Read Ebook: The voice in the fog by Leverage Henry

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Ebook has 51 lines and 6489 words, and 2 pages

Chap. Page

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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

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!

FOOTBALL DAYS

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.

We had one of the best preparatory school teams in that locality, but owing to our distance from the larger preparatory schools, we were forced to play Syracuse, Hobart, Hamilton, Rochester, Colgate, and Cazenovia Seminary--all of whom we defeated. We also played against the Syracuse Athletic Association, whose team was composed of professional athletes as well as former college players. Bert Hanson, who had been a great center at Yale, was one of this team.

Recalling the men who played on our St. John's team, I am confident that if all of them had gone to college, most of them would have made the Varsity. In fact, some did.

It was decided that I should go to Lawrenceville School, en route to Princeton. It was on the trip from Trenton to Lawrenceville, in the big stage coach loaded with boys, I got my first dose of homesickness. The prospect of new surroundings made me yearn for St. John's.

The "blue hour" of boyhood, however, is a brief one. I was soon engaged in conversation with a little fellow who was sitting beside me and who began discussing the ever-popular subject of football. He was very inquisitive and wanted to know if I had ever played the game, and if I was going to try for the team.

He told me about the great game Lawrenceville played with the Princeton Varsity the year before, when Lawrenceville scored six points before Princeton realized what they were really up against. He fascinated me by his graphic description. There was a glowing account of the playing of Garry Cochran, the great captain of the Lawrenceville team, who had just graduated and gone to Princeton, together with Sport Armstrong, the giant tackle.

These men were sure to live in Lawrenceville's history if for nothing else than the part they had played in that notable game, although Princeton rallied and won 8 to 6. It was not long before I learned that my newly-made friend was Billy McGibbon, a member of the Lawrenceville baseball team.

"Just wait until you see Charlie de Saulles and Billy Dibble play behind the line," he went on; and from that moment I began to be a part of the new life, the threshold of which I was crossing. Strangely enough the memory of getting settled in my new quarters faded with the eventful moment when the call for candidates came, and I went out with the rest of the boys to try for the team.

Competition was keen and many candidates offered themselves. I was placed on the scrub team. One of my first attempts for supremacy was in the early part of the season when I was placed as right guard of the scrub against Perry Wentz, an old star player of the school and absolutely sure of his position. I recall how on several occasions the first team could not gain as much distance through the second as the men desired, and Wentz, who later on distinguished himself on the Varsity at Princeton and still later as a crack player on Pennsylvania, seemed to have trouble in opening up my position.

Max Rutter, the Lawrenceville captain, with the directness that usually characterizes such officers, called this fact to Wentz's attention. Wentz, who probably felt naturally his pride of football fame, became quite angry at Rutter's remark that he was being outplayed. He took off his nose-guard, threw it on the ground and left the field.

Rutter moved me over to the first team in Wentz's place. That night there was a general upset on the team which was settled amicably, however, and the next day Wentz continued playing in his old place. The position of guard was given to me on the other side of the line, George Cadwalader being moved out to the position of tackle. This was the same Cadwalader who subsequently went to Yale and made a great name for himself on the gridiron, in spite of the fact that he remained at New Haven but one year.

It was here at Lawrenceville that this great player made his reputation as a goal kicker, a fame that was enhanced during his football days at Yale. Max Rutter, the captain of the Lawrenceville team, went to Williams and played on the Varsity, eventually becoming captain there also. Ned Moffat, nephew of Princeton's great Alex Moffat, played end rush.

About this time I began to realize that Billy McGibbon had given me a correct line on Charlie de Saulles and Billy Dibble. These two players worked wonderfully well together, and were an effective scoring machine with the assistance of Doc MacNider and Dave Davis.

During these days at Lawrenceville Owen Johnson gathered the material for those interesting stories in which he used his old schoolmates for the characters. The thin disguise of Doc Macnooder does not, however, conceal Doc MacNider from his old schoolboy friends. The same is true of the slightly changed names of Garry Cochran, Turk Righter, Charlie de Saulles and Billy Dibble.

Charlie de Saulles, after graduation, went to Yale and continued his wonderful, spectacular career on the gridiron. We will spend an afternoon with him on the Yale field later.

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