Book: Football Days

W >> William H. Edwards >> Football Days




In such vivid phrases as these a great hero of the past tells of things
well worth recording.

* * * * *

Football competition is very strong. There is the keenest sort of
rivalry among college teams. There is very little love on the part of
the men who play against each other on the day of the contest, but after
the game is all over, and these men meet in after years, very strong
friendships are often formed. Sometimes these opponents never meet
again, but down deep in their hearts they have a most wholesome regard
for each other, and so in my recollections of the old heroes, it will be
most interesting to hear in their own words, something about their own
achievements and experiences in the games they played thirty years ago.
Hector Cowan, who captained the '88 team at Princeton, played three
years against George Woodruff of Yale. It has been twenty-eight years
since that wonderful battle took place between these two men. It is
still talked about by people who saw the game, and now let us read what
these two contestants say about each other.

"Of the three years that I played guard I met George Woodruff as my
opponent," says Cowan, "and I always felt that he was the strongest man
I had to meet and one who was always on the square. He played the game
for what it was worth, and he showed later that he could teach it to
others by the way he taught the Penn' team."

Says George Woodruff, delving into the old days: "Hector Cowan played
against me three years at guard, and he fully deserves the reputation he
had at that time in every particular of the game, including running with
the ball. I doubt whether any other Princeton man was ever more able to
make ground whenever he tried, although Cowan was not in any particular
a showy player. For some reason or other, Cowan seems to have had a
reputation for rough play, which shows how untrue traditions can be
handed down. I never played against or with a finer and steadier player,
or one more free from the remotest desire to play roughly for the sake
of roughness itself."

When Heffelfinger's last game had been played there appeared in a
newspaper of November 26th, 1888, a farewell to Heffelfinger.

Good-by Heff! the boys will miss you,
And the old men, too, and the girls;
You tossed the other side about as if they were ten-pins;
You took Little Bliss under your wing and he ran with
the ball like a pilot boat by the _Teutonic_.
You used eyes, ears, shoulders, legs, arms and head
and took it all in.
You're the best football rusher America, or the world,
has shown;
And best of all you never slugged, lost your temper or
did anything mean;
Oh come thou mighty one, go not away,
The team thou must not fail:
Stay where thou art, please, Heffelfinger, stay,
And still be true to Yale--
Linger, yet linger, Heffelfinger, a truly civil engineer.
His trust would ne'er surrender; unstrap thy trunks,
Excuse this scalding tear.
Still be Yale's best defender! Linger, oh, linger,
Heffelfinger.
Princeton and Harvard, there is cause to fear
Will dance joy's double shuffle when of thy Western
flight they come to hear. Stay and their tempers
ruffle. Linger, oh, linger, Heffelfinger.


John Cranston

"My inspiration for the game came when my country cousin returned from
Exeter and told me he believed I had the making of a football player,"
says John Cranston, who was Harvard's famous old center and former
coach. "At once I pestered him with all kinds of questions about the
requirements, and believed that some day I would do something. I shall
always remember my first day on the field at Exeter. Lacking the
wherewithal to buy the regulation suit, I appeared in the none too
strong blue shirt and overalls used on the farm. I remember too that it
was not long before Harding said: 'Take that young countryman to the
gymnasium before he is injured for life; he doesn't know which way to
run when he gets the ball; he doesn't know the game; and he looks too
thick headed to play the game anyway.'

"As boys on neighboring farms of Western New York, three of us, who
were later to play on different college teams, hunted skunks and rabbits
together. Had we been on the same team we would have been side by side.
Cook was a great tackle at Princeton; Reed one of the best guards
Cornell ever had; and I, owing to some good team mates, played as center
on the first Harvard eleven to defeat Yale. It is said that Cook in his
first game at Exeter grabbed the ball and started for his own goal for a
touchdown, and that Reed after playing the long afternoon in the game
which Cornell won, asked the Referee which side was victorious.

"I well remember that at Exeter we were planning how to celebrate our
victory over Andover, even to the most minute detail. We knew who was to
ring the academy and church bells of the town, and where we were to have
the bonfire at night. We were deprived of that pleasure on account of
the great playing and better spirit of the Andover team. A few of our
Exeter men then and there made a silent compact that Exeter would feel a
little better after another contest with Andover. The following three
years we defeated Andover by large scores.

"Any one who has played the game can recall some amusing situations. I
recall the first year at Harvard when we were playing against the
Andover team that suddenly the whole Andover School gave the Yale cheer.
Dud Dean, who was behind me, fired up and said it was the freshest
thing he had ever heard. At Springfield I remember one Yale-Harvard game
started with ten men of my own school, Exeter, in the game. In another
Yale game we were told to look ugly and defiant as we lined up to face
Yale, but I was forced to laugh long and hard when I found myself facing
Frankie Barbour, the little Yale quarter, who lived with me in the same
dormitory at Exeter for three years."

[Illustration: BREAKERS AHEAD

Phil King in the Old Days.]




CHAPTER IX

THE NINETIES AND AFTER


Men of to-day who never had an opportunity of seeing Foster Sanford play
will be interested in some anecdotes of his playing days and to read in
another chapter of this book some of his coaching experiences.

"As a boy," said Sandy, "I lived in New Haven. I chalked the lines on
the football field for the game in which Tilly Lamar made his famous run
for Princeton. I played on the college team two years before I entered
Yale. I learned a lot of football playing against Billy Rhodes, that
great Yale tackle.

"I'll tell you about the day I made the Yale team in my freshman year.
Pa Corbin took me in hand. I think he wanted to see if I had lots of
nerve. He told me to report at nine o'clock for practice. He put me
through a hard, grueling work-out, showing me how to snap the ball; how
to charge and body check. All this took place in a driving rain, and he
kept me out until one o'clock, when he said:

"'You can change your jersey now; that is, put on a dry one.'

"I went over to the training table then to see if I couldn't get some
dinner. Believe me, I was hungry. But every one had finished his meal
and all I could pick up was the things that were left. Here I ran into a
fellow named Brennen, who said:

"'They're trying to do you up. This is the day they are deciding whether
you will be center rush or not.'

"I then went out to Yale Field and joined the rest of the players, and
the stunts they put me through that afternoon I will never forget. But I
remembered what Brennen had told me, and it made me play all the harder.
To tell the truth, after practice, I realized that I was so sore I could
hardly put one foot ahead of the other. To make matters worse, the
coaches told me to run in to town, a distance of two miles, while _they_
drove off in a bus. I didn't catch the bus until they were on Park
Street, but I pegged along just the same and beat them in to the gate.
Billy Rhodes and Pa Corbin took care of me and rubbed me down. It seems
as though they rubbed every bit of skin off of me. I was like fire.

"That's the day I made the Yale team.

"I was twenty years old, six feet tall, and weighed about 200 pounds."

When I asked Sandy who gave him the hardest game of his life, he replied
promptly:

"Wharton, of Pennsylvania. He got through me."

Parke Davis' enthusiasm for football is known the country over. From
his experience as a player, as a coach and writer, he has become an
authority. Let us read some of his recollections.

"Years ago there was a high spirited young player at Princeton serving
his novitiate upon the scrub. One day an emergency transferred him for
the first time in his career to the Varsity. The game was against a
small college. This sudden promotion was possible through his fortunate
knowledge of the varsity signals. Upon the first play a fumble occurred.
Our hero seized the ball. A long service upon the scrub had ingrained
him to regard the Princeton Varsity men always as opponents. In the
excitement of the play he became confused, when lo! he leaped into
flight toward the wrong goal. Dashing around Princeton's left end he
reversed his field and crossed over to the right. Phil King, Princeton's
quarterback, was so amazed at the performance that he was too spellbound
to tackle his comrade. Down the backfield the player sped towards his
own goal. Shep Homans, his fullback, took in the impending catastrophe
at a glance and dashed forward, laid the halfback low with a sharp
tackle, thereby preventing a safety. The game was unimportant, the
Princeton's score was large, so the unfortunate player, although the
butt of many a jest, soon survived all jokes and jibes and became in
time a famous player."

"The first Princeton-Yale game in 1873 being played under the old
Association rules was waged with a round ball. In the first scrimmage a
terrific report sounded across the field. When the contending players
had been separated the poor football was found upon the field a
flattened sheet of rubber. Two toes had struck it simultaneously or some
one's huge chest had crushed it and the ball had exploded.

"Whenever men are discussing the frantic enthusiasm of some fellows of
the game I always recall the following episode as a standard of
measurement. The Rules Committee met one night at the Martinique in New
York for their annual winter session. Just as the members were going
upstairs to convene, I had the pleasure of introducing George Foster
Sanford to Fielding H. Yost. The introduction was made in the middle of
the lobby directly in the way of the traffic passing in and out of the
main door. The Rules Committee had gone into its regular session; the
hour was eight o'clock in the evening. When they came down at midnight
these two great football heroes were standing in the very spot where
they were introduced four hours before and they were talking as they had
been every minute throughout the four hours about football. Members of
the Committee joked with the two enthusiasts and then retired. When they
came down stairs the next morning at eight o'clock they found the two
fanatics seated upon a bench nearby still talking football, and that
afternoon when the Committee had finished its labors and had adjourned
_sine die_ they left Sanford and Yost still in the lobby, still on the
bench, hungry and sleepy and still talking football."

This anecdote will be a good one for Parke Davis' friends to read, for
how he ever stayed out of that talk-fest is a mystery--maybe he did.

Now that Yost and Sanford have retired we will let Parke continue.

"A few years ago everybody except Dartmouth men laughed at the football
which, bounding along the ground at Princeton suddenly jumped over the
cross bar and gave to Princeton a goal from the field which carried with
it the victory. But did you ever hear that in the preceding season, in a
game between two Southern Pennsylvania colleges, a ball went awry from a
drop kick, striking in the chest a policeman who had strayed upon the
field? The ball rebounded and cleanly caromed between the goal post for
a goal from the field. Years ago Lafayette and Pennsylvania State
College were waging a close game at Easton. Suddenly, and without being
noticed, Morton F. Jones, Lafayette's famous center-rush in those days,
left the field of play to change his head gear. The ball was snapped in
play and a fleet Penn State halfback broke through Lafayette's line,
and, armed with the ball, dodged the second barriers and threatened by a
dashing sprint to score in the extreme corner of the field. As he
reached the 10-yard line, to the amazement of all, Jones dashed out of
the side line crowd upon the field between the 10-yard line and his
goal, thereby intercepting the State halfback, tackling him so sharply
that the latter dropped the ball. Jones picked it up and ran it back 40
yards. There was no rule at that time which prevented the play, and so
Penn-State ultimately was defeated. Jones not only was a hero, but his
exploit long remained a mystery to many who endeavored to figure out how
he could have been 25 yards ahead of the ball and between the runner and
his own goal line."

A story is told of the wonderful dodging ability of Phil King, Princeton
'93. He was known throughout the football world as one of the shiftiest
runners of his day. Through his efficient work, King had fairly won the
game against Yale in '93. The next year the Yale men made up their minds
that the only way to defeat Princeton was to take care of King, and they
were ever on the alert to watch him whenever he got the ball. The whole
Yale team was looking for King throughout this game.

On the kick-off Phil got the ball, and all the Yale forwards began to
shout, "Here he comes, here he comes," and then as he was cleverly
dodging and evading the Yale players, one of the backs, who was waiting
to tackle him low, was heard to say, "There he goes."

Those of the old-timers who study the picture of the flying wedge on the
opposite page will get a glimpse of Phil King about to set in motion
one of the most devilishly ingenious maneuvers in the history of the
game. With all the formidable power behind him, the old reliables of
what the modern analytical coaches are pleased to term the farce plays.
Balliet, Beef Wheeler, Biffy Lea, Gus Holly, Frank Morse, Doggy
Trenchard, Douglas Ward, Knox Taylor, Harry Brown, Jerry McCauley, and
Jim Blake; King, nevertheless, stood out in lonely eminence, ready to
touch the ball down, await the thunder of the joining lines of
interference and pick up the tremendous pace, either at the apex of the
crashing V or cunningly concealed and swept along to meet the terrific
impact with the waiting line of Blue. Great was the crash thereof, and
it was a safe wager that King with the ball would not go unscathed.

[Illustration: LOOK OUT, PRINCETON!]

This kind of football brought to light the old-time indomitable courage
of which the stalwarts of those days love to talk at every gridiron
reunion.

But for the moment let us give Yale the ball and stand the giant
Princeton team upon defense. Let us watch George Adee get the ball from
Phil Stillman and with his wonderful football genius develop a smashing
play enveloped in a locked line of blue, grim with the menace of Orville
Hickok, Jim McCrea, Anse Beard, Fred Murphy, Frank Hinkey and Jack
Greenway.

Onward these mighty Yale forwards ground their way through the
Princeton defense, making a breach through which the mighty Butterworth,
Bronc Armstrong and Brink Thorne might bring victory to Yale.

This was truly a day when giants clashed.

As you look at these pictures do the players of to-day wonder any longer
that the heroes of the olden time are still loyal to the game of their
first love?

If you ever happen to go to China, I am sure one of the first Americans
you will hear about would be Pop Gailey, once a king of football centers
and now a leader in Y. M. C. A. work in China.

Lafayette first brought Pop Gailey forth in '93 and '94, and he was the
champion All-American center of the Princeton team in '96. He had a
wonderful influence over the men on the team. He was an example well
worth following. His manly spirit was an inspiration to those about him.
After one of the games a newspaper said:

"Old Gailey stands firm as the Eternal Calvinistic Faith, which he
intends to preach when his football scrimmages are over."

To Charlie Young, the present professor of physical instruction of the
Cornell University gymnasium, I cannot pay tribute high enough for the
fine football spirit and the high regard with which we held him while he
was at the Princeton Seminary. He certainly loved to play football and
he used to come out and play on the scrub team against the Princeton
varsity. He was not eligible to play on the Princeton team, as he had
played his allotted time at Cornell.

The excellent practice he gave the Princeton team--yes, more than
practice: it was oftentimes victory for him as well as the scrub. He
made Poe and Palmer ever alert and did much to make them the stars they
were, as Charlie's long suit was running back punts. His head work was
always in evidence. He was a great field general; one of his most
excellent qualities was that of punting. His was an ideal example for
men to follow. Princeton men were the better for having played with and
against a high type man like Charlie Young.


AN EVENING WITH JIM RODGERS

Jim Rodgers gave all there was in him to Yale athletics. Not a single
year has passed since he played his last game of football but has seen
him back at the Yale field, coaching and giving the benefit of his
experience.

Jim Rodgers was captain of the '97 team at New Haven, and the traditions
that can be written about a winning captain are many. No greater
pleasure can be afforded any man who loves to hear an old football
player relate experiences than to listen, while Rodgers tells of his own
playing days, and of some of the men in his experience.

It was once my pleasure to spend an evening with Jim in his home;
really a football home. Mrs. Rodgers knows much of football and as Jim
enthusiastically and with wonderfully keen recollection tells of the old
games, a twelve-year-old boy listens, as only a boy can to his father,
his great hero, and as Jim puts his hand on the boy's shoulders he tells
him the ideal of his dreams is to have him make the Yale team some day,
and an enthusiastic daughter who sits near hopes so too. His scrap books
and athletic pictures go to make a rare collection.

Many of us would like to have seen Jim Rodgers begin his football career
at Andover when he was sixteen years old. It was there that his 180
pounds of bone and muscle stood for much. It was at Andover that Bill
Odlin, that great Dartmouth man, coached so many wonderful prep. school
stars, who later became more famous at the colleges to which they went.

Rodgers went to Yale with a big rep. He had been captain of the Andover
team. In the fall of '92 Andover beat Brown 24 to 0. Jim Rodgers was
very conspicuous on the field, not only on account of his good playing
and muscular appearance, but because his blond hair, which he wore very
long as a protection, was very noticeable.

From this Yale player, whose friends are legion, let us read some
experiences and catch his spirit:

"I was never a star player, but I was a reliable. In my freshman year I
did not make the team, owing to the fact that I had bad knees and better
candidates were available. This was the one year in Yale football,
perhaps in all football, when the team that played the year before came
back to college with not a man missing. Frank Hinkey had been captain
the year before and then came through as senior captain. There was not a
senior on Frank Hinkey's team. The first team, therefore, all came back.

"Al Jerrems and Louis Hinkey were the only additions to the old team.

"Perhaps the keenest disappointment that ever came to me in football was
the fact that I could not play in that famous Yale-Harvard game my
freshman year. However, I came so very near it that Billy Rhodes and
Heffelfinger came around to where I was sitting on the side lines, after
Fred Murphy had been taken out of the game. They started to limber me up
by running me up and down the side line, but Hinkey, the captain, came
over to the side line and yelled for Chadwick, who went into the game. I
had worked myself up into a highly nervous condition anticipating going
in, but now I realized my knees would not allow it. The disappointment
that day, though, was very severe. To show you what a hold these old
games had on me, many years after this game Hinkey and I were talking
about this particular game, when he said to me: 'You never knew how
close you came to getting into that Springfield game, Jim.' Then I told
him of my experience, but he told me he had it in his mind to put me in
at halfback, and ever since then, when I think of it, cold chills run up
and down my spine. It absolutely scared me stiff to think how I might
have lost that game, even though I never actually participated in it.

"The Yale football management, however, on account of my work during the
season decided to give me my Y, gold football and banner. The banner was
a blue flag with the names of the team and the position they played and
the score, 12 to 6. It was a case where I came so near winning it that
they gave it to me."

Jim Rodgers played three years against Garry Cochran and this great
Princeton captain stands out in his recollections of Yale-Princeton
games. He goes on to say:

"If it had not been for Garry Cochran, I might be rated as one of the
big tackles of the football world to-day. I used to dream of him three
weeks before the Princeton game; how I was going to stand him off, and
let me tell you if you got in between Doc Hillebrand and Garry Cochran
you were a sucker. Those games were a nightmare to me. Cochran used to
fall on my foot, box me in and hold me there, and keep me out of the
play."

Jim Rodgers is very modest in this statement. The very reason that he
is regarded as a truly wonderful tackle is on account of the great game
he played against Cochran. How wonderfully reliable he was football
history well records. He was always to be depended upon.

"In the fall of 1897 when I was captain of the Yale team," Rodgers
continues, "perhaps the most spectacular Yale victory was pulled off,
when Princeton, with the exception of perhaps two men, and virtually the
same team that had beaten Yale the year before, came on the field and
through overconfidence or lack of training did not show up to their best
form. We were out for blood that day. I said to Johnny Baird, Princeton
quarterback: 'Princeton is great to-day. We have played ten minutes and
you haven't scored.' Johnny, with a look of determination upon his face,
said, 'You fellows can play ten times ten minutes and you'll never
score,' but the Princeton football hangs in the Yale trophy room.

"I have always claimed that Charlie de Saulles put the Yale '97 team on
the map. Charlie de Saulles, with his three wonderful runs, which
averaged not less than 60 yards each, really brought about the victory.

"Frank Butterworth as head coach will always have my highest regard; he
did more than any one alive could have done to pull off an apparently
impossible victory."

"One great feature of this game was Ad Kelly's series of individual
gains, aided by Hillebrand and Edwards, through Rodgers and Chadwick.
Kelly took the ball for 40 consecutive yards up the field in gains of
from one to three yards each, when fortunately for Yale, a fumble gave
them the ball. When the fumble occurred, I happened at the time to break
through very fast. There lay the ball on the ground, and nobody but
myself near it. The great chance was there to pick it up and perhaps,
even with my slow speed, gain 20 to 30 yards for Yale. No such thought,
however, entered my head. I wanted that ball and curled up around it and
hugged it as a tortoise would close in its shell. My recollection is now
that I sat there for about five minutes before anybody deigned to fall
on me. At all events, I had the ball.

"Gordon Brown played as a freshman on my team. He had a football face
that I liked. He weighed 185 pounds and was 6 feet 4 inches tall. Gordon
went up against Bouve in the Harvard game, and the critics stated that
Bouve was the best guard in the country that year. I said to Gordon,
'Play this fellow the game of his life, and when you get him, let me
know and I'll send some plays through you.' After about sixty minutes of
play Gordon came to me and said, 'Jim, I've got him,' and he had him all
right, for we were then successful in gaining through that part of the
Harvard line. Gordon Brown was a very earnest player. He would allow
nothing to stop him. He got his ears pretty well bruised up and they
bothered him a great deal. In fact, he did have to lay off two or three
days. He came to me and said, 'Do you think this injury will keep me out
of the big game?' 'Well, I'll see if the trainer cannot make a head-gear
for you.' 'Well, I'll tell you this, Jim,' said Gordon, 'I'll have 'em
cut off before I'll stay out of the game.' This amused me, and I said,
'Gordon, you have nothing of beauty to lose. You will keep your ears and
you will play in the big games.'

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.