it in my tie the day of the Harvard Princeton game I am not superstitious but I did stick it in my tie when I dressed that Saturday morning and it surely had a charm it was in the first half that I got away from my run and as we came out of the field house at the start of the second half whom should I see but my friend yelling like a madman did you wear it did you wear it I assured him I did and it seemed to quiet and please him for he merely grinned and replied I told you I told you after the game I said nothing of the episode but did secretly decide to keep the pin safely locked up until the day of the Yale Princeton game I again stuck it in my tie that morning and the charm still held and I am still wondering to this day if it doesn't pay to be a little bit superstitious every Harvard man remembers vividly the great crimson triumph of 1915 over Yale it will never be forgotten during the game I sat on the Harvard sidelines with Dr. Billy Brooks a former Harvard captain he was not satisfied when Harvard had Yale beaten by the score of 41 to 0 but was enthusiastically urging Harvard on to at least one or two more touchdowns so that the defeat which Yale meted out to Harvard in 1884 a game in which he was a player would be avenged by a larger score but alas he had to be satisfied with the tally as it stood a story is told of the enthusiasm of Everett Janssen Wendell as he stood on the sidelines of this same game and saw the big crimson roller crushing Yale down to overwhelming defeat this enthusiastic Harvard graduate cried out we must score again another Harvard sympathizer standing nearby said Mr. Wendell don't you think we have beaten them badly enough what more do you want oh I want to see them suffer retorted Wendell after this game was over and the crowd was surging out of the stadium that afternoon I heard an energetic news boy was selling the Harvard lampoon crying out at the top of his voice Harvard lampoon for sale here all about the New Haven wreck end of chapter 14a chapter 14b of football days this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org football days by William Edwards chapter 14 bringing home the bacon part b Eddie Mayhen there is no question that the American game of football will go on for years to come if the future football generals develop a better all-around man than Eddie Mayhen captain of the great Harvard team of 1915 who's playing brought not only victory to Harvard but was accompanied by a great admiration throughout the football world they may well congratulate themselves from this peerless leader whose playing was an inspiration to the men on his team let us put on record so that future heroes may also draw like inspiration from them some of Mayhen's own recollections of his playing days I think the greatest game I ever played in was the Princeton game in 1915 because we never knew until the last minute that we had won the game says the Crimson Star there was always a chance of Princeton's beating us the score was 10 to 6 I worked harder in that game than in any game I ever played Frank Glick's defensive work was nothing short of marvelous he is the football player I respect he hit me so hard the way I ran it was seldom that anybody got a crack at me I could see a clear space and the first thing I knew Flick would come from behind somewhere or somebody and would hit me when I least expected it and he usually hit me good and hard it seemed sometimes that he came right out of the ground I tell you after he hit me a few times he was the only man I was looking for I did not care much about the rest of the team one of the things that helped me most in my backfield play was Pooch Donovan's coaching he practiced me in sprints my whole freshman year he took a great interest in me he speeded me up I owe a great debt of gratitude to Pooch I could always kick before I went to Harvard back in the old and over days I learned to kick by punting the ball all the afternoon instead of playing football all the time I think that is the way men should learn to kick the more I kicked the better I seemed to get among the many trophies Eddie Mayhem has received he prizes as much as any the watch presented to him by the townspeople of Natick his hometown his last year at Andover after the football season closed he was attending a football game at Natick between Natick High and Milton High it was all a surprise to me says Eddie they called me out on the field and presented me with this watch which is very handsomely inscribed well do I recall those wonderful days at Andover and the games between Andover and Exeter there is intense rivalry between these two schools many are the traditions at Andover and some of the men who had preceded me and some with whom I played were Jack Curtis Ralph Bloomer Frank Hickey Doc Hillibrand and Jim Rogers then there was Trevor Hogg who was captain of the Princeton 1916 team Shelton Redbron Bob Jones the older crowd of football men made the game what it is at Andover lately they have had a much younger crowd when I was at Andover Johnny Kilpatrick Henry Hobbs Ham Andrews Bob Foster and Bob McKay had already left there and gone to college it has been a great privilege for me to have played on different teams that have had strong players I cannot say too much about Hardwick Bradley and Trumbull Brickley was one of the hardest men for our opponents to bring down when he got the ball he was a phenomenal kicker I had also a lot of respect for Mel Logan who played quarterback on my team in 1915 he weighed less than 150 pounds he used to get into the interference in grand shape he counted for something he was a tough kid he could stand all sorts of knocks and he used to get them too when I was kicking he warded off the big tackles as they came through he was always there and nobody could ever block a kick from his side the harder they hit him the stronger he came back every time when I asked Mayhen about fun and football he said we didn't seem to do much kidding there was a sort of serious spirit Hotten had such an influence over everybody they were afraid to laugh before practice while waiting for Hotten and after practice everybody was usually so tired there was not much fooling in the dressing room but we got a lot of fun out of the game of Hotten's coaching methods and the Harvard system Eddie has a few things to tell us that will be news to many football men Hotten coaches a great deal by the use of photographs which are taken of us in practice as well as regular games he would get us all together and coach from the pictures point out the poor work seldom were the good points shown nevertheless he always gave credit to the man who got his opponent in the interference Hotten used to say anyone can carry a ball through a bunch of dead men Hotten is a good organizer he has been the moving spirit at Cambridge but by no means the whole Harvard coaching staff the individual coaches work with him and with each other each one has control or supreme authority over his own department the backfield coach has the picking of men for their positions Harvard follows Charlie Daley's backfield play improved upon somewhat of course according to conditions each coach is considered an expert in his own line no coach is considered an expert in all fields this is the method at Harvard outside of Hotten Bill Withington, Reggie Brown and Leo Leary have been the most recent prominent coaches the Harvard generalship has been the old Charlie Daley system Reggie Brown has been a great strategist Harvard line play came from pot graves of West Point George Chadwick what George Chadwick, captain of Yale's winning team of 1902 gave of himself to Yale football has amply earned the thoroughly remarkable tributes constantly paid to this great Yale player he was a most deceptive man with the ball in the Princeton game John DeWitt was the dangerous man on the Princeton team feared most on account of his great kicking ability DeWitt has always contended that Chadwick's team was the best Yale team he ever saw he says it was a better team than Gordon Brown's for the reason that they had a kicker and Gordon Brown's team did not have a kicker but this is only my opinion Yale and Princeton men will not forget in a hurry the two wonderful runs for touchdowns one from about the center of the field that Chadwick made in 1902 I note writes Chadwick that there is a general impression that the opening in the line through which I went was large enough to accommodate an express train as a matter of fact the opening was hardly large enough for me to squeeze through the play was not to make a large opening and I certainly remember the sensation of being squeezed when going through the line there were some amusing incidents in connection with that particular game that come back to me now I remember that when going down on the train from New York to Princeton I was very much amused at Mike Murphy's efforts to get Tom Shevlin worked up so he would play an extra good game Mike kept telling Tom what a good man Davis was and how the latter was going to put it all over him Tom clenched his fists put on a silly grin and almost wept it really did me a lot of good as it helped to keep my mind off the game when it did come to the game his first big game Shevlin certainly played wonderful football I had been ill for about a week and a half before this game and really had not played in practice for two or three weeks Mike was rather afraid of my condition so he told me to be the last man always to get up before the ball was put in play I carefully followed his advice and as a result a lot of my friends in the stand kept thinking that I had been hurt toward the end of the game we were down about on Princeton's 40-yard line it was the third down and the probabilities were that we would not gain the distance so I decided to have Bowman try for a drop kick I happened to glance over at the sideline and there was old Mike Murphy making strenuous motions with his foot the umpire Dashel saw him too and put him off the sidelines for signaling I remember being strongly angry at the time because I was not looking at the sidelines for any signals and had decided on a drop kick anyhow in my day it was still the policy to work the men to death to drill them to endure long hours of practice scrimmage about two weeks before the Princeton game in my senior year we were in a slump we had a long miserable Monday's practice a lot of the old coaches insisted that football must be knocked into the men by hard work but it seemed to me that the men knew a lot of football they were fundamentally good and what they really needed was condition to enable them to show their football knowledge it is needless to say that I was influenced greatly in this by Mike Murphy and his knowledge of men and conditioning them Joe Swan the field coach and Walter Camp were in accord so we turned down the advice of a lot of the older coaches and gave the varsity only about five minutes scrimmage during the week and a half proceeding the Princeton game with the exception of the Bucknell game the Saturday before during the week before the Princeton and Harvard games we went up to Ardsley and had no practice for three days there was a five-minute scrimmage on Thursday this was an unusual proceeding but it was so intensely hot the day of the Princeton game and we all lost so much weight something unusual had to be done the team played well in the Princeton game but it was simply a coming team then in the Harvard game which we won 23 to 0 it seemed to me we were at the top of our form I think the whole incident was a lesson to us at New Haven of the great value of condition to men who know a great deal of football I know from my own experience during the three proceeding years that it had been too little thought of the great cry had too often been we must drum football into them no matter what their physical condition after the terribly exhausting game at Princeton which we won 12 to 5 DeWitt Cochran invited the team to go to his place at Ardsley and recuperate it really was our salvation and I have always been most grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Cochran for so generously giving up their house completely to a mob of youngsters we spent three delightful days almost forgot football entirely ate ravenously and slept like tops Big Eddie Glass was a wonderful help in interference I used to play left half and Eddie right guard on plays where I would take the ball around the end or skirting tackle Eddie would either run in the interference or break through the line and meet me some yards behind we had a great pulling and hauling team that year and the greatest puller and hauler was Eddie Glass Perry Hale who played fullback my sophomore year was a great interferer he was big and strong and fast on a straight buck through tackle when he would be behind me if there was not a hole in the proper place he would whirl me all the way round and shoot me through a hole somewhere else it would of course act as an impromptu delayed play in one game I remember making a 40-yard run to a touchdown on such a maneuver Arthur Poe there never was as much real football ability concealed in a small package as there was in that great player Arthur Poe he was always using his head following the ball strong in emergency he was endowed with a wonderful personality and a man who always got a lot of fun out of the game and made fun for others but yet was on the job every minute he always inspired his teammates to play a little harder rather than write anything more about this great player let us read with him the part he so ably played in some of Princeton's football games the story of my run in 1898 is very simple Yale tried a mass play on Doc Hillibrand which as usual was very unsuccessful in that quarter he broke through and tackled the man with the ball while the Yale men were trying to push him forward I grabbed the ball from his arms and had a clear field and about 10 yards start for the goal line I don't believe I was ever happier in my life than on this day when I made the Princeton team and scored this touchdown against Yale in the second half McBride tried a center drive unboothed Edwards the line held and I rushed in and grabbed the ball but before I got very far the referee blew his whistle and after I had run across the goal line I realized that the touchdown was not going to be allowed Lou Palmer and I were tried at end simply to endeavor to provide a defense against the return runs of Desalis on punts he by the way was the greatest open field runner I have ever seen my senior year started auspiciously and the prospects for a victorious 11 appeared especially bright as only two of our regular players of the year before had graduated the second hard game was against Columbia coached by Foster Sanford who had a wealth of material drawn from the four corners of the earth in the latter part of the game my opponent by way of showing his disapproval of my features attempted to change them but was immediately assisted to the ground by my running mate and was undergoing an unpleasant few moments when Sanford reinforced by several dozen substitutes ran to his rescue and bestowed some unkind compliments on different parts of my pals anatomy with the arrival of Burr McIntosh and several old grads however we were released from their clutches and the game proceeded after the Cornell game the Yale game was close at hand we were confident of our ability to win though we expected a bitter hard struggle in which we were not disappointed through a well-developed interference on an end run Ryder was sent around the end for several long games resulting in a touchdown but Yale retaliated by blocking a kick and falling on the ball for a touchdown sharp a few minutes later kicked a beautiful goal so that the score was 10 to 6 in Yale's favor the wind was blowing a gale all through the first half and as Yale had the wind at their backs we were forced to play a rushing game but shortly after the second half began the wind died down considerably so that McBride's long low kicks were not effective to any great extent Yale was on the defensive and we were unable to break through for the coveted touchdown though we were able to gain ground consistently for long advances in the shadow of their goal line Yale held us mainly through the wonderful defensive playing of McBride I never saw a finer play of backing up the rush line than that of McBride during the second half so strenuous was the play that eight substitutions had been made on our team but with less than five minutes to play we started a furious drive for the goal line from the middle of the field and with McClave, Mattis, and Lantrup carrying the ball we went to Yale's 25 yard line in quick time with only about a minute to play it was decided to try a goal from the field I was selected as the one to make the attempt I was standing on the 34 yard line about 10 yards to the left of center when I kicked the ball started straight for the far goal post but apparently was deflected by air currents and curved in not more than a yard from the post I turned to the referee, saw his arms raised and heard him say goal and then everything broke loose I saw members of the team turning somersaults and all I remember after that was being seized by a crowd of alumni who rushed out upon the field and hearing my brother Ned shout you damned lucky kid, you have licked them again I kicked the ball with my instep having learned this from Charlie Young of Cornell who was then at Princeton Seminary and was playing on the scrub team the reason I did this was because Lou Palmer and myself wore light running shoes with light toes not kicking shoes at all after the crowd had been cleared off the field there were only 29 seconds left to play and after Yale had kicked off we held the ball without risking a play until the whistle blew when I started full speed for the gate followed by Bert Wheeler I recall knocking down several men as we were bursting through and making our way to the bus it was the first, last and only goal from the field I ever attempted and the most plausible explanation for its success was probably predestination Arthur Poe was a big factor in football even when he wasn't running or kicking Yale down to defeat Bill Church's roughness in my freshman year had the scrub bluffed, continues Arthur when Lou Palmer volunteered to play half back and take care of Bill on puns Bill was surprised on the first kick he attempted to block to feel Lou's fist on his jaw and immediately shouted I like you for that you damned freshman it was the first accident that attracted attention to Lou Palmer was one of the gamest men and he won a varsity place by the hardest kind of work well do I recall the indignation meeting of the scrub to talk over plans of curbing Johnny Baird and Fred Smith in their endeavor to kill the scrub John DeWitt Big John DeWitt was the man who brought home the Yale bacon for the Tigers in 1903 to be exact he not only carried but also kicked it home to surprise parties by a single player in so hard a game are rare indeed whenever I think of DeWitt I think of his great power of leadership he was an ideal captain he thought things out for himself he was the spirit of his team this great Princeton captain was one of the most versatile football men known to fame playing so remarkably in the guard position he also did the kicking for his team and was a great power in running with the ball DeWitt thought things out almost instantly and took advantage of every possible point the picture on the opposite page illustrates wonderfully how well he exerted and extended himself this man put his whole soul into his work and was never found wanting his achievements will hold a conspicuous place in football history nothing got by John DeWitt DeWitt's team in 1903 was the first to bring victory over Yale to Princeton since 1899 on that day John DeWitt scored a touchdown and kicked a placement goal which will long be remembered let us go back and play a part of that game over with John himself whenever I think of football my recollections go back to the Yale game of 1903 says DeWitt my most vivid recollections are of my loyal teammates whose wonderful spirit and good fellowship meant so much to the success of that 11 without their combined effort Princeton could not have won that day we had a fine optimistic spirit before the game and the fact that Jim Hogan scored a touchdown for Yale in the first part of the game seemed to put us on our medal and we came back with the spirit that I have always been proud of Hogan was almost irresistible you could hardly stop him when he had the ball he scored between Harold Short and myself and jammed through for about 12 yards to a touchdown if you tackle Jim Hogan head on he would pull you right over backwards he was the strongest tackle I ever saw he seemed to have overpowering strength in his legs he was a regular player he never gave up until the whistle blew but after the Princeton team got its scoring machine at work the Princeton line outplayed the Yale line I think Yale had as good a team as we had if not better that day the personnel of the team was far superior to ours but we had our spirit in the game we were going through Yale to beat the band the last part of the game DeWitt describing the run that made him famous says towards the end of the first half with the score 6-0 against Princeton Yale was rushing us down the field Rora back the Yale center was not able to pass the ball the full distance back for the punter Rockwell took the ball from quarterback position and passed it to Mitchell the full back on this particular play our whole line went through on the Yale kick formation no written account that I have ever seen has accurately described just what happened Ralph Davis was the first man through and he blocked Mitchell's kick Ridge Hart who was coming along behind him kicked the loose ball forward and the oval was about 15 to 20 yards from where it started I was coming through all the time as the bouncing ball went behind Mitchell it bobbed up right in front of me I probably broke all rules of football by picking it up but the chances looked good and I took advantage of them I really was wondering then whether to pick it up or fall on it but figured that it was harder to fall on it than to pick it up so I put on all the steam I had and started for the goal Howard Henry was right behind me until I got near the goal post after I had kicked the goal the score was six to six never can I forget the fierce playing on the part of both teams that now took plays shortly after this in the second half I punted down into Yale's territory Mitchell fumbled and Ralph Davis fell on the ball on the 30 yard line we tried to gain but could not Bowman fell on the ball after the ensuing kick which was blocked it had rolled to the five yard line Yale tried to gain once then Bowman went back to kick I can never pay enough tribute to Vetter line to the rare judgment that he displayed at this point in the game when he caught that punt and healed it he used fine judgment but for his good head work we never would have won that game I kicked my goal from the field from the 43 yard line as Ralph Davis was holding the ball before I kicked it the Yale players who were standing 10 yards away were not trying to make it any the easier for us I remember in particular Tom Shevlin was kidding Ralph Davis who replied well Tom you might as well give it to us now the score is going to be 11 to 6 and just then what Davis had said came through if anyone thinks that my entire football experience was a bed of roses I want to assure him that it was not I experienced the sadness of injury and of not making the team the first day I lined up I broke three bones in one hand three weeks later after they had healed I broke the bones in my other hand and so patiently waited until the following year to make the team the next year I went through the bitter experience of defeat and we were beaten good and plenty by Yale defeat came again in 1902 it was in that year that I met as my opponent the hardest man I ever played against Eddie Glass the Yale team came at me pretty hard the first 15 minutes Glass especially crashed into me he was warned three times by Dashel in the opening part of the game for strenuous work Glass was a rough hard player but he was not an unfair player at that I always liked good rough football he played the game for all it was worth and was a Gibraltar to the Yale team now that my playing days are over I think there is one thing that young fellows never realize until they are through playing that they might have helped more that they might have given a few extra minutes to perfect a play the thing that has always appealed to me most in football is to think of what might have been done by a little extra effort it is very seldom you see a man come off the field absolutely used up I have never seen but one or two cases where a man had to be helped to the dressing room I have always thought such a man did not give as much as he should we're all guilty of this offense a little extra punch might have made a touchdown Titianer of the University of Georgia tells the following in a tech Georgia game a peculiar thing happened one of the goal lines was about seven yards from the fence which was 12 feet high and perfectly smooth tech had worked the ball down to within about three yards of Georgia's goal near the fence here the defense of the red and black stiffened and taking the ball on downs Ted Sullivan immediately dropped back for a kick the pass was none too good and he swung his foot into the ball which struck the crossbar found it high up in the air over the fence behind the goal post then began the mighty wall scaling struggle to get over the fence and secure the coveted ball as fast as one team would try to boost each other over their opponents would pull them down this contest continued for fully five minutes while the crowd roared with delight in the meantime George Butler the referee took advantage of the situation and with the assistance of several spectators was boosted over the fence where he waited for some player to come and fall on the ball which was fairly hidden in a ditch covered over with branches Butler tells to this day of the amusing sight as he beheld first one pair of hands grasping the top of the fence one hand would loosen then the other then another set of hands would appear heads were bobbing up and down and disappearing one after the other the crowd now became interested and showed their partiality and with the assistance of some of the spectators a tech player made his way over the fence and began to search for the ball closely followed by a georgia player they rushed around frantically looking for the ball then red wilson joined in the search and quickly located it in the ditch soon had it safely in his arms and tech scored a touchdown this was probably the only touchdown play in the history of the game which none of the spectators saw and which only the referee and two other players saw at the time the player touched the ball down that charlie brickley was in the way of bringing home the bacon to harvard is well known to all there have been very few players who were as reliable as this star it was in his senior year that he was captain of the team and when the announcement came at the start of the football season that brickley had been operated upon for appendicitis the football world extended to him its deepest sympathy during his illness he yearned to get out in time to play against yale this all came true the applause which greeted him when howton sent this great player into the game with the doctor's approval must have impressed him that one and all were glad to see him get into the game let us hear what brickley has to say about playing the game i have often been asked how i felt when attempting a drop kick in a close game before a large crowd during my first year i was a little nervous but after that it didn't bother me any more than if i were eating lunch constant practice for years gave me the feeling that i could kick the ball over every time i tried if i was successful those who have seen me play are the best judges confidence is a necessity in drop kicking the three hardest games i ever played were the dartmouth three to zero game in 1912 and prinston three to zero in 1913 and the yale 15 to 5 game of the same year the hardest field goal i ever had to kick was against prinston in the mud in 1913 the most finished player in all around play i ever came across is tack hardwick he could go through a game or afternoons practice and perform every fundamental function of the game in perfect fashion the most interesting and remarkable player i ever came across was eddie mayhen he could do everything on the football field he was so versatile that no real defense could be built against him he had a wonderful intuitive sense and always did just the right thing at the right time end of chapter 14 b chapter 15 of football days this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by daniel walkins football days by william edwards chapter 15 the bloody angle football in its very nature is a rough game it calls for the contact of bodies under high momentum and this means strains and bruises thanks to the superb physical condition of players it usually means nothing more serious the play be it ever so hard is not likely to be dangerous provided it is clean and the worst indictment that can be framed against the player of today and that by his fellows is that he is given to dirty tactics this attitude has now been established by public opinion and is reflected in turn by the strictness of officials the sentiment of coaches and football authorities generally so scientific is the game today that only the player who can keep his head and clear his mind of angry emotions is really a valuable man in a crisis again the keynote of success in football today is teamwork perfect interlocking of all parts in the old days play was individual man against man and this gave rise in many cases to personal animosity which frequently reduced great football contests to little more than pitched battles those who today are prone to decry football as a rough and brutal sport which it no longer is might at least reverse their opinions of the present game could they have spent a certain lured afternoon in the fall of 87 at jarvis field where the 11th of harvard and princeton fought a battle so sanguinary as to come down to us through the years legend is as a real crimson affair one of the saddest accidents that ever occurred on university football field happened in this contest and suggested the caption of the bloody angle the historic shambles of the great gettysburg battle luther price who played half back on the princeton teams of 86 and 87 and who was acting captain the larger part of the latter season tells the following story of the game princeton's contest with harvard in the autumn of 87 was the bloodiest game that i ever experienced or saw at that period the football relations between the two colleges were fast approaching a crisis and the long break between the institutions followed a couple of seasons later it is perhaps true that the 87 game was largely responsible for the rupture because it left secret bitterness in fact the game was pretty near butchery and the defects of the rules contributed to this end both sides realized that the contest was going to be a hummer but neither imagine the extent of the casualties had the present rules applied there would been a long string of substitutes in the game and the caption of the bloody angle could not have been applied in those days an injured player was not allowed to leave the field of play without the consent of the opponent's captain one can easily grasp the fact that your adversary's captain was not apt to permit a player batted almost a worthlessness to go to the bench and to allow you to substitute a strong and fresh player therein lies the tale of this game princeton was confident of winning but not over confident we went out to jarvis field on a tally hoe from boston and i recall how eagerly we dashed upon the field anxious for the scrap to begin it was a clear cold day with a firm turf a condition that helped us as we were lighter than harvard especially behind the line none of our backs weighed more than 155 pounds holden the crimson captain was probably the most dangerous of our opponents he was a deceptive running back owing to the difficulty of gauging his pace he was one of the speediest sprinters in the eastern colleges and if he managed to circle either end it was almost goodbye to his opponents we were all lying in wait for holden not to cripple him or take any unfair advantage but to see that he did not cross our goal line it was not long before we had no cause to be concerned on that score but before holden was disposed of we suffered the most grievous loss in the disqualification of hectic coward our left guard and our main source of strength princeton worked a majority of the tricks through coward and when he was gone we lost the larger part of our offensive power coward's disqualification was unjustified by his record or by any tendency towards unfair play though this statement should not be regarded as a reflection on the fairness of willis terry the old yell player who was the umpire walter camp by the way was the referee there never was a fairer player than coward and such a misfortune as losing him by disqualification for any act on the field was never dreamt of by the princeton the trouble was that terry mistook an accident for a deliberate act holden was skirting princeton's left end when coward made a lunge to reach him holden's deceptive face was nearly too much for even such a star as coward whose hands slipped from the harvard captain's waist down to below his knees until the ankles were touched coward could have kept his hands on holden's ankles but as tackling below the knees was foul he quickly let go but holden tumbled and several princeton men were on him in a jiffy harvard immediately claimed that it was a foul tackle it was a desperate claim but it proved successful to our astonishment and chagrin terry ruled coward off the field coward was thunderstruck at the decision and protested that he never meant to tackle unfairly we argued with terry but he was unrelenting to him it seemed that coward meant to make a foul tackle the situation was disheartening but we still felt that we had a good chance of pulling through even without coward what was particularly galling to us was that we had allowed two touchdowns to slip from our grasp twice we had carried the ball to within a few yards of the harvard line and had dropped the ball when about to cross it both errors were hardly excusable and were traceable to over anxiety to score with coward on the field we had found that he could open up the harvard line for the backs to make long runs but now that he was gone we could be sure of nothing except grilling work soon after occur the most dramatic and lamentable incident which put holden out of the game we had been warned long before the contest that holden was a fierce tackler and that if we who are back of the princeton line wish to stay in the game it would be necessary to watch out for his catapultic lunges holden made his tackles low a kind of running dive with his head thrust into his quarry's stomach the best policy seemed in case holden had you cornered to go at him with a stiff arm and a suddenly raised knee to check his onslaught and if possible shake him off in the shuffle but that was a mighty difficult matter for light backs to do first the line was opened up so that I went through harding the harvard quarter who was running up and down the kremsen line like a panther didn't get me my hand went against his face and somehow I got rid of him finally I reached holden who played the full back position while on the defensive and had him to pass in order to get a touchdown there was a savage onslaught and holden had me on the ground a few moments later ames who played back with channing and me went through the harvard line and again holden was the only obstacle to a touchdown for princeton there was another savage impact and both players rolled upon the ground but this time holden did not get up he got his man but he was unconscious or at least seemingly so his chest bone had been broken it was a tense moment we all felt a pang of sympathy for holden was a square if rough player harvard's cheers subsided into merms of sorrow and holden was carried tenderly off the field the accident made harvard desperate and as we were without cowan we were in the same mental condition it was hammer and tongs from that time on I don't know that there was any intention to put players out of business but there was not much mercy shown it appeared to me that some doubt existed on the harvard side as to who caused holden's chest bone to be broken but that the suspicion was mainly directed at me several years later an article written at harvard and published in the public ledger in philadelphia gave a long account of how I broke holden's chest bone this seemed to confirm my notion that there was a mix-up of identity however that may be it soon became evident in the game that I was marked for slaughter vic harding made a profound and lasting impression on me both with his hands and feet in fact harding played in few games of importance in which he was not disqualified he was not a bad fellow at all in social relations but on a football field he was the limit of frightfulness I don't know of any player that I took so much pleasure in punching as harding aims and harding also took delight in trying to make each other's faces change radically in appearance I think that harding began to paint my face from the start of the game and that as it proceeded he warmed up to the task seeing that he was making a pretty good job of it he had several mighty able assistants the work was done with several hundred wellesley college girls who were seated on benches close to the sideline looking on with the deepest interest and as it soon appeared with much sympathy I will not forget how concerned they looked by the middle of the second half I guess they did see a spectacle in me they began to call to me and hold out handkerchiefs at first I didn't realize what they meant for I was so much engaged with the duties that lay in front of me that it was difficult to notice them but their entreaties soon enlightened me they were asking me as a special favor to clean my face with their handkerchiefs but I replied perhaps rather abruptly that I really didn't have time to attend to my facial toilet my nose had been broken both eyes well closed and my canvas jacket and do skin knickerbockers were scarlet or crimson whichever you prefer in hue strength was quickly leaving me and the field swam I finally propped myself up against the goalpost the next thing I knew was that I was being helped off the field my brother Billy who was highly indignant over the developments took my place this was about 10 or 15 minutes before the end of the game which then consisted of two 45 minute periods Ames emerged from the game with nothing more than the usual number of cuts and bruises at that time we did not have any nose guards head guards and other paraphernalia such as I used nowadays except that we could get ankle braces and Ames wore one that ankle stood the test during the fight a majority of the other players were pretty well cut up after Cowan was disqualified Bob J Rob Church subsequently major in the United States Army Medical Corps and formerly the surgeon of Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish War was shifted from tackle to Cowan's position at guard Chapin a brilliant student who had changed from Amherst to Princeton went in at tackle he was a rather erratic player and Harvard kept pounding in his direction with the result that Bob Church had a sea of trouble and I was forced to move up close to the line for defensive work it was this that really put me out of business my left shoulder had been hurt early in the season and it was bound in rubber but fortunately it was not much worse off than at the beginning of the game Bob Church risked his life more than once in the Spanish War and for his valor he received a Medal of Honor from Congress but it is safe to say that he never got such a gruelling as in this Harvard game he was battered to the extent of finding it difficult to rise after tackling and finally he was lining up on his knees it was a magnificent exhibition of pluck as I recall Bob lasted to the end of the game it was not until near the close that any scoring took place and then Harvard made two touchdowns in quick succession we lacked substitutes to put in and even if we had had them it is doubtful whether we could have got them in as long as a player was able to stand up the only satisfaction we had was that we had done the best we could to win and our confidence that with Cowan we could have won even if Holden had not been hurt we had beaten Harvard the year before with essentially the same team that we played in this game end of chapter 15 chapter 16 of football days this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Christine Blashford football days by William Edwards chapter 16 the family in football it is almost possible I think to divide football men into two distinct classes those who are made into players and often very good ones by the coaches and those who are born with the football instinct just how to define football instinct is a puzzle but it is very easy to discern it in a candidate even if he never saw a football till he set foot on the campus by and large it will be read first in a natural aptitude for following the ball after that in the general way he has of handling himself from falling on the ball to dodging and straight arm watch the head coach grin when some green six foot freshman dives for a rolling ball and instinctively clutches it into the soft part of his body as he falls on it nobody told him to do it just that way or to keep his long arms and legs under control so as to avoid accident but he does it nevertheless and thus shows his football instinct there is still another kind of football instinct and that is the kind that is passed down from father to son and from brother to brother they say that the lace makers of nottingham don't have to be taught how to make lace because as children they somehow absorb most of the necessary knowledge in the bosom of their family and I think the same thing is true of sons and brothers of football players generally they pick up the essentials of the game from pop long before they get to school or college or else are properly educated by an argoside brother but the matter of getting football knowledge of developing the instinct isn't always left to the boy unless I'm grievously mistaken it's more often the fond father who takes the first step in fact some fathers I've known have with a commendable eye to future victories even dated the preparation of their offspring from the hour when he was first shown them by the nurse let me take a squint at the little rascal says the beaming father and expertly examines the young hopeful's legs aha bully will make a real football player out of him and so someday when dick or ken is six or seven father produces a strange looking leather cased bladder out of a trunk where mother hasn't discovered it and blows it up out on the front porch under the youngsters inquisitive eye and tucks in the neck and laces it up what is it pop what are you going to do with it that's what men call a football son and right now I'm going to kick it and kick it he does all around the lot until after a particularly good lift he chuckles to himself the old warhorse and with the smell of ancient battles in his nostrils sits down to give the boy his first lesson in the manliest and best game on earth and this first lesson is tackling perhaps the picture on the opposite page will remind you of the time you taught your boys the good old game this particular kind of football instinct has produced many of the finest players the colleges have ever seen in a real football family there isn't much bluffing as to what you can do nor are there many excuses for a fumble or a missed tackle with your big brother's ears open and their tongues ready with a caustic remark it doesn't need pop's keen eye to keep you within the realms of truth as to the length of your run or why you miss that catch quite often as it happens pop is thinking of a certain big game he once played in and remembering a play i phony he could forget that play in which he fumbled and missed the chance of a lifetime like some inexorable motion picture film that refuses to throw anything but one fatal scene on the screen his recollections make the actors take their well-remembered positions and the play begins for the thousandth time he gnashes his teeth as he sees the ball slip from his grasp dog gone it he mutters if my boy doesn't do better in the big game than i did i'll wail the hide off him strangely enough not all brothers of a football family follow one another to the same college and there have been several cases where brother played against brother but for the only son of a great player to go anywhere else than to his father's college would be rank heresy i dare say even the other college wouldn't like it of famous fathers whose football instinct descended without dilution into their sons perhaps the easiest remembered have been walter camp who captained the elis in 78 and 79 and whose son walter jr played fullback in 1911 alfred t baker one of the princeton backs in 83 and 84 whose son hobie captained his teams in 1914 snake amos who played in four championship games for princeton against both yale and harvard and whose son nullton amos jr played on the princeton teams of 12 13 and 14 and that sterling yale tackle of 91 and 92 wally winter whose son walis jr played on his freshman team in 1915 when we come to enumerating the brothers who have played it is the poe family which comes first to mind laying aside friendship or natural bias i feel that my readers will agree with me in the belief that it would be hard to find six football players ranking higher than the six poe brothers altogether princeton has seen some 22 years of pose during at least 13 of which there was a poe on the varsity team johnson poe 84 came first to be followed by edga allen twice captain then by johnny now in his last resting place somewhere in france then by nelson then artha twice the fly in yale's ointment and lastly by gresham poe i haven't a doubt but that after due lapse of time this wonderful family will produce other pose sons and cousins to carry on the precious tradition next in point of numbers probably comes the rigs family of five brothers of whom three lorence jessey and dudley played on princeton teams while harry and frank were substitutes the hodge family were four who played at princeton jack hugh dick and sam after the rigs family comes the young family of cornell ed charles george and will all of whom played tremendously for the carnelian and white in the nineties charles young later studied at the theological seminary at princeton and played wonderful football on the scrub in my time from sheer love of sport since as he is at this writing physical director at cornell amherst boast of the wonderful pratt brothers who did much for amherst football of threes there are quite a number prominent among them have been the wilson's of both yale and princeton tom being a guard on the princeton teams of 1911 and 1912 while alex captained yale in 1915 and saw another brother in orange and black waiting on the sidelines across the field situations like this are always productive of thrills let the brother who has been waiting longingly throw off his blanket and rush across the field into his position and instantly the news flashes through the stands brother against brother goes the thrilling whisper and every heart gives an extra throb as it hungers in an unholy but perfectly human way for a clash between the two there were three harlin brothers who played at princeton in 81 83 and 84 at harvard low throb paul and ted withington percy jack and sam wendell in cornell a redoubtable trio were the toast six of these j. holey toast six played end for four years ending with the 96 team charles followed in the same position in 99 00 and 01 and joseph k later left tenant commander of the torpedo boat destroyer wadsworth played quarter on the naval academy team in 97 and 98 a third trio of brothers were the greenways of yale of these john and gill greenway played both football and baseball while jim greenway rode on the crew another princeton family well known has been the moffats the first of these to play football was henry who played on the 73 team which was the first to beat yale he was followed by the redoubtable alex who kicked goals from all over the field in 82 83 and 84 by will moffat who was a varsity first baseman and by ned moffat who played with me at lorenzville equally well known have been the hallowells of harvard fw hallowell 93 rh hallowell 96 and j w hallowell 01 another hallowell penrose was on the track team while kernel hallowell the father was always a power in harvard athletics when we come to cite the pairs of brothers who have played the list seems endless the first to come to mind are lorry bliss of the yale teams of 1991 and 92 and pop bliss of the 92 team principally i think because of lorry's wonderful end running behind interference and because pop bliss at a crucial moment in a harvard yale game deliberately disobeyed the signal to plunge through centre on harvard's two-yard line and ingeniously ran around the end for a touchdown tommy baker and alfred baker were brothers continuing the yale list there have been the hinkies frank and louis who need no praise as wonderful players charlie and johnny disall sherman and ted coy w o hickock the famous guard of 92 93 and 94 and his brother ross herbert and malcolm mcbride both of whom played fullback tad jones and his brother howard the philbins steve and holiday charlie chadwick and his younger brother george who captained his team in 1902 their father before them was an athlete in harvard there have been the traffords perry and bernie artha brewer and charlie the fleet of foot who ran 90 yards in the harvard princeton game of 1895 and caught suitor from behind the two shores everts ren 92 and his famous cousin bob who played tennis quite as well as he played football princeton too has seen many pairs of brothers beef wheeler the famous guard of 92 93 and 94 and burt wheeler the splendid fullback of 98 and 99 whose coolheaded playing helped us win from Yale both in princeton and at new haven the rose and gardens albert and his cousin fritz and albert's brother who played for pennsylvania the tibet stave and fred jr church 88 and bill church the roaring stamping tackle of 95 and 96 ross and steve mcclave harry and george lathrop javish jeer and marshal jeer who played with me on teams at both school and college billy bannard and horris bannard fred keifer and dana keifer the first named being also the very best amateur catcher i have ever seen fred keifer by the way furnished an interesting anachronism in that while he was one of the ablest mathematicians of his time in college he found it well not impossible to remember his football signals let us not forget to bal balan who was a princeton captain and his brother siril in other colleges the instances of football skill developed by brotherly emulation have been nearly as well marked dartmouth for instance produced the bankhart brothers cornell the starbucks one of them raiment captaining his team the cools franken gibb the latter being picked by good judges as the all america center in 1915 and the warners bill and glenn the greatest three players from any one family that ever played the backfield would probably be the three draper brothers louis phil and fred all went to williams and all were stars heavy fastbacks who were both good on defense and offense capable of doing an immense amount of work and never getting hurt at pennsylvania there have been the full wells nate and rc full well and the woodruffs george and wiley although george woodruff originator of the celebrated guards back was a Yale man long before he coached at pennsylvania it is impossible for anyone who saw jack minesplay to forget this great back of 94 95 96 and 97 whose brother also wore the red and blue a few years later doubtless there have been many more fathers brothers and sons who have been equally famous and i ask indulgence for my sins of omission for the list is long principally i have recalled their names for the reasons that i knew or now know many of these great players intimately and so i've learned the curious longing perhaps passion for the game which has passed from one to the other of a football family in a way this might be compared with the military spirit which allows a family to state proudly that we have always been army or navy people and who shall say that the clash and conflict of this game invented and played only by thoroughly virile men are not productive of precisely those qualities of which the race may someday well stand in need if by the passing down from father to son and from brother to brother of a spirit of cheerful self-denial throughout the hard fall months of grim doggedness under imminent defeat and a fair play at all times whether victor or vanquished a finer truer sense of what a man may be and do is forged out of the raw material then football may feel that it has served a purpose even nobler than that of being simply america's greatest college game end of chapter 16 chapter 17 of football days this is a libra vox recording or libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org recording by christine blashford football days by william edwards chapter 17 our good old trainers party there are not many football enthusiasts who analyze the factors that bring victory many of us do not appreciate the importance attached to the trainer or realize the great part that he plays until we are out of college we know that the men who bore the brunt of the battle have received their full share of glory the players and coaches but there arises in the midst of our athletic world men who trained men who safeguarded the players trainers have been associated with football since the early eighties and a careful trainer's eye should ever be on the lookout wherever football is played players coaches and trainers go hand in hand in football every one of these men that i have known has had a strong personality each one however differed somewhat from the others there is a great affection on the part of the players for the man who cares for their athletic welfare these men are often more than mere trainers their personalities have carried them farther than the dressing room their interest in the boys has continued after they left college their influence has been a lasting one morally as well as physically on account of their association the trainers keep pace with the men about them not limiting their interest to athletics they are always found entertaining at the athletic banquets and their personalities count for much on the campus they are all but boys grown up with well known athletic records behind them in the hospital or in the quietness of a college room or on trips the trainer is a friend an advisor go and talk to the trainer of the football team if you want to get an unbiased opinion of the team's work or of the value of the individual coaches some of our trainers know much about the game of football the technical side and their advice is valuable every trainer longs to handle good material but more power to the trainer who goes ahead with what he's got and makes the best out of it without a murmur in our recollections we know of teams that were reported to be going stale over trained a team of cripples who slumped could not stand the test were easily winded could not endure they were nightmares to the trainer soon you read in the daily press indications that a change of trainer is about to take place in such a college then we turn to another page of our recollections where we read the team is fit to play the game of their lives only 11 men were used in today's game great tribute to the trainer men could have played all day no time taken out not a man injured pink of condition usually all this spells victory Jack McMasters was the first trainer that I met Scotty as everyone affectionately called him never asked a man to work for him any harder than he would work himself in a former chapter you have read how Jack and I put in some hard work together I recall a trip to Boston where Princeton was to play Harvard most of the Princeton team had retired for the night about ten o'clock Arthur Poe came down into the corridor of the Vendome Hotel and told Scotty that Bill Church and Johnny Baird were upstairs taking a cold shower Jack was furious and without stopping for the elevator hustled upstairs two steps at a time only to find both of these players sound asleep in bed needless to say that Arthur Poe kept out of sight until Jack retired for the night a trainer's life is not all pleasure once after the train had started from Princeton at this same devilish Arthur Poe as Jack would call him rushed up forward to where Jack was sitting in the train and said Jack I don't see Bummy Booth anywhere on the train I guess he must have been left behind with much haste and worry Jack made a hurried search of the entire train to find Booth sitting in the last seat in the rear car with a broad grin on his face Jack's training experience was a very broad one he trained many victorious teams at Harvard after he left Princeton and was finally trainer at Annapoli a pronounced decoration that adorns Scotty is a much admired bunch of gold footballs and baseballs which he was suspended from his watch chain in fact so many that he has had to have his chain reinforced if you could but sit down with Jack and admire this prized collection and listen to some of his prized achievements humorous stories of the men he has trained and some of the victories which these trophies designate you would agree with me that no two covers could hold them but we must leave Jack for the present at home with his family in Sandy Hook Cottage Drummer by Stranraer Scotland in the best of health happy in his recollection of a service well rendered and appreciated by everyone who knew him Jim Robinson there was something about Jim Robinson that made the men who knew him in his training days refer to him as dear old Jim and although he no longer cries out from the sidelines trot up men a favorite expression of his when he wanted to keep the men stirring about there still lives within all of us who knew him a keen appreciation of his service and loyalty to the different colleges where he trained he began training at Princeton in 1883 and he finished his work there how fine was the tribute that was paid him on the day of his funeral Dolly Dylan captain of the 1906 team and his loyal teammates all of whom had been carefully attended by Jim Robinson on the football field that fall acted as pallbearers there was also a host of old athletes and friends from all over the country who came to pay their last tribute to this great sportsman and trainer Mike Murphy and Jim Robinson were always contesting trainers at Princeton that day with the team gathered round Murphy related some interesting and touching experiences of Jim's career Jim's family still lives at Princeton and on one of my recent visits there I called upon Mrs. Robinson we talked of Jim and I saw again the loving cups and trophies that Jim had shown me years before Jim Robinson trained many of the heroes of the old days Hector Cowan being one of them in later years he idolized the playing of that great football hero John DeWitt who appreciated all that Jim did to make his team the winner the spirit of Jim Robinson was comforting as well as humorous no mention of Jim would be complete without his dialect he was an Englishman and abused his H's in a way that was a delight to the team Ross McClave tells of fun at the training table one day when he asked Jim how to spell saloon Jim smiling broadly and knowing he was to amuse these fellows as he had the men in days gone by said hess hey hell two hoes and a hen few men got more work out of a team than did Jim Robinson there was always a time for play and a time for work with Jim Mike Murphy Mike Murphy was the dean of trainers Bob Torrey one of the most remarkable center rushes that Pennsylvania ever had is perhaps one of the greatest admirers of Mike Murphy during his latter years Torrey can tell it better than I can Murphy's sense of system was wonderful he was a keen observer and had a remarkable memory he seemed to do very little in the way of bookkeeping but his mind was carefully pigeonholed and was a perfect card index he could have 30 men on the field at once and carry on conversations with visitors and graduates issue orders to work men and never lose sight of a single one of his men he was popular wherever he went his fame was not only known here but abroad his charm of manner and his cheerful courage will be remembered by all who knew him but only those who knew him well realize what an influence he had on the boys with whom he worked and how high were his ideals of manhood the amount of good done by Mike Murphy in steering boys into the right track can never be estimated prep school boys athletically inclined followed Murphy many a man went to college in order to get Murphy's training he was an athletic magnet the old Mike the town of Natick Massachusetts both of Mike Murphy's early days wonderful athletic traditions centered there his early days were eventful for his athletic success as he won all kinds of professional prizes for short distance running boyhood friends of Mike Murphy tell of the comradeship among Mike Murphy Keen Fitzpatrick Pooch and Piper Donovan all Natick boys they give glowing accounts of the truck team consisting of this clever quartet each of whom were 10 second men in the sprinting game if that great event which was run off at the Marlborough Fair and Cattle Show could be witnessed today thousands of admirers would love to see in action those trainers see them as the Natick hose truck defeated the Westbrook team that day and sent the Westbrook contingent home with shattered hopes and empty pocketbooks in connection with Army Navy Games writes Crolius of Dartmouth I'll never forget Mike Murphy's wonderful ability to read men's condition by their mental attitude he was nearly infallible in his diagnosis once we questioned Mike he said go get last year's money back you're going to lick them and true to his uncanny understanding he was right was it any wonder that men gave Murphy the credit due him Mike Murphy had a strong influence over the players he was their ever-present friend he could talk to a man and his personality could reach farther than any of the coaches the teams that Murphy talked to between the halves both at Yale and Pennsylvania were always inspired Mike Murphy always gave a man something of himself it is interesting to read what a fellow trainer Keen Fitzpatrick has to say of Mike Mike first started to train at Yale then he went to the Detroit Athletic Club in Detroit then he came back to Yale then he went to the University of Pennsylvania then back to Yale again and finally back to the University of Penn where he died we were always great friends and got together every summer we used to go up to a little country town Westborough on a farm had a little room in a farmhouse outside the town of Natick and there we used to get together every year Mike and Fitz and share our opinions and compare and give each other the benefit of our discoveries of the season's work Murphy was one of the greatest sprinters this world ever had they called him Stucky because he had so much grit and determination the year after Mike died the intercollegiate was held at Cambridge all the trainers got together and a lot of flowers were sent out to Mike's grave in Hopkinson Massachusetts a chat with Pooch Donovan Pooch Donovan's success at Harvard goes hand in hand with that of Horton in the great success of Harvard's varsity year after year the fine hand of the trainer has been noticeable Harvard's teams have stood the test wonderfully well and all the honors that go with victory have been heaped upon Pooch Donovan's head every man on the Harvard squad knows that Donovan can get as much work out of his players as it is possible for any human being to get out of them Pooch Donovan served at Yale in 1888 1889 and 1890 when Mike Murphy was trainer there he and Donovan used to have long talks together and they were ever comparing notes on the training of varsity teams Pooch Donovan owes much to Mike Murphy and the latter was Pooch's loyal supporter what made Mike Murphy a sturdy man was that he was such a hard loser he could not stand to lose says Donovan you know the thing that keeps me young is working shoulder to shoulder with these young fellows this to me in the dressing room where we have no time for anything but cold truths it was the same thing that kept Mike Murphy going 10 years after the doctors said he would soon be all in that was when he returned to Yale after he had been at Pennsylvania there is something about this sort of work that invigorates us and keeps us young I'm no longer a young man in years but it is the spirit and inspiration of youth with which this work identifies me that keeps me really young when I asked Pooch about Eddie man's great all-round ability his face lit up and I saw immediately that what I had heard was true that Donovan simply idolized Eddie man man lives in Natick Massachusetts where Donovan also has his home he has seen Ned man greater manhood man had his first football training as a player on the natick high school team Ned man said Pooch was the best all-round football man I have ever handled he was easy to handle eager to do as he was told and he never caused the trainer any worry up to the very last moment he played he was eager to learn everything he could that would improve his game he had lots of football ability you know man was a great star at Andover he kicked wonderfully there and was good in all departments of the game and he improved a hundred percent after he came to Harvard Pooch Donovan told me about the first day that Eddie man came out upon the Harvard field at Cambridge little is known by the head coach about freshman's ability one day Horton said to Pooch Donovan where is that Natick friend of yours bring him over to the stadium and let's see him kick Donovan got man and Horton said to man let's see you kick man boosted the ball 70 yards and Horton said what kind of a kick is that man thought it was a great kick how do you think any ends can cover that said Horton man there upon kicked a couple more low ones but they went about as far who told you you could kick growth Horton you must kick high enough for your ends to cover the distance take it easy and don't get excited Donovan was whispering to man on the side take your time Ned but man continued kicking from bad to worse Horton was getting disgusted and finally remarked your ends never can cover those punts man then kicked one straight up over his head and the first word ever uttered by him on the Harvard field was his reply to Horton I guess almost any end can cover that punt he said Donovan tells me that he used to carry in his pocket a few blank cartridges for starting sprinters sitting on a bench with some friends on soldiers field one day he reached into his hip pocket for some loose tobacco unconsciously he stuffed into the heel of his pipe a blank cartridge that had become mixed with the tobacco the gun club was practicing within hearing distance of the field as Donovan lit his pipe the cartridge went off he thought he was shot leaping to his feet he ran down the field his friends after him I was surprised at my own physical condition at my being able to stand so well the shock of being shot says Donovan in telling the story my friends thought also that I was shot but when I slowed up still bewildered and they caught up with me they were puzzled to see my face covered with powder marks and a broken pipe stem sticking out of my mouth not until then did any of us realize what had really happened the cartridge had grazed my nose slightly but outside of that I was all right since then I'm very careful what I put in my tobacco Eddie is known as pooch Donovan's pet probably the bluest time that Donovan ever had in fact he says it was the bluest was when Eddie Mann had an off day in the stadium that was the day when Cornell beat Harvard man himself says it was the worst day he ever had in his life and he blames himself it was just as things will come sometimes pooch said to me nobody knows where they will come but come they will once in a while Burr the great Harvard captain said pooch was a natural born leader of men he knew a lot of football and Horton thought the world of him Burr went along finally until the last week of the season then in falling on the ball he bruised his shoulder and would not allow himself to go into the Yale game it was really this display of good judgment on his part that enabled Harvard to win too often a team has been handicapped by the playing of a crippled veteran as a matter of fact the worst kind of substitute is often better than a crippled player the fact that the great captain Burr stood on the sidelines while his team was playing urged his teammates on to greater efforts in this same game the opposite side of this question was demonstrated Bobby Burch the Yale captain who had been injured the week before the game was put in the game his injury handicapped the Yale team considerably pooch Donovan had been eight years at Harvard he has five gold footballs which he prizes and wears on his watch chain during the eight years there have been five victories over Yale two ties and one defeat pooch has been a football player himself and the experience has made him a better trainer in 1895 he played on Temple's team of the DeKesney Athletic Club he was trainer and half back and was very fond of the game later on he played in Cleveland against the Chicago Athletic Club on whose team played Hefflefinger Sport Donnelly and other famous Knights of the Gridiron in the morning we did everything we could to make the stay of the visiting team pleasant says Donovan regarding those days but in the afternoon it was different and in the midst of the game a fellow couldn't help wondering how men could be so nice to each other in the morning and so rough in the afternoon pooch Donovan cannot say enough in favour of Dr E.H. Nichols the doctor for the Harvard team pooch's judgment is endorsed by many a Harvard man that I have talked to end of chapter 17 part a