 CHAPTER 17 Our Good Old Trainers, Part B Keane Fitzpatrick When Biffy Lear was coaching at the University of Michigan in 1901, it was my opportunity and privilege to see something of Western football. I was at Ann Arbor assisting Leigh the last week before Michigan played Chicago. Michigan was defeated. That night, at a banquet given to the Michigan team, there arose a man to respond to a toast. His words were cheering to the men and roused them out of the gloom of despair and defeat to a strong hope for the coming year. That man was Keane Fitzpatrick. I had heard much about him, but now that I really had come to meet him, I realized what a magnetic man he was. He knew men and how to get the best out of them. Fitzpatrick went from Michigan to Yale, from Yale back to Michigan, and then to Princeton, where Princeton men hope he will always stay. Michigan admirers were loath to lose Fitzpatrick, and their tribute to him on leaving was as follows. The University of Michigan combination was broken yesterday when Keane Fitzpatrick announced that he had accepted Princeton's offer to take effect in the fall of 1910. He was trainer for Michigan for fifteen years. For five years, Fitz has been sought by every large university in the East. What was Michigan's loss was Princeton's gain. He made men better, not alone physically, but morally. His work has been uplifting along all lines of university activities. In character and example, he is as great and untiring as in his teaching and precept. The final and definite knowledge of his determination to leave Michigan is a severe blow to the students all of whom know and appreciate his work. Next to President Angle, no man of the University of Michigan in the last ten years has exerted a more wholesome influence upon the students, than has Keane Fitzpatrick. His work brought him in close touch with the students, and his influence over them for good has been wonderful. He is a man of ideals and clean life. To Fitz, as the boys called him, as much as to the great coach Jost is due Michigan's fine record in football, his place will be hard to fill. Fitz has aided morally in placing athletics on a high plane and in cultivating a fine spirit of sportsmanship. He was elected an honorary member of the Class of 1913 at Princeton. The Secretary of the Class wrote him a letter in which he said, The senior class deeply appreciates your successful efforts, and in behalf of the University takes this opportunity of expressing its indebtedness to you for the valuable results which you have accomplished. Jost had a high opinion of Fitzpatrick. Fitz and I worked together for nine years, writes Jost. We were like brothers during that association at Michigan. There is no one person who contributed so much to the University of Michigan as this great trainer. His wonderful personality, his expert assistance, and that great optimism of his stood out as his leading qualifications. My association with him is one of the pleasantest recollections of my life. He put the men in shape, trained them, and developed them. They were usable all the time. He is a trainer who has his men in the finest mental condition possible. I don't think there was ever a trainer who kept men more fit physically and mentally than King Fitzpatrick. There were in Michigan two players, brothers, who were far apart in skill. King says one was a varsity caliber, but wanted his brother two to make the eleven. Once, says King, when we were going on a trip, John, who was a better player, said, I will not go if Joe cannot go. So, in order to get John, we had to take Joe. Fitzpatrick tells of an odd experience in football. In 1901, Michigan went out to Southern California and played Leland-Stanford University at Pasadena January the 1st, when the Michigan team left Ann Arbor for California in December, it was 12 degrees below zero, and when they played on New Years, it was 80 degrees at 3 p.m. Stanford was supposed to have a big advantage due to the climate. Michigan won by a score of 49 to zero. Michigan used but eleven men in the game, and it was their first scrimmage since Thanksgiving Day. A funny thing happened en route to Pasadena. Every time the train stopped, said Keane, we hustled the men out to give them practice, running through signals, and passing the ball. Everything went well until we arrived in Ogden, Utah. We hustled the men out as usual for a workout, and in less than two minutes the men were all in, lying down on the ground, gasping for breath. We could not understand what was wrong, until someone came along and reminded us that we were in a very high altitude, and that it affected people who were not accustomed to it. We all felt better when we received that information. Michael J. Sweeney There are few trainers in our prep schools who can match the record of Mike Sweeney. He has been an important part of the Hill School's athletics for years. Many of the traditions of this school are grouped, in fact, about his personality. Hill School boys are loud in their praises of Sweeney's achievements. He always had a strong hold on the students there. He has given many a boy words of encouragement that have helped him on in the school, and this same boy has come back to him in afterlife to get words of advice. Many colleges try to sever his connection with Hill School. I know that at one time Princeton was very anxious to get Sweeney's services. He was happy at Hill School, however, and decided to stay. It was there at Hill School that Sweeney turned out some star athletes. Perhaps one of the most prominent was Tom Shevlin. Sweeney saw great possibilities in Shevlin. He taught him the fundamentals that made Shevlin one of the greatest ends that ever played at Yale. He typified Sweeney's ideal football player. Shevlin never lost an opportunity to express appreciation of what Sweeney had done for him. Tom gave all credit for his athletic ability to Mike Sweeney of Hill and Mike Murphy of Yale. His last desire for Yale athletics was to bring Sweeney to Yale and have him installed not as a direct coach or trainer of any team, but more as a general athletic director, connected with the faculty, to advise and help in all branches of college sport. Tom Shevlin idolized Sweeney, those who were at the banquet of the 1905 team at Cambridge, where we recall the tribute that Shevlin then paid to him. He declared that he regarded Sweeney as the world's greatest brain on all forms of athletics. Whenever Mike Sweeney puts his heart into his work, he is one of the most completely absorbed men I know. Sweeney possesses an uncanny insight into the workings of the games and individuals. Oftentimes, as he sits on the sidelines, he can foretell an accident coming to a player. Mike was sitting on the Yale sidelines one day and remarked to Ed Wiley, a former Hill School player, a Yale substitute at that time. They ought to take Smith out of the game. He shows signs of weakening. You'd better go tell the trainer to do it. But before Wiley could get to the trainer, several plays had been run off and the man who had played too long received an injury and was done for. Sweeney's predictions generally ring true. It is rather remarkable and especially fortunate that a prep school should have such an efficient athletic director. For thirteen years, Sweeney acted in that capacity and coached all the teams. He taught other men to teach football. Had anyone gone to Ithaca in the hope of obtaining the services of Jack Mowkley, the Cornell trainer, he would have found this popular trainer's friends rising up and showing him the way to the station because there never has been a human being who could sever the relations between Jack Mowkley and Cornell. The record he has made with his track teams alone entitles him to a high place, if not the highest place, on the trainer's role of honour, to tell of his achievements would fill an entire chapter, but as we are confining ourselves to football, his work in this department of Cornell sports stands on a par with any football trainer. Jack Mowkley takes his work very seriously and no man works any harder on the Cornell squad than does their trainer. Costello, a Cornell captain of years ago, relates the following incident. Jack Mowkley had a man on his squad who had a great habit of digging up unusual fads, generally in the matter of diet. At this particular time he had decided to live solely on grape nuts. As he was one of the best men on the team, Jack did not burden himself with trouble over this fad, although at several times Mowkley told him that he might improve if he would eat some real food. However, when this man started a great nut campaign among the younger members of the squad, he aroused Jack's ire, and upon his arrival at the field house he wiped the blackboard clean of all instructions, and in letters a foot high wrote, They who eat beef are beefy, they who eat nuts are nutty. The resultant kidding finally made the old beef steak popular with our friend. Johnny Mack. It would not seem natural if one failed to see Johnny Mack on the sidelines where Yale is playing. In eleven years at New Haven, Yale teams were never criticised on account of their condition. The physical condition of the Yale team has always been left entirely in Johnny Mack's hands, and the hard contests that they went through in the season of 1915 were enough to worry any trainer. Johnny Mack was always optimistic. There is much humour in Johnny Mack. It is amusing to hear Johnny tell of the experience that he and Pooch Donovan had in a Paris restaurant, and I'm sure you can all imagine the rest. Johnny said they got along pretty well with their French until they ordered potatoes and the weight is brought in a peck of peas. It is a difficult task for a trainer to tell whether a player is fully conscious of all that is going on in a game. Sometimes a hard tackle or a blow on the head will upset a man. Johnny Mack tells a story that illustrates this fact. There was a quarterback working in the game one day. I thought he was going wrong. I said to the coach, I think something has happened to our quarterback. He told me to go out and look him over. I went out and called the captain to one side after I had permission from the referee. I asked him if he thought the quarterback was going right. He replied that he thought he was, but called out some signals to him to see if he knew them. The quarter answered the captain's questions after a fashion, and the captain was satisfied. But just the same he didn't look good to me. I asked the captain to let me give him a signal, one we never used, and one the captain did not even know. Said I, what's this one? 48, 16, 32, 12. That's me through the right end, he said. Not on your life, old man, so die, that's you and me to the sidelines. I remember one fall, says Johnny, when we were very shy on big material at Yale. The coaches told me to take a walk about the campus and hunt up some big fellows who might possibly come out for football. While going along the commons at noon, the first fellow I met was a big, fine-looking man, a two hundred and ten pounder at least, with big broad shoulders. I stopped him and asked if he had ever played football. Yes, he said I played a little at school. I'll come out next week. I told him not to bother about next week, but to come out that afternoon, that I'd meet him at the gym at one o'clock and have some clothes for him. He came at one o'clock, and I told one of the rubbers to have some clothes ready. When I came back at one-thirty and looked around, I couldn't recognize him. Where in the world is my big fellow, I said to Jim the rubber. Your big fellow? Why, he just passed you, said Jim. No, said I. That can't be the man. That must be some consumptive. Just the same, that's your big fellow in his football suit, said Jim. The biggest part of him is hanging up in there on a nail. Some tailors these fellows have nowadays. Johnny Mack further tells of an amusing incident in Foster's Sandford's coaching. At early practice in New Haven, Sandford was working the linemen, says Johnny. He picked a green, husky-looking boy out of the line of candidates, and was soon playing against him. He didn't know who Sandy was, and believe me, Sandy was handling him pretty rough to see what he was made of. The first thing you know, the fellow was talking to himself, and when Sandy was careless, suddenly shot over a stiff one on Sandy's face, and yelled, I'm going to have you know that no man's going to push me around this field. Sandy was happy as could be. He patted the chap on the back and roared, good stuff, you're all right, you're the kind of man I want, we can use men like you. But Foster Sandford was not the only old timer who could take the young one's hard knocks, says Johnny. I've seen Hethelfinger come back to Yale Field after being out of college twenty years, and play with the scrubs for fifty-five minutes without a layoff. I never saw a man with such endurance. Ted Coy was a big, good-natured fellow. He was never known to take time out in a game in the four years he played football. In his senior year he didn't play until the West Point game. While West Point was putting it all over us, Coy was on the sidelines frantically running up and down. But we had strict instructions from the doctor not to play him, no matter what happened. Suddenly Coy said, Johnny, let me in. I'm not going to have my team licked by this crowd. And in he jumped. I saw him call Philbin up alongside of him, and the first thing I knew, I saw Philbin and Coy running up the field like a couple of deer. In just three plays, they took the ball from our own five-yard line to a touchdown. After that there was a different spirit in the team. Coy was an inspiration to his players. One more story, says Johnny. There were two boys at New Haven. Their first names were Jack, and both were substitutes on the scrub. About the middle of the second half in the Harvard game, the coach told me to go and warm up Jack. One of the Jacks jumped up, while the other Jack sank back on the bench with surprise and sorrow on his face. Seeing that a mistake had been made, I said, not you, but you, Jack, and pointed to the other one. As the right Jack jumped up, the cloudy face turned to sunshine as only a football player can imagine, and the sunny smile of the first Jack turned to deepest gloom and affecting sight I shall never forget. Huggins of Brown I know of no college trainer who seems to get more pleasure out of his work than Huggins of Brown. There are numerous incidents that are recorded in this book that have been the experiences of this good-natured trainer. A trainer's life is not always a merry one. Many things occur that tend to worry him, but he gets a lot of fun out of it just the same. Huggins says, Some years ago Brown had a big lineman on its team who had never been to New York, where we went that year to meet Carl Isle. The players put in quite a bit of time jollying him and having all sorts of fun at his expense. We stopped at one of the big hotels, and the rooms were on the seventh and eighth floors. In the rooms where the rope fire escapes, common in those days, knotted every foot or so. The big lineman asked what it was for, and the other fellows told him, but added that this room was the only one so equipped, and that he must look sharp that none of the others helped themselves to it for their protection against fire. That night, as usual, I was making my rounds after the fellows had gone to bed. Coming into this player's room, I saw that he was asleep, but that there appeared to be some strange, unusual lump in the bed. I immediately woke him to find out what it was. Much to my amusement, I discovered that he had wound about fifteen feet of the rope around his body, and I had an awful job trying to assure him that the boys had been fooling him. Nothing that I could say, however, would convince him, and I left him to resume his slumbers with the rope still wrapped tightly around his body. Huggins not only believes that Brown University is a good place to train, but he thinks it is a good place to send his boy. He has a son who is a freshman at Brown, as I write. Huggins went to Brown in the fall of 1896 as a trainer. Here is another good Huggins story. The Sprackling, our all-American quarterback of a few years ago, always had his nerve with him, and, however tight the place, generally managed to get out with a whole skin. But I recall one occasion when the wind was taken out of his sails. He was at a loss what to say or how to act. We were talking over prospects on the steps in front of the Brown Union one morning, just before college opened, the fall that he was captain, when a young chap came up and said, Are you Sprackling, captain of the team? That's me, replied Sprack. Well, I'm coming out for quarterback, the young man declared, and I expect to make it. I can run the one hundred in ten one, and the two twenty in evens, and I'm a good quarterback. I'm going to beat you out of your job. Sprack, for once in his life, was flustered to death, when several of the boys who were nearby and had heard the conversation began to laugh. He grew red in the face, and quickly got up and walked away without a word. But before I could recover myself, the promising candidate had disappeared. Harry Tuthill, specialist in knees and ankles, was the first trainer West Point ever had. When he turned up at the academy, he was none too sure that a football was made of leather and blown up. He got his job at the point through the bandaging of Ty Cobb's ankle, an army coach saw him do it, and said, Harry, if you can do that, the way you do it, come to West Point and do it for us. Tuthill was none too welcome to the authorities, other than the football men. In the eyes of the superintendent, every cadet was fit to do anything that might be required of him. You've got to make good with the soup, said the coaches. So Harry went out and watched the dress parade and the ensuing double-time review. After the battalion was dismissed, Tuthill was introduced to the superintendent. Well, Mr. Tuthill, said the superintendent, I'm glad to meet you, but I really do not see what we need of a trainer. Harry shifted his feet in gathering courage, blurted out, run those boys around again, and then asked them to whistle. There are many other trainers who deserve mention in this chapter, men who are earnestly and loyally giving up their lives to the training of the young men in our different colleges, but space will not permit to take up any more of these interesting characters. Their tribute must be a silent one, not only for myself, but from the undergraduates and graduates of the colleges to which they belong, and upon whose shoulders are heaped year after year honors which are due them. First doctor in charge of any team. Dr. W. M. Conant, Harvard, 79, says, I believe I was the first doctor associated with the Harvard team, and so far as I know, the first doctor who was in charge of any team at any college. At Harvard, this custom has been kept up. I was requested by Arthur Cumnick, who had been beaten the previous year by Yale, to come out and help him win a game. This, I consented to do, provided I had absolute control of the medical end of the team, which consisted not only of taking care of the men who were injured, but also of their diet. This has since been taken up by the trainer. The late George Stewart and the late George Adams were the coaches in charge that year, and my recollections of some of the difficulties that arose because of new methods are very enjoyable, even at this late day. So far as I know, this was the first season men were played in the same position opposite one another. In other words, there was an attempt to form a second eleven, which is now a well-recognized condition. I had a house built under the grandstand where every man from our team was stripped, rubbed dry, and put into a new suit of clothes, also given a certain amount of hot drink has seemed necessary. This was a thing which had never been done before, and in my opinion had a large influence in deciding the game in Harvard's favor, as the men went out upon the field in the second half almost as fresh as when they started the first half. I remember that I had not seen a victory over Yale since I was graduated from college in 1879. Some of the suggestions that I made about the time men should be played were laughed at. The standpoint I took was that a man should not be allowed by the coach to play until he was deemed fit. The physician in charge was also a matter of serious discussion. Many of these points are now so well established that to the present generation it is hardly possible to make them realize that from 1890 to 1895 it was necessary to make a fight to establish certain well-known methods. What would the present football man think of being played for one and one half hours, whether he was in shape or not? The present football man does not appreciate what some of the older college graduates went through in order to bring about the present reasonable methods adopted in handling the game. At such a time sadness reigns. Men who are big in mind and body have broken down and cried bitterly. How often in our experience have we seen men taken out of the game leaving it as though their hearts would break only to go to the sidelines and there through dimmed eyes view the inevitable defeat realizing that they were no longer a factor in the struggle. Such an experience came to Frank Morse in the savage Penn Princeton game of years ago at Trenton. He had given of his best. He played a wonderful game but through an injury he had to be removed to the sidelines. Let this great hero of the past tell us something about the pangs of defeat as he summons them to mind in his San Francisco office after an interval of twenty-two years. The average American university football player takes his defeats too seriously in the light of my retrospect much too seriously writes Morse as my memory harks back to the blubbering bunch of stalwart young manhood that rent the closed air of the dressing room with its dismal howls after each of the five defeats in which I participated I am convinced that this is not what the world expects of strong men in the hour of adversity a stiff upper lip is what the world admires and it will extend the hand of sympathy and help to the man who can wear it this should be taught by football coaches to their men as part of the lessons of life that football generally is credited with teaching Alex Muffet then whom no more loyal and enthusiastic Princetonian ever lived to my mind had the right idea during one of those periods of abysmal depths of despondency into which a losing team is plunged he rushed into the room waving his arms over his head in his characteristic manner and in his high-pitched voice yelled here boys get down to work cut out this crying and get to cussing doubtless much of this was due to the strain and high tension to which the men were subjected but much of it was mere lack of effort at restraint Johnny Poe a stout-hearted a man as ever was or ever will stand on a football field once said to me this sob stuff gives me a pain in the neck but like seasickness when the rest of the crowd starts business it's hard to keep out of it besides I don't suppose there's any use getting the reputation of being exclusive and too stuck up to do what the rest of the gang do of the defeats in which I participated probably none was more disheartening than the one suffered at the hands of the University of Pennsylvania in 1892 at the Mannheim cricket grounds near Philadelphia I shall always believe that the better Princeton team would have won with comparative ease had it not been for the wind in no game in which I ever played was the wind so largely the deciding factor in the result the flags on the poles along the stands stood out stiffly as they snapped in the half-gale Pennsylvania won the toss and elected to have the wind at their backs for 45 minutes every effort made against the red and blue was more than nullified by the blustering God Alas when Pennsylvania kicked it was the rule and not the exception for the ball to go sailing for from one half to three quarters the length of the field on the other hand I can see in my mind's eye today as clearly as I did during the game a punt by shepherd homens the Princeton fullback which started over the battling lines into Pennsylvania territory slowed up hung for an instant in the air and then was swept back to a point approximating the line from where it started it was the most helpless and exasperating feeling that I ever experienced the football player who can conceive of a game in which under no circumstances was it permissible to kick but instead provided a penalty can perhaps appreciate the circumstances in the second half when we changed goals the flags hung limply against their staffs but we had spent ourselves in the unequal contest during the first half nightmares even those of football do not always beget sympathy upon occasion a deal of fun is poked at the victim and this holds true even in the family circle tom chevlin was noted as the father of a great many good stories but it was proverbial that he refrained from telling one upon himself however in at least one instance he deviated from habit to the extent of relating an incident concerning his father and the father of charlie rafferty captain of the Yale 1903 11 tom at the time was a sophomore and chevlin senior who idolized his son made it a practice of attending all important contests in which he participated came on from minneapolis and his private car to witness the spectacle of tom's single-handed defeat of the princeton's as a chance the chevlin car was put upon a sighting adjoining that on which the car of gil rafferty lay rafferty as a matter of fact was making his laborious way down the steps as mr. chevlin emerged from his car mr. rafferty looked up blinked in the november sunlight and then nodded cheerfully well chevlin he said i suppose by tonight will be known simply as the fathers of two great yale favorites chevlin nodded and said he fancied such would be the case a few hours later in the gloom of the twilight after yale had been defeated the elder chevlin was finding his somber way to the steps of his car and met rafferty face to face chevlin nodded and was about to pass on without speaking when rafferty placed his hand upon his shoulder well chevlin he said solemnly i see we are still old man chevlin and old man rafferty wc roads one has only to hear jim rogers tell the story of billy roads to realize how deeply the iron of football disaster sinks into the soul roads was captain of the losing team in the fall of ninety when yales eleven was beaten by harvard's rogers tells us artha come knock was the harvard captain and the score was twelve to six two remarkable runs for touchdowns made by dudley dean and jim lee decided the contest for twenty years afterwards back to springfield new haven or cambridge wherever the yale harvard games were played came with the regularity of their occurrence billy roads he was to be seen the night before and the morning of the game he always had his tickets for the sideline and wore the badge as an ex-yale captain but the game itself billy roads never saw if at springfield he was to be found in the massasoid house walking the floor until the result of the game was known if at new haven he was not at the yale field he walked around the field and out into the woods if the game was at cambridge he was not at home's field or later at soldiers field when the game was over he would join in the celebration of victory or sink into the misery of defeat as the case might be but he never could witness a game the sting of defeat had left its permanent wound a yale nightmare those who saw the army defeat yale at west point in 1904 must realize what a blow it was to the blue the first score came as a result of a blocked kick by west point which was recovered by urwin who picked up the ball and dashed across the line for a touchdown the army scored the second time when torny cut loose and ran a hundred and five yards for a touchdown sam moors captain of the yale 1906 team who played right half back in this game tells how the nightmare of defeat may come upon us at any time even in the early season and incidentally how it may have its compensations an instance of the psychology of football is to be found in the fall of 1904 when jim hogan was captain of the yale team says moors i had the pleasure of playing back of him on the defensive in almost every game of that year and i got to depend so much on those bull-like charges of his that i feared that if i had been obliged to play back of someone else my playing would have been of inferior quality yale had a fine team that year defeating both harvard and princeton with something to spare the only 11 that scored on us was west point and they beat us it is a strange thing that the cadets always seem to give yale a close game as in that year even though beaten by both harvard and princeton by safe scores and even though yale beat harvard and princeton handily the army played us to a standstill after the game as is so often the case when men have played themselves out there was a good deal of sobbing and a good many real tears were shed every man who has played football will appreciate that there are times when it is very common matter for even a big husky man to weep we were all in the west point dressing room when jim hogan arose he felt what we all took to be a disgrace more keenly than any of us there was no shake in his voice however or any tears in his eyes when he bellowed at us to stop blubbering don't feel sorry for yourselves i hope this thing will hurt us all enough so that we will profit by it it isn't a matter to cry over it's a matter to analyze closely and to take into yourselves and to digest and finally to prevent it's happening again he drove it home as only jim hogan could at the close ralph bloomer jumped to his feet and cried jim old man we are with you and you are right about it and we will wipe this thing out in a way which will satisfy you and all the rest of the college the whole team followed him right then and there that aggregation became a Yale football team in the proper sense and one of the greatest Yale football teams that ever played it was the game followed by jim's speech that made the eleven men a unit for victory if jim had been allowed to live a few more years the quality of leadership that he possessed would have made of him a very prominent and powerful man his memory is one of the dearest things to all of us who were teammates or friends of his but i hardly ever think of him without picturing him that particular day in the dressing room at west point when in five minutes he made of eleven men a really great football team even eddie mayhan is not immune to the haunting memory of defeat and perhaps because of the very fact that disaster came into his brilliant gridiron career only once and then in his senior year it hit him hard the manner of its telling by this great player is sufficient proof of that here is eddie's story i enjoyed my football days at harvard so well that i would like to go back each fall and play football for the rest of my life i wish to goodness i could go back and play just one game over that is the cornell game of 1915 my freshman team won all its games and during the three years that i played for the harvard varsity i never figured in a losing game except that one cornell beat harvard ten to zero the score of that game will haunt me all my life long this game has been a nightmare to me ever since every time i think of football that game is one of the first things that comes to mind i fumbled a lot i don't know why but i couldn't seem to hold on to the ball we blocked four kicks but cornell recovered every one we sort of felt that there was more than the cornell team playing against us a goal from the field and a touchdown chivalric of cornell stands out in my recollection of that game he was a good kicker once he had to kick out from behind the goal post down in his own territory watson and i were both laying for a line buck playing up close chivalric kicked one over my head out of bounds at his own 45-yard line i felt like a burglar after this game because i felt that i had lost it i was feeling pretty blue until the monday after the game when the coaches picked 11 men as the varsity team and just as soon as they sent these 11 men to a section of the field to get acquainted with each other that was the beginning of teamwork from the way those fellows went at it that day and from the spirit they showed we felt that no team could ever lick us again neither princeton nor yale the cornell game acted like a tonic on the whole crowd instead of disheartening the team it instilled in us determination we said we know what it is to be licked and we'll be damned if we'll be licked again jack disall's football ambitions were realized when he made the yale team at quarterback the position which his brother charlie before him had occupied his spectacular runs his able generalship his ability to handle punts coupled with that characteristic disall's grit made him a famous player let this game little quarterback tell his own story billy bull and i have often discussed the fact that when an attempt for a goal from the field failed one of the players of the opposing side always touched the ball back of the goal line thereby making it dead and brought it out to the 25-yard line to kick of course the ball is never dead until it is touched down it was in the fall of 1902 when we were playing west point in the latter part of the second half of that game with the score six to six charlie daily attempted a field goal which was unsuccessful what billy bull and i had discussed many times came into my mind like a flash i picked the ball up and walked out with it as if it had been touched back of the goal when i passed the 25-yard line walking along casually bucky veil who was the referee yelled to me to stop i walked over to him unconcerned and said bucky old boy this ball is not dead because i did not touch it down and i am going down the field with it by that time the west point men had taken their positions in order to receive the kick from the 25-yard line while i was still walking down the field in order to pass all the west point men before making my dash for a certain touchdown it struck bucky veil that i was right and he yelled out at the top of his voice the ball is not dead it is free whereupon the west point men started after me an army man tackled me on the 25-yard line after i had taken the ball down the field for nearly a touchdown i have often turned over in my bed at night since that time cursing the action of referee veil if he had not interfered with my play i would have walked down the field for a touchdown and victory for yale the final score remained six to six i have often thought of the painful hours i would have suffered had i missed the two open field chances and the disastrous game at cambridge in the fall of 1902 when yale was beaten 23 to 0 on two different occasions in that game a harvard runner with interference had passed the whole yale team i was the only aleman between the harvard man and a touchdown the supreme satisfaction i had in nailing both of those runners is one of the most pleasant recollections of my football career when i was a little shaver back in 1889 i lived at south bethlehem pennsylvania pol dashill and matthew mclung who were then playing football at lehigh university took an interest in me pol dashill took me to the first football game i ever saw dibby mclung gave me one of the old practice balls of the lehigh team this was the first football i ever had in my hands for weeks afterwards that football was my nightly companion in bed these two lehigh stars have always been my football heroes and it was a happy day for me when i played quarterback on the yale team and these two men acted as officials that day end of chapter 18 chapter 19 of football days this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox.org recording by calm dragon football days by william edwards chapter 19 men who coached part a the picture on the opposite page will recall to mine many a serious moment in the career of men who coached when something had gone wrong when some player had not come up to expectation when a combination of poor judgment and ill luck was threatening to throw away the results of a season's work such scenes are never photographed but they are preserved no less indelibly in the minds of all who have played this role where is the old football player who gazing at this picture will not be carried back to those days that will never come again hours when you listened perhaps guiltily to the stinging words of the coach moments when spurred on by the thunder and lightning of his wrath you could hardly wait to get out upon the field to grapple with your opponents at such times all that was worthwhile seemed to surge up within you fiercely demanding a chance while if you were a coach you yearn to get into the game only to realize as the team trotted out on the field that yours was no longer a playing part all you could expect henceforth would be to walk nervously up and down the sideline with chills and thrills alternating along your spine there were no coaches in the old days football history relates that in the beginning fellows who wanted fun and exercise would chip in and buy a leather cover for a beef bladder it was necessary to have a supply of these bladders on hand for stout kicks frequently burst them in those days the ball was tossed up in the air and all hands rushed for it there was no organization then very few rules and the football players developed themselves today the old-time player stands on the sidelines and hears the coach yelling play hard fall on the ball tackle low start quick charge hard and fast as far as the fundamentals go the game seems to him much the same but when he begins to recollect he sees how far it has really progressed he recalls how the football coach became a reality and how a teacher of football appeared upon the gridiron better coaching systems were installed as football progressed rules were expanded trainers crept in intercollegiate games were scheduled and competition and king rivalry developed everywhere in fact the desire to win has become so firmly established in the minds of college men that we now have a finished product in our great american game of football wonderfully attractive but very expensive competition has grown to such an extent that our coaching systems of today resemble in a way the plans for a national preparedness costly but apparently necessary all this means that the american football man like the american captain of industry or the american pioneer in any fields of activity is never content to stand still his motto is ever onward it is not always the star player that makes the greatest coach the mediocre man is quite likely to have absorbed as much football teaching ability as the star and when his opportunity comes to coach he sometimes gets more out of the men than the man with the big reputation personality counts in coaching in addition to a coach's keen sense of football there must be a strong personality around which the players may rally all this inspires confidence it is a joy for a coach to work with good material the real foundation of success the rules of today however give what under old standards was the weaker team a much broader opportunity for victory over physically larger and stronger opponents but there are days nevertheless when every coach gets discouraged times when there is no response from the men he is coaching when their slowness of mind and body seem to justify the despair of charlie daily who said to his team you fellers are made of crockery from the neck down and ivory from the neck up football is fickle today you may be a hero after the last game you may be carried off on the shoulders of enthusiastic admirers and dying and wind by hosts of friends but across the field there is a grim faced coach who may already be scheming out a play for next year which will snatch you back from the hall of fame and make your friends describe you sadly as a back number hot and arrived at harvard at the psychological moment harvard had passed through many distressing years playing for the football supremacy he found something to build upon because although the game at cambridge was in the doldrums there had been keen and capable coaching in the past prominent among those who have worked hard for harvard and whose work has been more than welcome are arthur cumnock that brilliant and rush george steward dr. william a brooks a former harvard captain lewis upton john cranston deland hollywell thatcher forbes waters newell dibbley bill reed mike farley josh crane charlie daily pot graves leo leary and others well versed in the game of football hoten had had some experience not only in coaching at cambridge but coaching at cornell and the harvard football authorities realized that of all the harvard graduates hoten would probably be the best man to turn the tide in harvard football percy who play tackle on a winning crimson eleven and sam felton will be well remembered as the fastest punters of their day the first harvard team coached by hoten defeated yale it was in 1908 when hoten used a spectacular method when he rushed vick canard into the crimson backfield after ver weeb had brought the ball up the field where hoten's craft sent vick canard in to make the winning three points and canard himself will tell the story of that game the next year percy hoten's team could not defeat the great ted coy who kicked two goals from the field the performance of harvard 1908 team was the more remarkable because burr who was the captain and the next great punter at that time had been injured and the team was without his services how well i remember him on the sidelines kingly following the play but brilliant in a self-denial there have been times when victories did not come to harvard with the regularity that they have under the hoten regime but the scales go up and down year by year game by game and from defeats we learn much let us read what this premier coach said upon reflection surely the game of football brings out the best there is in one aside from the mental and physical exercise the game develops that inestimable quality of doing one's best under pressure what better training for the game of life than the acid test of a championship game such a test comes not alone to the player but to the coach as well what truer and finer friends can one have than those whom we have met through the medium of football and finally as the years tend to narrow this precious list through death what greater privilege than to associate with the fellow whose muscles are lie than whose mind is clean such a man was francis h burr captain of the harvard team in 1908 words fail me to express my sincere regard for that gallant leader his spirit still lives at cambridge his type we miss i am proud of the men who work shoulder to shoulder in bringing about harvard victories the list is a long one i shall always cherish the hearty cooperation of these men who gave their best for harvard it was al sharp that great cornell coach who in the fall of 1915 found it possible to break through the harvard line of victories and hanging on the walls in the trophy room at cornell university is a much prized souvenir of cornell's visit to cambridge that was the only defeat on the harvard schedule but sometimes defeat have to come to ensure victory and perhaps in that defeat by cornell lay the reason for the overwhelming score against yale slowly but surely al sharp has won his way into the front ranks of football coaches working steadfastly year after year he has built up and established a system that has set cornell's football machinery upon a firm foundation glenn warner glenn warner has contributed a great deal of football both as a player and coach warner was one of the greatest linemen that ever played on the cornell team after leaving college he began his coaching career in 1895 at the university of georgia his success there was remarkable it attracted so much attention that he was called back to cornell in 1897 and 1898 in 1899 warner moved again and began his historic work at the carlile indian school turning out a team year after year that gave the big colleges a close battle and sometimes beat them there never was a team that attracted so much attention as the carlile indians they were popular everywhere and drew large crowds not only on the account of their being red men but on account of their adaptability to the game warner as their coach wrought wonders with them and really all the colleges at one time or another had their scalps taken by the indians they were the champion travelers of the game their games were generally all away from home and yet the long trips did not seem to hamper them in their play they got enjoyment out of traveling going from princeton new york one friday night some years ago i was told by the conductor that the carlile football team was in the last car i went back and talked with warner the indian team were amusing themselves in one end of the car and thus passing the time away by entering into a game they were accustomed to play on trips one of the carlile players would stand in the center of the aisle and some 15 or so men would group about him in and about and on top of the seats the central figure would bend over and close his eyes then someone from the crowd would reach over and spank the crouching indian a terrific blow hastily drawing back his hand then the indian who had received the blow would straighten up and try by the expression of guilt on the face of the one who had delivered the blow to find his man their faces were a study yet nearly every time the right man was detected who is there in football who will never forget the indian team their red blankets and all that was typical of them the yells that the crowds gave as the indians appeared they seemed always to be fit they were full of spirit and anxious to clash with anxious to clash with their opponents i recall an incident in a princeton carlile game when the game was being fiercely waged miller the great indian halfback had scored a touchdown after a long run it was not long after this that a princeton player was injured maybe the play was being slowed up a little anyway time was taken out one of the indians seemed to sense the situation the princeton players were lying on the ground while the carlile men were prancing about eager to resume the fray when one of the indians remarked white men play for wind indian play football in 1915 warner went to the university of pittsburgh here he has already begun to duplicate former successes crook shank peck and wagner are three of pittsburgh's many stars probably the best football player that one or ever developed at the carlile indian school was jim thork whose picture appears on the opposite page unhappy the end and not infrequently the back who had to face this versatile player thork was a raider billy bull billy bull of yale is one of the old heroes who has kept in very close touch with the game he has been a valuable coach at yale and the ellis kicking game is left entirely in his hands he is an enthusiastic believer in the game immediately after leaving new haven in 1889 he started to coach and since that time he has not missed a year years ago he inaugurated a routine system of coaching for the various styles of kicks my object he said recently has been to turn out consistent rather than wonderful kickers as a player i was early impressed with the value of kicking not only in a general way but also in a particular way such as the punt in an offensive way for more than 25 years i've talked it up for a long time i talked it to deaf ears especially at yale i talked it when i coached at west point for 10 years and was generally set down as a harmless crank on the subject but i have lived to see the time when everyone agrees on a great value of this offensive kick when i entered yale i was an absolute greenhorn but the greenhorn had a chance then for he was able to play an actual scrimmage every day now the squads are so big that opportunities for playing the game for long daily periods are entirely wanting today it is a case of a heap big talk a coach for every position more talk lots of system blackboard exercises and mighty little actual play i have often wondered if things were not being overdone as far as coaching goes in the preparatory schools at the present time the super abundance of coaches and the demand for victory combined to force the boy if there is anyone forcing to do the college is the place for it when the boy is older and better able to stand the strain in recent years i have seen not a few broken down boys enter college boys are coming to college now whose needs must be told everything and if there is not a large body of coaches about to tell them they mutiny they seem to forget or not to know that most is up to the man himself when a boy comes to college with the idea that all this is necessary is for him to be told constantly told how to do this and that and he will deliver in the last ditch i cannot help thinking that something is wrong i have in mind right now a player in the line who came to college after four years of school football ever since his entry he has complained that no one has told him anything now this particular player spends 10 months of each year loafing and expect in his two months of football to do a man's job in a big game no amount of blackboard and other talk is going to make a player do a man's job and whip his opponent no man can play a tackle job properly if he does not realize the kind of proposition he is up against 12 months in the year and act accordingly he has got to do his own thinking and see to it himself that he has the necessary strength and toughness to play the game as one must to win sanford the unique george foster sanford is unique in football he made splendid teams when he coached at columbia while his subsequent record with the rutgers 11 attracted wide attention in the columbia alumni news of october 1915 albert w putman a former player review seven years of morningside football impays the following tribute to foster sanford sanford coached the teams of 1899 1900 and 1901 he coached them ably conscientiously and thoroughly and in my opinion was the best football coach in the country during my three years experience as coach at columbia says sanford we beat all the big teams except harvard i was fortunate enough to develop such men as weeks moorley right and barion players whose records will always stand high in the hall of football fame at columbia i was particularly well satisfied with the work i got out of slokovic a former yale player whom the ale coaches had never seemed to handle properly i did not allow him to play over one day a week this was because i discovered that he was very healthy muscled that if he played continuously he would become muscle bound my treatment proved to fit the case exactly and slokovic became a star in for columbia we defeated yale the first year the next year at new haven the contest was a strenuous one and the game attracted unusual attention it was in my own hometown and i had to stand for a lot of good-natured kidding but those who were there will remember how scared the ale coaches got during the last part of the game when columbia made terrific advances how columbia's team fought gordon browns 11 almost to a standstill that day is something that the ale coaches of that time will long remember an old ale player bob lorry whose father is a trustee of rutgers induce sanford to lend the college his assistance apparently this connection was an unmixed blessing mr lf lorry bob's father says sandy has frankly admitted that in his opinion sanford's gift to the college for he works without renumeration has brought a spirit and betterment of conditions which is worth fully as much as donations of thousands of dollars from the first day i went there continue sandy i started to build up football for rutgers and to rely on rutgers men for my assistance it was there that i met the best football men i ever coached john t tui this remarkable tackle weighed 220 pounds the life he led and the example he set will always have a lasting influence upon rutgers men for sad to relate tui was killed in the railroad yards at onyanta where he was yard master tui was a great leader possessing a wonderful personality and winning the immediate respect of everyone who knew him 25 years have passed since i saw sanford that morning in the fifth avenue hotel since then i have followed his football career with enthusiasm boyhood heroes live long in mind he is what might be called a major surgeon in football for it is a matter of record that he has been called back to Yale not when the patient was merely sick but in a serious condition usually the operation has been performed with such skill that the patient has rallied with this concerning suddenness talking to the Yale teams between the haves giving instructions which have turned dubious prospects into flaming victories is a service which sanford has rendered Yale more than once victory as it happens is the principal characteristic of sanford's work long as the list of players whom sanford has developed in my coaching experience sandy tells us i doubt if i ever coached a man where my hard work counted for more at Yale than the case of charlie chadwick in 1897 for many years there has been a saying that a one man defense is as good as 11 man defense providing you can get one man who can do it of course this never worked out literally but the case of charlie chadwick is probably the best explanation of its value besides being overdeveloped he was temperamental at times he would show great form and at other times his playing was hopeless this year i was asked to come to new haven and began coaching the lineman chad would look good to me in spite of much criticism that was made by the coaches in their opinion they thought he was not to be relied upon so i decided to stake my reputation and began in my own way feeling sure that i could get results in preparing him for the harvard and prinston games i started out purposely annoying chadwick in every possible way going with him wherever he went i went with him to his room evenings and did not leave until he had become so bored that he fell asleep or that he got mad and told me to get out i planned at that chadwick approached the coaches whenever he saw them together and say i wish you would let me play on this team if you will i will play the game of my life i will play like hell after he made this speech two or three times they were very positive that he was more than temperamental i kept steadily at my plan however and felt sure it would work out the line was finally turned over to me and i had opportunity to slip chadwick in for two or three plays at left guard he played like a demon he was literally a one-man defense but he received no credit i immediately removed him from the game and criticized him severely and told him to follow up the play and in case i needed him he would be handy i realized what a great player he was proving to be and my great problem then was how i was to convince the coaches that chadwick should start the game i tried it out a few times but saw it was useless trying to convince them so i decided to concentrate on jim rogers the captain jim consented my plan was to tell no one except marshall the man who placed chadwick was to take the lineup was called out in the dressing room before the game chadwick's name was not included i had arranged with julian curtis who was in close touch with the cheerleaders that when i gave the signal the yell crowd would be instructed to stand and yell nothing but chadwick chadwick chadwick the ale team ran out upon the field i stayed behind with chadwick and came in through the gate holding him by the arm before going on the sidelines i stopped him and said look here chadwick it doesn't look as though you're going to play but if i put you in that lineup how will you play like a shot from a canony roared i'll play like hell you could have heard him a mile well then give me your sweater and warm up i said as i gave the signal to julian curtis he passed the word on to the cheerleaders and the side of chadwick running up and down those sidelines will never be forgotten it is estimated that he leaped five yards out of stride and when the students cheering chadwick chadwick chadwick he was sent out into the lineup and the rest well you better ask the men who played on the harvard team that day it was a stream of men going on and off the field and they were headed for a right guard position on the harvard side harvard could not beat chadwick so the game ended in a tie jim rogers captain of that team also had something to say of chadwick in the harvard yell game rogers writes charlie chadwick played the game of his life he used up about six men who played against him that day but he never could put out bill edwards the day we played princeton i played against chadwick on the scrub and the first charge he made against me i went clean back to full back it was just as though an automobile it hit me i played against heffinger and a lot of them i could hold those fellas gee but i was sore i said to myself and won't do that again and the next time i was set back just as far one feature of this yell princeton game impressed me tremendously that of bill edwards stand against what i considered a superman charles chadwick before the game i'd confidently expected big bill to resign after about five minutes play knowing as i did how chadwick was going in this however edwards was a great disappointment as he struck the game out and was stronger at the end than at the start or halfway through had he weakened at all ad kelly's great offensive work would have been doomed to failure edwards finished up the game against chadwick with a face that resembled a raw beef steak to my mind he was the worst punished man i have ever seen he stood by his guns to the finish and ever since then my hat has been off to him one of the most interesting characters in southern football is w r titanor a thorough enthusiast in the game and known wherever there is a football in the south his father was president of the alabama polytechnic he was a fine player and weighed about 120 pounds he is the emergency football man of the south whenever there is a football dispute titanor settles it whenever a coach has taken sick titanor is called upon to take his place whenever an emergency official is needed titch comes to the rescue he tells the following story every boy who has been to auburn in the last 20 years knows bob frazier many of them however may not recognize that name as he has been called bob sponsor for so long that few of them know his real name bob is as black as the inside of a coal mine and has rubbed and worked for the various teams at auburn since the memory of a man reneth not to the contrary just after the christmas holidays one year in the middle of nineties bob with the view of making a touch called it bill williams room one night after asking bill if he had had a good christmas sponsor remarked you know mr williams us auburn niggers went down and played them tuskegee niggers a game of football during christmas who did you have on the team bob inquired bill oh we had a lot of these niggers round town year there was me and krusky and homer and bear and kakai and a lot of these year town niggers how did you come out asked bill oh damn tuskegee niggers give us a good licking what position did you play me said bob i was the captain i played all around i played centered and i played quarterbacked and i played half back what system of signals did you use and who called them was bill's next inquiry ain't i told you mr williams i was the captain i called the signals dim niggers mine couldn't learn no signals so we just played like we had him i'd give some numbers to fool the tuskegee niggers but them numbers didn't mean nothing i'd say two four six eight ten take that ball homer and go round the end that's the only sort of signals dim niggers could learn and sometimes they missed them that's the reason we got beat and them tuskegee niggers got all my money mr williams i'm just as nicolas as a haunt can't you lend me two bits till saturday night please uh honest to god i'll pay you back to ensure end of the first half of chapter 19 recording by calm dragon dot net chapter 19 of football days this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by calm dragon football days by william edwards chapter 19 men who coached part b listening to yaust hurry up yaust is one of the most interesting and enthusiastic football coaches in the country the title of hurry up has been given him on account of the pep he puts into his men and the speed at which they work whether in a restaurant or a crowded street hotel lobby or on a railroad train yaust will proceed to demonstrate this or that play and carefully explain many of the things well worthwhile in football he is always in deadly earnest out of the football season during business hours he is ever ready to talk the game yaust football experience as a player began at the university of west virginia where he played tackle lafayette beat them that year six to zero shortly after this yaust entered lafayette his early experience in football there was under the famous football expert and writer park davis yauston reinhardt where a broad smile as they tell of the way park davis used to entertain the teams off the field he always kept them in the finest of humor park davis they say is a born entertainer and many an evening in the clubhouse did he keep their minds off football by a wonderful demonstration of sleight of hand with the cards if park davis had taken his coat off and stuck to coaching he would have been one of the greatest leaders in that line in the country today says yaust he was more or less a bug on football you know that to be good at anything one must be crazy about it davis was certainly a bug on football and so am i everybody knows that i shall never forget davis after lafayette had beaten cornell six to zero in 1895 at ithica that night in the course of the celebration park uncovered everything he had in the way of entertainment and gave an exhibition of his famous dance so aptly named the dance du venture by the enthusiastic lafayette alumnus john clark i have been at michigan 15 seasons my 1901 team is perhaps the most remarkable in the history of football in many ways it scored 550 points to opponents nothing and journeyed 3500 miles we played stanford on new year's day using no substitutes on this great team were neil snow and the remarkable quarterback boss weeks willy heston who was playing his first year at michigan was another star on this team a picture of michigan's great team appears on the opposite page boss weeks two teams scored more than 1200 points if that team had been in the front of the chinese wall and got the signal to go not a man would have hesitated every man that played under boss weeks idolized him and when word was brought to the university that he had died every michigan man felt that its university had lost one of its greatest men i am perhaps more of a boys man today than i ever was there is a great satisfaction feeling that you have an influence in the lives of the men under you coaching is a sacred job there's no question about it there is a wonderful athletic spirit at michigan and when we have mass meetings in the hill auditorium six thousand men turn out at such a time one feels the great power behind an athletic team some of the great michigan football players within my recollection were jimmy baird jack mclain neil snow boss weeks tom hamman willy heston hernston grand old germany schultz ben brook stan wells dan mcqueen david allardice hugh white and others i might mention on down to john malbech reggie brown is probably one of the most famous of the harvard coaches his work in harvard football is to find out what the other teams are doing he is on hand at yale field every saturday when the yale team plays he is unique in his scouting work in that he carries his findings in his head his memory is his mental notebook in talking with harvard men i have found that the general impression is that the work of this coach is one of harvard's biggest assets jimmy knocks of harvard is one of hotten's most valued scouts every fall princeton is his haven of scouting he does it most successfully and in a truly sportsmanlike way one day in route to princeton i met knocks on the train and sat with him as far as princeton junction when we arrived at princeton a friend of mine called me aside and said who is that loyal princeton man who seems never to miss a game he is not a princeton man i replied he is knocks the harvard scout he will be with hotten tomorrow at cambridge with his dope book from questions asked me i am quite sure that there is an utter misconception of the work of the scouts for the big league team says jimmy i have frequently been asked how i get in to see the practice of our opponents how i manage to get their signals how i anticipate what they are going to do what is the value of scouting anyway from five years experience i can say that i have never seen our opponents except in public games i have never unconsciously noted a signal even for a kick much less made a deliberate attempt to learn the opponent signals or code what little i know of their ultimate plans is merely by applying common sense to their problem based on the material and methods which they command as to the value of scouting volumes might be written but suffice it to say that it is the principal means of standardizing the game if the big teams of the country played throughout the season in seclusion the final games would be a hodgepodge of varying systems which would curtail the interest of the spectator and all but block the development of the game the reports of the scouts give the various coaching core a fixed objective so that the various teams come to their final game with what might be considered a uniform examination to pass the result is a steady logical development of the game from the inside and the maximum interest for the spectator it is unfortunate that the public has misconstructed scouting to mean spying for there is nothing underhanded in the scouting department of football as any big team coach will testify nox tells of an interesting experience of his freshman year i never hear the question debated as to whether character is born in a man or developed as time goes on says he without recalling my first meeting with marshall newell probably the best loved man that ever graduated from harvard in the middle of the 90s it was considered beneath the dignity of a former varsity player to coach any but varsity candidates marshall newell was an exception without solicitation he came over to the freshman field many times and gave us youngsters the benefit of his advice on his first trip he went into the lineup and gave us an example of how the game could be played by a master when the practice was over ma newell came up to me and said i guess i was a little rough my boy but i just wanted to test your grit you had better come over to the varsity field tomorrow with two or three of the other fellows that i'm going to speak to i'll watch you and help you after you get there and he did he was loved because he was big enough to disregard convention to sympathize with the less proficient and to make an inferior feel as if he were on a plane of equality the highest type of manhood was born with marshall newell and developed through every hour of a two short life only those who played football in the old days and have carefully followed it since appreciate the difference in the two types of game i frequently wonder if the old type of game did not develop more in a man than the modern as a freshman i was playing half back on the second varsity one afternoon when a sudden blow knocked me unconscious while the play was at one end of the field when i regained consciousness the play was at the other end of the field not a soul was near me or thinking of me i had hardly gotten within earshot of the scrimmage when i heard lewis one of the varsity coaches call out come on get in here they can't kill fellas like you i went into the scrimmage and played the rest of the afternoon it was a simple incident but i learned two lessons of life from it first you can expect mighty little sympathy when you are down second you are not out if you will only go back and stick to it dartmouth holds a unique position in college football there are many men who were responsible for dartmouth success men who have stood by year after year and worked out the football policy there it is my experience that dartmouth men university call ed hall the father of dartmouth football he has served faithfully on the rules committee as well as an official in the game myra knee with them that great player and captain of the dartmouth team which was victorious over harvard the day that harvard opened the stadium says if one goes back to hanover and visits a trophy room he will see hanging there the winning football which dartmouth men glory over as they recall that wonderful victory over harvard ed hall is the man who is often called upon to speak to the men between the haves his talks have a telling effect hall's name is traditional at our college there are many football enthusiasts who recall that wonderful backfield that dartmouth had mccornack extram mcangers and crolyas these men got away wonderfully fast and hit the line like one man they played every game without a substitute for two years fred corleas who takes great delight in recalling the old days as the following to say about the one who coached one man whose influence more than any other one thing succeeded in laying a foundation for the dartmouth's wonderful results but whose name is seldom mentioned in that connection is dr. wortenberg who was brought up in the early Yale football school he had the keenest sense of fundamental football and the greatest intensity of spirit in transmitting his hard-earned knowledge four critical years he worked with us filling everyone with his enthusiasm and those four years dartmouth football gained such headway that nothing could stop its growth enough space cannot be given to pay proper tribute to walter mccornack dartmouth 97 myron witham relates a humorous incident that happened in practice when mccornack was coach at dartmouth max sirius an exacting demeanor on the practice field occasionally relaxed to enjoy a humorous situation he chose to give a personal demonstration of my position and duty as quarterback in a particular formation around the end he took my place and giving the proper signal the team or rather 10 11th of the team went through with the play leaving mac behind standing in his tracks mac naturally was at a loss to locate the quarter during the execution of the play and madly yelled where in the devil is that quarterback but he immediately joined with a squad in the joke upon himself mccornack coach dartmouth in the falls of 1901 and 1902 he brought the team up from nothing to a two years defeat of brown in two years scoring on harvard the game with harvard in the fall of 1902 resulted in a score of 16 to 6 dartmouth out rushing harvard at least three to one mccornack then resigned but left a wealth of material and a scientific game at dartmouth which was as good as any in the country this was the beginning of dartmouth success in modern football and for it mccornack has been named the father of modern football at dartmouth the greatest compliment ever paid mccornack in so far as athletics were concerned was by president william jewitt tucker of dartmouth who told an alumnus of the institution the discipline that mccornack maintained on the football field at dartmouth was to the advantage of the general discipline of the institution for 10 years after mccornack had stopped coaching at dartmouth the captain of the dartmouth team would wear his sweater in a harvard game as an emblem to go by the sweater is now worn out and no one knows where it is if eddie holt's record at princeton told of nothing else than the making of a great guard this would be enough to establish holt's ability as a guard coach eddie and sam craig played alongside of each other in the yell defeat of 97 holt says the story of the making of sam craig is the old story of the stone the builders rejected which is now the headstone of the corner sam never forgot the 97 defeat and i never have myself after this game sam gave up football although he was eligible to play two years later after princeton had been defeated by cornell something had to be done to strengthen the princeton line sam craig was at the seminary i remembered him said holt and went over to his room and told him that he was needed i shall never forget how his face lit up as he felt there was an opportunity to serve princeton and a chance to play on a winning a chance to come back he responded to my hurry call eager to make good coaching him was the finest thing i ever did in football good old sam i can see him now standing on the sidelines telling me that he guessed he was no good you can never imagine how happy i was to see him improve day by day after i had taken a hold of him the great game he played against yale in 99 will always be one of my happiest recollections in football my joy was supreme the joy that comes to a coach as he sees as man make good sam sheer did it is very doubtful whether the inside story of harvard's victory over yale in 1908 has ever been told those who remember this game know that the way for victory was paved by ver weeb and vick canard harry curseberg a harvard coach writes of that incident the summer of 1907 and 1908 canard worked for several hours each day perfecting his kicking this fact was known only to one of the coaches in 1906 and 1907 canard played as a substitute but was most unfortunate in being smashed up in nearly every game in which he played on account of this record he was given little or no attention at the beginning of the 1908 season even though the one coach who had great confidence in canard's ability as a kicker rooted hard for him at every coach's meeting about the middle of the season dave cambell came on from the west and with the one lone coach became interested in canard on the day of the springfield training school game most of the harvard coaches went down to new haven leaving the team in charge of cambell and canard's other router the psychological moment had arrived just as soon as the harvard team had rolled up a tidy little score canard was sent into the game and instructions were given to the quarterback that he was to signal for a dropkick every time the harvard team was within 40 yards of the opponent's goal no matter what the angle might be the game ended with canard having kicked four goals from the field out of six tries nearly all of them were kicked from an average distance of 30 yards and at very difficult angles at the next coaches meeting serious consideration was given to what canard had done and from that time on he came into his own now for rex for a weeb for two years he had plugged away at a line position on the second team in his senior year he was advanced to the varsity squad with all his hard work it seemed impossible for him to develop into anything but a mediocre lineman the line coaches with much regret had about given up all hope one afternoon two weeks before the Yale game one of the line coaches was standing on the sidelines talking with pooch donovan about ver weeb pooch said little but kept a close watch on ver weeb for the next two or three days at the end of that time he came out with a statement that if ver weeb could be taught how to start he would rapidly develop into one of the best halfbacks on the squad pooch's advice was followed and in the Yale game for weebs rush's outside tackle were one of the features of the game and were directly responsible for the ball being brought down the field to such a position that it was possible to substitute canard who kicked a goal from the field and won the first victory for harvard against yale in many years it is strange coincidence that the first of harvard's string of victories against yale was won by tubin who a few weeks before the game were in a so-called football discard no greater honor can be accorded football man than the invitation to come back to his alma mater and take charge of the football situation such a man has been selected after he served efficiently at other institutions for it takes long experience to become a great coach and there are very few men who have given up all their time to consecutive coaching successful coaches as a rule are men who have a genius for it and whose strong personalities bring out the natural ability of the men under them successful football is the result of a good system plus good material of the men who coached today the experience of john h rush popularly known as speedy rush stands out as unique rush never played football for he preferred track athletics but he understood the theory of the game at the university school in cleveland where rush taught for many years he took charge of the football team and although coaching mere boys his results were marvelous and in 1915 when the princeton coaching system was in a slew of despond he was decided to give rush an opportunity to show what he could do at princeton rush makes no boast he is a silent worker and football people at large were unanimous in their praise of his work at princeton in the fall of 1915 whatever the future holds in store for this coach princeton men at least are sure that an efficient policy has been established which will be followed out year after year and that the loyal support of the alumni is behind rush there was never a time in Yale's history when so much general discussion and care entered in the selection of its football coach as in 1915 for the long list of Yale football graduates the honor was bestowed upon tad jones a man whose remarkable playing record at Yale is well known football records tell of his wonderful runs his personality enables him to get close to the men and he was wonderfully successful at exeter coaching his old school tad jones represents one of the highest types of college athletes in 1915 when the college authorities decided columbia might re-enter the football arena after a lapse of 10 years it was a wonderful victory for the loyal columbia football supporters a most thorough and exhaustive search was then made for the proper man to teach columbia the new football the man who won the committee's unanimous vote was thomas n metcalf who played football at oberland ohio metcalf earned recognition in his first year he realized that columbia's re-entrance into football must be gradual and his schedule was arranged accordingly he developed miller a quarterback who stood on a par with the best quarterbacks in 1915 columbia had great confidence in metcalf and the pick of the old men notably tom thorp one of the gamest players any team ever had volunteered their aid one of the most prominent football coaches which pennsylvania boast of today is bob fallwell always a brilliant player full of spirit and endowed with great power of leadership he was a huge success as a coach at lafayette his teams beat prinston at washington and jefferson he beat yale twice his ability as a coach was watched carefully not only by the graduates of penn but by the football world as a whole in 1916 this hard-working energetic up-to-date coach assumed control of the football situation on franklin field end of chapter 19 recording by a 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