Book: Football Days

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[Illustration: THREE VICTORIOUS PRINCETON CAPTAINS
HILLEBRAND, COCHRAN, EDWARDS]




FOOTBALL DAYS

MEMORIES OF THE GAME AND
OF THE MEN BEHIND THE BALL


BY

WILLIAM H. EDWARDS
PRINCETON 1900


WITH INTRODUCTION BY
WALTER CAMP
YALE 1880


MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
1916


Copyright, 1916, By
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
NEW YORK




Dedicated to John P. Poe, Jr.
Princeton '95


HONORED AND BELOVED BY HOSTS OF FRIENDS, HE REPRESENTED THE HIGHEST
IDEALS OF AMERICAN FOOTBALL, NOT ONLY IN LIFE, BUT IN HIS DEATH UPON THE
BATTLEFIELD IN FRANCE.

AS I THINK OF HIM, THE STIRRING LINES OF HENRY NEWBOLDT COME TO ME AS A
FITTING EULOGY:


VITA LAMPADA

There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night--
Ten to make and the match to win--
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.

And it's not for the sake of a ribboned-coat
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red--
Red with the wreck of a square that broke,
The gatling jammed and the Colonel dead
And the Regiment blind with dust and smoke.

The river of death has brimmed its banks,
And England's far, and honor a name--
But the voice of a school boy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

This is the word that year by year
While in her place the school is set
Every one of the sons must hear,
And none that hears it dares forget.

Thus they all with a joyful mind--
Bear their life like a torch in flame--
And failing, fling to the host behind,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"




GREETING


I value more highly than any other athletic gift I have ever received,
the Princeton football championship banner that hangs on my wall. It was
given to me by a friend who sent three boys to Princeton. It is a
duplicate of the one that hangs in the trophy room of the gymnasium
there.

How often have I gazed longingly at the names of my loyal team-mates
inscribed upon it. Many times have I run over in my mind the part that
each one played on the memorable occasion when that banner was won.
Memories cluster about that token that are dear and sacred to me.

I see before me not only the faces of my team, but the faces of men of
other years and other universities who have contributed so much to the
great game of football. I recall the preparatory school days and the
part that football played in our school and college careers. Again I see
the athletic fields and the dressing rooms. I hear the earnest pleading
of the coaches.

I see the teams run out upon the field and hear the cheering throng. The
coin is tossed in the air. The shrill blast of the referee's whistle
signals the game to start. The ball is kicked off, and the contest is
on.

The thousands of spectators watch breathlessly. For the time the whole
world is forgotten, except for the issue being fought out there before
them.

But we are not dressed in football suits nowadays. We are on the side
lines. We have a different part to play. Years have compelled a change.
In spirit, however, we are still "in the game."

It is to share these memories with all true lovers of football and to
pay a tribute to the heroes of the gridiron who are no longer with us
that I have undertaken this volume. Let us together retrace the days in
which we lived: days of preparation, days of victory, and days of
defeat. Let us also look into the faces of some of the football heroes
of years ago, and recall the achievements that made them famous. And let
us recall, too, the men of the years just past who have so nobly upheld
the traditions of the American game of football, and helped to place it
on its present high plane.

William H. Edwards.

[Illustration: MY CORNER

"Fond memory sheds the light of other days around me."]




PROLOGUE


They say that no man ever made a successful football player who was
lacking in any quality of imagination. If this be true, and time and
again has it been proved, then there is no more fitting dedication to a
book dealing with the gridiron heroes of the past than to a man like
Johnny Poe. For football is the abandon of body and mind to the
obsession of the spirit that knows no obstacle, counts no danger and for
the time being is dull and callous to physical pain or exhaustion. It is
a something that makes one see visions as Johnny saw them!

There is no sport in the world that brings out unselfishness as does
this great gridiron game of ours. Every fall, second and scrub teams
throughout the country sacrifice themselves only to let others enter the
promised land of victory. It is a strange thing but one almost never
hears any real football player criticise another's making the team,
either his own or an All America. Although the player in this sport
appreciates the loyal support of the thousands on the stands, every man
realizes that his checks on the Bank of Cheers can never be cashed
unless there is a deposit of hard work and practice. Perhaps all this in
an indistinct and indefinite way explains why football players, the
country over, understand each other and that when the game is attacked
for any reason they stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of what they
know down in the bottom of their hearts has such an influence on
character building. And there is no one better fitted to tell the story
of this and of the gridiron heroes than Big Bill Edwards, known not only
as a player but far and wide as one of the best officials that ever
handled the game. "A square deal and no roughing" was his motto, and
every one realized it and accepted every decision unquestioningly. His
association with players in so many angles has given him a particular
insight into the sport and has enabled him to tell this story as no one
else could.

And what names to conjure with! The whistle blows and a shadowy host
springs into action before one's misty eyes--Alex Moffat, the star of
kickers, Hector Cowan, Heffelfinger, Gordon Brown, Ma Newell, Truxton
Hare, Glass, Neil Snow and Shevlin, giants of linemen. But I must stop
before I trespass upon what Bill Edwards will do better. Here's to them
all--forty years of heroes!

Walter Camp.

[Illustration: WALTER CAMP

Yale's Captain, '78-'79.]




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


Hillebrand, Cochran, Edwards _Frontispiece_

My Corner

Walter Camp, Yale's Captain '78-'79

The Old Fifth Avenue Send-Off 1

Old Yale Heroes--Lee McClung's Team 5

We Beat Andover 11

Lafayette's Great Team 24

House in Disorder 30

Hit Your Man Low 32

Repairs 34

The Old Faithfuls 39

Jim Rodgers' Team 45

Cochran Was Game to the End 48

On to New Haven--All Dressed Up and Ready to Go 54

Hillebrand's Last Charge 60

Al Sharpe's Goal 64

Touching the Match to Victory 67

Alex Moffat and His Team 82

Old Penn Heroes 100

Pa Corbin's Team 108

Breakers Ahead--Phil King in the Old Days 125

Lookout, Princeton! 130

Barrett on One of His Famous Dashes; Exeter-Andover
Game, 1915 142

Bill Hollenback Coming at You 147

"The Next Day the Picture Was Gone"--Jim Cooney Making a
Hole for Dana Kafer 158

Johnny Poe, Football Player and Soldier 181

Northcroft Kicking the Field Goal Anticipated by the
Navy and Feared by the Army 200

Cadets and Middies Entering the Field 224

Two Aces--Bill Morley and Harold Weeks 251

Vic Kennard's Kick 255

Sam White's Run 261

King, of Harvard, Making a Run; Mahan Putting Black on
His Head 268

Princeton's 1899 Team 272

"Nothing Got by John DeWitt" 277

John DeWitt About to Pick Up the Ball 280

The Ever Reliable Brickley--A Football Thoroughbred--Tack
Hardwick 284

The Poe Family 296

Just Boys 298

Hobey Baker, Walter Camp, Jr., Snake Ames, Jr. 303

The Elect 310

How It Hurts to Lose 337

Cornell's Great Team--1915 344

One Scene Never Photographed in Football 349

Harvard, 1915 354

The Greatest Indian of Them All 357

Learning the Charge 363

Billy Bull Advising with Captain Talbot 367

Michigan's Famous 1901 Team 370

Columbia Back in the Game, 1915 381

Close to a Thriller. Erwin of Pennsylvania Scoring
Against Cornell 386

Crash of Conflict. When Charge Meets Charge 407

Ainsworth, Yale's Terror in an Uphill Game 416

Two to One He Gets Away--Brickley Being Tackled by Wilson
and Avery 422

Snapping the Ball with Lewis. "Two Inseparables"--Frank
Hinkey and the Ball 428

Marshall Newell 434

McClung, Referee, Shevlin and Hogan 450




CONTENTS


Chap. Page

I.--PREP. SCHOOL DAYS. 1-17

My First Glimpse of a Varsity Team--The Yale Eleven of 1891--Lee
McClung--Vance McCormick--Heffelfinger--Sanford--Impressions
made upon a Boy--St. John's Military School--Lawrenceville--Making
the Team--Andover and Hill School Games.

II.--FRESHMAN YEAR. 18-29

The Freedom of Freshman Year is Attractive--Catching the Spirit
of the Place--Searching for Football Material--The Cannon
Rush--Early Training with Jack McMasters--Tie Game with Lafayette
at Easton--Humiliation of being taken out of a Game--Cornell
Game--Joe Beacham's Fair Admirer in the Bleachers--Bill Church's
Threat Carried Out--Garry Cochran's Victories against Harvard
and Yale.

III.--ELBOW TO ELBOW 30-41

Dressing for Practice--Out upon the Field--Tackling--After
Practice, Back to the Dressing-room--How a Player Finds
Himself--The Training Table--Team Mates--A Surprise for John
DeWitt's Team.

IV.--MISTAKES IN THE GAME. 42-53

If We could only Correct Mistakes We All Made--Defeats
might be Turned into Victory--The Fellow that let Athletics
be the Big Thing in His College Life--The '97 Defeat--No
Recognition of Old Schoolmates--My Opponent was Charlie
Chadwick--Jim Rodgers the Yale Captain--The Cochran-De
Saulles Compact--Cochran Injured--His Last Game--Ad Kelly's
Great Work--Mistakes Caused Sadness--Cornell Defeating
Princeton at Ithaca in 1899--No Outstretched Hands at
Princeton for our Homecoming.

V.--MY LAST GAME 54-67

A Desire to Make the Last Game the Best--On to New
Haven--Optimism--The Start of the Game--Bosey Reiter's
Touchdown--Yale Scores on a Block Kick--Al Sharpe's Goal
from the Field--Score 10 to 6, Yale Leading--Arthur Poe's
Goal from the Field--Princeton Victory--The Joy of
Winning--The Reception at Princeton.

VI.--HEROES OF THE PAST--EARLY DAYS 68-92

Treasured Memory of Those who have Gone Before--Where are
the Old-time Heroes?--Walter Camp--F. R. Vernon--Camp as
a Captain--Chummy Eaton--John Harding--Eugene Baker--Fred
Remington--Theodore McNair--Alexander Moffat--Wyllys
Terry--Memories of John C. Bell.

VII.--GEORGE WOODRUFF'S STORY 93-101

His Entrance to Yale--Making the Team--Recollections of the
Men he Played With and Against--The Lamar Run--Pennsylvania
Experiences.

VIII.--ANECDOTES AND RECOLLECTIONS 102-124

Old-time Signals--Fun with Bert Hansen--Sport Donnelly--Billy
Rhodes and Gill--Victorious Days at Yale--Corbin's 1888
Team--Pa Corbin's Speech when his Team was Banqueted--Mr. and
Mrs. Walter Camp, Head Coaches of the Yale Football Team in
1888--Cowan the Great--Story of His Football Days--He was
Disqualified by Wyllys Terry--Tribute to Heffelfinger--Going
Back with John Cranston.

IX.--THE NINETIES AND AFTER 125-163

The Day Sanford Made the Yale Team--Parke Davis--Sanford
and Yost Obstructing the Traffic--Phil King--The Old
Flying Wedges--Pop Gailey--Charlie Young--An Evening with Jim
Rodgers--Vance McCormick and Denny O'Neil--Dartmouth and Some
of Her Men--Dave Fultz--Christy Mathewson at Bucknell--Jack
Munn Tells of Buffalo Bill--Booth Tells of his Western
Experiences--Harry Kersburg--Heff Herring at Merton
College--Carl Flanders--Bill Horr.

X.--COLLEGE TRADITIONS AND SPIRIT 164-180

College Life in America is Rich in Traditions--The Value of
College Spirit--Each College Has its Own Traditions--Alumni
Parade--School Master and Boy--Victory must never Overshadow
Honor--Constructive Criticism of the Alumni--Mass Meeting
Enthusiasm--Horse Edwards, Princeton '89--Job E. Hedges.

XI.--JOHNNY POE'S OWN STORY 181-193

Private W. Faulkner, a Comrade in the Black Watch, Tells of
Poe's Death--Johnny's Last Words--Paul MacWhelan Gives
London Impressions of Poe's Death--Anecdotes that Johnny
Poe Wrote While in Nevada.

XII.--ARMY AND NAVY 194-225

Character and Training of West Point and Annapolis
Players--Experience of the Visitor Watching the Drill
of Battalion--Annapolis Recollections and Football
Traditions at Naval Academy--Old Players--A Trip de Luxe
to West Point--West Point Recollections--Harmon Graves--The
Way They Have in the Army--The Army and Navy Game.

XIII.--HARD LUCK IN THE GAME 226-246

In Football, as it is in Life, We have no Use for a
Quitter--Football a Game for the Man who Has Nerve--Many
a Small Man has Made a Big Man look Ridiculous--Morris
Ely Game Though Handicapped--Val Flood's Recollections--Andy
Smith--Vonabalde Gammon of Georgia.

XIV.--BRINGING HOME THE BACON 247-285

Billy Bull's Recollections of Yale Games--The Day Columbia
Beat Yale--Dressing Room Scene where Doxology Was
Sung--Account by Richard Harding Davis--Introducing Vic
Kennard of Harvard Fame--Opportunist Extraordinary--His
Experience with Mr. E. H. Coy--Charlie Barrett, of
Cornell--Eddie Hart of Princeton--Sam White--Joe Duff--Side
Line Thoughts of Doctor W. A. Brooks and Evert Jansen
Wendell--New Haven Wreck--Eddie Mahan talking--His Opinion
of Frank Glick--George Chadwick of Yale--Arthur Poe--Story
of his Run and of his Kick--John DeWitt's Story--Tichenor,
of Georgia--"Bobbing Up and Down" Story--Charlie Brickley.

XV.--THE BLOODY ANGLE 286-295

Going Back to the Rough Days--Princeton vs. Harvard Fall
of '87 at Jarvis Field--Luther Price's Experiences in the
Game--Cowan's Disqualification by Wyllys Terry--The
Umpire--Walter Camp was Referee--Holden Carried Off the
Field--Bob Church's Valor.

XVI.--THE FAMILY IN FOOTBALL 296-305

Football Men in Two Distinct Classes--Those who are Made
into Players by the Coaches and Those who are Born with
the Football Instinct--The Poes, Camps, Winters, Ames,
Drapers, Riggs, Youngs, Withingtons, etc.

XVII.--OUR GOOD OLD TRAINERS 306-336

Our Good Old Trainers--Jack McMasters--"Dear Old Jim
Robinson"--Mike Murphy the Dean of Trainers--"The Old
Mike"--A Chat with Pooch Donovan--Keene Fitzpatrick and his
Experiences--Mike Sweeney--Jack Moakley--There is much
Humor in Johnny Mack--Huggins of Brown--Harry Tuthill--Doctor
W. M. Conant, Harvard '79, First Doctor in Charge of any team.

XVIII.--NIGHTMARES 337-348

Frank Morse, of Princeton on the Spirit in Defeat--Tom
Shevlin's Story--Nightmares of W. C. Rhodes--A Yale
Nightmare--Sam Morse--Jim Hogan--The Cornell Game of
1915 is Eddie Mahan's Nightmare--Jack De Saulles' Nightmare.

XIX.--MEN WHO COACHED 349-382

No coaches in the Old Days--Personality Counts in
Coaching--Football is Fickle--Haughton at Harvard at the
Psychological Moment--Old Harvard Coaches--Al Sharpe--Glenn
Warner--The Indians--Billy Bull in the Game--Sanford, the
Unique--Making of Chadwick--W. R. Tichenor, Emergency Coach
of the South--Auburn Recollections--Listening to Yost--Reggie
Brown--Jimmy Knox--Harvard Scouts--Dartmouth Holds a Unique
Position in College Football--Ed Hall, the father of Dartmouth
Football--Myron E. Witham, Captain of the Dartmouth Team--Walter
McCornack--Eddie Holt's Coaching--Harry Kersburg's Harvard
Coaching Recollections--Making Two Star Players from the
Football Discards--Vic Kennard and Rex Ver Wiebe--John H.
Rush--Tad Jones--T. N. Metcalf--Tom Thorp--Bob Folwell--At
Pennsylvania.

XX.--UMPIRE AND REFEREE 383-406

"Why Did He Give That Penalty?"--Emotions of an
Official--John Bell's Recollections as an Official--In
the Old Days One Official Handled the Entire Game--Dashiell's
Reminiscences--Matthew McClung--Conversation with John L.
Sullivan--My Own Personal Experiences--Evarts Wrenn at
Work--Dan Hurley--Bill Crowell--Phil Draper's Ideas--Wyllys
Terry's Official Recollections--Explanation of the Cowan
Disqualification--Pa Corbin--Joe Pendleton--Refereeing
with Nate Tufts--Okeson.

XXI.--CRASH OF CONFLICT 407-433

The First Five Minutes of Play--A Good Start usually
means a Good Ending--Bracelet in the Game--Lueder and
Blondy Wallace--"I've Got You Buffaloed"--Tom Shevlin
remarked: "Mike, This Isn't Football--It's War"--Bemus
Pierce: "Now Keep your Eyes Open and Find out who it
Was"--"If You Won't be Beat, You Can't be Beat," said
Johnny Poe--Rinehart Tells how he Tried to Get even with
Sam Boyle--Barkie Donald and Bemus Pierce--The Yale-Harvard
Game at Springfield '94--Result; No Game for Nine Years--Frank
Hinkey and Wrightington's Broken Collar-bone--Joe Beacham's
Paragon--Sandy Hunt--Bill Hollenback.

XXII.--LEST WE FORGET 434-460

Marshall Newell--Gordon Brown--James J. Hogan--Thomas
J. Shevlin--Francis H. Burr--Neil Snow--Billy
Bannard--Harry Hooper--Richard Harding Davis--McClung.

XXIII.--ALOHA 461-464

Hail and Farewell--The Old Game and the New
Compared--Exclusively Collegiate Sport--Isaac H. Bromley,
Yale '53, Sums up the Spirit of College Life and Sport!

[Illustration: THE OLD FIFTH AVENUE SEND-OFF]




FOOTBALL DAYS




CHAPTER I

PREP. SCHOOL DAYS


To every man there comes a moment that marks the turning point of his
career. For me it was a certain Saturday morning in the autumn of 1891.
As I look back upon it, across the years, I feel something of the same
thrill that stirred my boyish blood that day and opened a door through
which I looked into a new world.

I had just come to the city, a country boy, from my home in Lisle,
N. Y., to attend the Horace Mann School. As I walked across Madison Square,
I glanced toward the old Fifth Avenue Hotel, where my eyes fell upon the
scene depicted in the accompanying picture. Almost before I was aware of
it my curiosity led me to mingle with the crowd surging in and out of
the hotel, and I learned by questioning the bystanders that it was the
headquarters of the Yale team, which that afternoon was to play
Princeton at the Polo Grounds. The players were about to leave the hotel
for the field, and I hurried inside to catch a glimpse of them.

The air was charged with enthusiasm, and I soon caught the
infection--although it was all new to me then--of the vital power of
college spirit which later so completely dominated my life. I recall
with vividness how I lingered and waited for something to happen. Men
were standing in groups, and all eyes were centered upon the heroes of
the team. Every one was talking football. Some of the names heard then
have never been forgotten by me. There was the giant Heffelfinger whom
every one seemed anxious to meet. I was told that he was the crack Yale
guard. I looked at him, and, then and there, I joined the hero
worshippers.

I also remember Lee McClung, the Yale captain, who seemed to realize the
responsibilities that rested upon his shoulders. There was an air of
restraint upon him. In later years he became Treasurer of the United
States and his signature was upon the country's currency. My most vivid
recollection of him will be, however, as he stood there that day in the
corridor of the famous old hotel, on the day of a great football
conflict with Princeton. Then Sanford was pointed out to me, the Yale
center-rush. I recall his eagerness to get out to the "bus" and to be on
his way to the field. When the starting signal was given by the captain,
Sanford's huge form was in the front rank of the crowd that poured out
upon the sidewalk.

The whole scene was intensely thrilling to me, and I did not leave
until the last player had entered the "bus" and it drove off. Crowds of
Yale men and spectators gave the players cheer after cheer as they
rolled away. The flags with which the "bus" was decorated waved in the
breeze, and I watched them with indescribable fascination until they
were out of sight. The noise made by the Yale students I learned
afterwards was college cheering, and college cheers once heard by a boy
are never forgotten.

Many in that throng were going to the game. I could not go, but the
scene that I had just witnessed gave me an inspiration. It stirred
something within me, and down deep in my soul there was born a desire to
go to college.

I made my way directly to the Y. M. C. A. gymnasium, then at the corner
of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. Athletics had for me a greater
attraction than ever before, and from that day I applied myself with
increased enthusiasm to the work of the gymnasium.

The following autumn I entered St. John's Military Academy at Manlius,
N. Y., a short distance from my old home. I was only seventeen years of
age and weighed 217 pounds.

Former Adjutant General William Verbeck--then Colonel Verbeck--was Head
Master. Before I was fairly settled in my room, the Colonel had drafted
me as a candidate for the football team. I wanted to try for the team,
and was as eager to make it as he evidently was to have me make it. But
I did not have any football togs, and the supply at the school did not
contain any large enough.

So I had to have some built for me. The day they arrived, much to my
disappointment, I found the trousers were made of white canvas. Their
newness was appalling and I pictured myself in them with feelings of
dismay. I robbed them of their whiteness that night by mopping up a lot
of mud with them behind the gymnasium. When they had dried--by
morning--they looked like a pair of real football trousers.

George Redington of Yale was our football coach. He was full of
contagious fire. Redington seemed interested in me and gave me much
individual coaching. Colonel Verbeck matched him in love of the game. He
not only believed in athletics, but he played at end on the second team,
and it was pretty difficult for the boys to get the best of him. They
made an unusual effort to put the Colonel out of the plays, but, try as
hard as they might, he generally came out on top. The result was a
decided increase in the spirit of the game.

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