Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/footballtodaytomwill 
 
FOOTBALL, TODAY AND 
 TOMORROW 
 
 By WILLIAM W. (Bill) ROPER 
 
 Princeton 1902 
 Illustrated from Photographs 
 
 DUFFIELD AND COMPANY 
 New York 
 
 1928 
 
Copyright, 1927, by 
 Duffield & Company 
 Second edition, 1928. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 by The Cornwall Press 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. A Football Classic ...... 3 
 
 II. The Training of a Modern Football 
 
 Team 14 
 
 III. The Quarterback Carries the Mental 
 
 Burden 33 
 
 IV. By Their Plays Ye Shall Know 
 
 Them 58 
 
 V. Between the Halves in a Football 
 
 Game 78 
 
 The Psychology of Football ... 95 
 
 VII. Any Boy Can Be a Football Player . 107 
 
 VIII. The Value of Football 128 
 
 What's Wrong With Professional 
 
 Football? 139 
 
 X. The Modern Game . . , . . , . 155 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The last Harvard-Princeton football game, 
 Bridges, of Princeton, carrying the 
 
 Facing 
 Page 
 
 Beattie, Princeton back, breaking through the 
 
 Chicago line for a clear gain 10 
 
 Walker of Stanford running with the ball. Wei- 
 
 bel of Notre Dame hot after him .... 24 
 
 Dan Caulkins, Princeton's able field general, 
 scoring first touchdown against Yale in 
 1926 game ........... 48 
 
 Stanford-California game, witnessed by 80,000 
 
 people 68 
 
 The Army and Navy struggling in the mud and 
 
 rain of the 1923 game at the Polo grounds 86 
 
 "Red" Grange 104 
 
 What's wrong with Professional Football? . . 142 
 
 McPhail of Dartmouth, aided by perfect inter- 
 ference, ripping off a gain in Harvard 
 game, 1926 ........... 160 
 
 Dixon of California tackled by flying Washing- 
 ton end 174 
 
FOOTBALL 
 Today and Tomorrow 
 
/ 
 
FOOTBALL, TODAY AND 
 TOMORROW 
 
 Chapter I 
 
 A FOOTBALL CLASSIC 
 
 TT was not mere football, that whirlwind finish 
 of Princeton against Chicago in the memo- 
 rable intersectional game of 1922 — something 
 more compelling and blood-stirring; football 
 drama exemplified in the last mad, wild twelve 
 minutes of play which left the spectators limp 
 and voiceless. 
 
 Chicago held a lead of two touchdowns in the 
 final quarter and, to the casual spectator, had 
 the game sewed up tight. Then, like a bolt from 
 the blue, Princeton unleashed a daring, insolent 
 offense into which enough spectacularly thrilling 
 football for twenty games was packed. 
 
 During the first period, the Tigers were weak 
 in spots, brilliant at intervals, but lacking in driv- 
 ing power and a sustained defense. The big 
 Maroon backs battered and tore the Princeton 
 
 3- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 line to shreds. The Easterners fought stub- 
 bornly, but without avail. 
 
 The first time Princeton had ever played in 
 the West, enthusiasm was at a high point when 
 the team reached Chicago the day before the 
 game. Alonzo Stagg, the Chicago coach, and 
 one of the finest sportsmen I have ever met, 
 greeted us at the station, told us arrangements 
 had been made for our squad to practice at the 
 Stadium that afternoon. 
 
 The Princeton players reflected the growing 
 excitement in the game as they wandered over 
 the excellent playing field. I have never seen 
 a better conditioned field — almost as smooth as 
 the putting green of a golf course. The boys 
 were particularly enthusiastic about the springy 
 turf. The backs said it was superb for running. 
 
 Our courteous hosts informed us that every 
 seat had been sold in advance, that forty thou- 
 sand people would be crowded into the stands, 
 with one hundred thousand clamoring for admit- 
 tance. 
 
 "Yes sir," bemoaned the Chicago manager, "I 
 could have sold 200,000 seats. I've never heard 
 of such a demand to see a football game." 
 
 Back at our hotel, where many of the visitors 
 
 4- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 John Thomas, with his brother Harry, and 
 Jim Pyott, ripped the Tiger line wide open and 
 paraded sixty yards in the first quarter for a 
 touchdown. They found our tackles easy marks. 
 
 Swiftly Chicago struck at them again and 
 again in the second quarter — and always with the 
 same result. Again they marched through for a 
 touchdown. So did Princeton — a long, beautiful 
 pass followed by four thrusts at the line and one 
 of our backs tumbled over the goal line for our 
 first blood. 
 
 In the third quarter, the Chicago backs 
 ploughed and hammered their way through for 
 a third touchdown. Still the Princeton team 
 strove valiantly but in vain to turn back the 
 Maroon tide which rolled against them. 
 
 With the western sun slanted across the 
 Stadium, and the score 18-7 against them, the 
 Tigers were still fighting back, courageous as 
 before, unconvinced that defeat had overtaken 
 them, hoping somehow, to break clear of the re- 
 lentless Chicago defense and retrieve the day as 
 Princeton teams had done on many another field. 
 
 After all, Princeton could not well afford to 
 lose to Chicago. This was listed as the last inter- 
 sectional game for some time and there was at 
 6. 
 
A Football Classic 
 
 had obtained rooms, the old colored waiter at our 
 table commented: 
 
 "Boss," he said, wide-eyed, "Ah ain't seen so 
 much excitement in Chicago since Coln'l Roose- 
 velt brought his Progressive Party out here !" 
 
 As the time for the game approached, excite- 
 ment was at a fever heat yet for all that, the 
 spirit of friendship between the two teams and 
 their supporters was never lost. While the win- 
 ning of the game was a vital thing a spirit of 
 friendly rivalry was manifested in the attitude 
 of the two teams on the field. 
 
 Chicago was about to match brain and brawn 
 with Princeton. The West would tourney with 
 the East in a test of skill and courage. To every 
 Princeton player this invasion into a far country 
 was an adventure colored with romance. 
 
 The game had no more than begun when we 
 realized that our Princeton eleven had never 
 battered itself against a forward line like Stagg's 
 Maroon phalanx. It was massive and yet 
 mobile. 
 
 Against it the initial assaults of our backs were 
 futile. We gained very little ground while the 
 powerful Maroon backs, when they swung into 
 action, moved as one man, with the Princeton 
 line reeling before them. 
 
 5- 
 
A Football Classic 
 
 stake the supremacy of the East or West on the 
 white-ribbed gridiron. 
 
 This extraordinary Princeton team, which was 
 never to know defeat and magnificent in the role 
 of an underdog, felt no trepidation in undertak- 
 ing the daring, hair-raising plan of attack filter- 
 ing through the mind of Johnny Gorman, the 
 alert little quarterback. 
 
 The fighting spirit of the Tigers was superb. 
 Every man was imbued with the idea of doing 
 something for Princeton and not for self. This 
 spirit is something I have always tried to incul- 
 cate and I honestly believe it has much to do with 
 winning football. 
 
 Just that morning, at a coaches meeting, we 
 decided to change our lineup, substituting 
 Charlie Caldwell for Harvey Emery at full back 
 and saving Emery for reserve work. I thought 
 it fair to tell Emery and when I did he gave me 
 an answer which I will never forget. 
 
 "I think you are right," he said. "I believe 
 Caldwell is the man to start. He has been going 
 much better than I have." 
 
 This incident exemplified the feeling of every 
 player and showed their willingness to sink one's 
 individuality for the good of the team. It made 
 little difference that day to any man who started ; 
 
 7- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 everyone was interested in winning from Chi- 
 cago. 
 
 Up in the stands, we all knew, were a multi- 
 tude of Princeton supporters, filling the aisles 
 like a swirling tide, flowing over the terraced 
 rows of seats, crowding down to the field in their 
 determination to lend vocal and moral support 
 to the Tigers. 
 
 Gray-haired Princeton alumni with their 
 families who had waited many years to see the 
 Orange and Black play in the West. . . . 
 Younger alumni settled in the great open 
 country who had travelled miles to see their 
 alma mater triumph over a powerful western 
 team. . . . Mothers, fathers and sweethearts of 
 the men down on the field caught up in the whirl 
 of big game excitement. 
 
 Mr. Gray, president of the Union Pacific 
 Railroad, had called off a Board of Directors 
 meeting scheduled for that afternoon in Chicago 
 in order to see his son, Howard, the Princeton 
 end, play against a heralded Chicago team. So 
 far, he didn't have an entirely pleasant time of 
 it with the score 18-7. 
 
 But wait! 
 
 Pyott, the Chicago back, opened the last 
 quarter with a smart fifteen yard run. Prince- 
 8. 
 
A Football Classic 
 
 ton stiffened on her own forty yard line and 
 Chicago kicked. Johnny Gorman, who played 
 a remarkable game all afternoon, caught the 
 pigskin and attempted a daring back pass to 
 Jack Cleaves, who was posted wide, but the pass 
 was thrown forward, making it illegal, and 
 Princeton was set back to her two yard line on 
 a fifteen yard penalty. 
 
 There was little hope for the Tiger in this sit- 
 uation. The end of the game was not far off and 
 it was a time for desperate methods. From the 
 sidelines I could see Gorman holding a hurried 
 conference with Cleaves, the oldest and strongest 
 man in our back field. The only member of the 
 team who played against Chicago the year pre- 
 vious in the Palmer Stadium when we were de- 
 feated 10-0. 
 
 I remembered that Gorman and Cleaves had 
 played many years of football together. They 
 were the closest of friends, had gone through 
 Mercersburg together, and in their school days 
 had perfected many plays on their own initiative 
 which dazzled their opponents. 
 
 Knowing this, and seeing no chance for 
 Princeton in straight football, I hoped when they 
 lined up they were going to try something out of 
 the beaten path. 
 
 9- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Gorman called for a kick formation. Cleaves 
 dropped back as if to punt while the Chicago 
 forwards strained at their mark to get through, 
 block the kick and score another touchdown. 
 
 The ball was passed to Cleaves, standing be- 
 hind our own goal posts. But instead of kicking 
 Cleaves hurled a long forward pass into the out- 
 stretched arms of little Johnny Gorman, who 
 was running at top speed down the field. Ma- 
 roon jerseys crowded in on him, overtook him 
 and Gorman crashed to earth at midfield. The 
 little fellow was so badly shaken up he had to 
 leave the game. Princeton supporters were 
 lifted to their feet and familiar Tiger cheers 
 rolled down on the wearied players. 
 
 Then the tide turned swiftly. Princeton got 
 her long expected break and knew what to do 
 with it. Chicago next got the ball on her own 
 forty-two yard line, when Princeton was forced 
 to kick. King, their center, was injured and 
 Dawson took his place. On the first play he 
 passed inaccurately to Zorn, the ball hitting him 
 on the knee and bounced into the eager, out- 
 stretched arms of Howdy Gray, the Princeton 
 end, who, without having to check or swerve to 
 take it, was up and away and never stopped until 
 he crossed the Chicago goal line, 
 10. 
 
A Football Classic 
 
 The score was 18-14 with six minutes of play. 
 The fumble and touchdown was enough for 
 Princeton. I have always taught my boys to 
 play for the breaks, to fight hardest and think 
 quickly when the break comes, to hammer away 
 and sweep the opposition off their feet before 
 they know what it's all about. 
 
 The Princeton team siezed their opportunity 
 and rose to their greatest heights. Chicago had 
 elected to kick. When we received the ball, Win- 
 gate, then playing quarterback for Princeton, 
 had already put a fire and dash into his signal 
 calling which inspired the players and carried 
 them on with tremendous confidence. 
 
 Down the field they marched, steadily, tri- 
 umphantly, with a brand of attack that was ver- 
 satile, resourceful and inspiring. The Chicago 
 team cracked. They seemed to lack their 
 former power and resistence as our backs shot 
 past them and through them and around them. 
 Princeton played magnificent football without 
 the semblance of a mistake and in a series of 
 brilliant dashes gained sixty yards. 
 
 The ball was on the four yard line and it was 
 the fourth down. A few minutes of play re- 
 mained. Here was our chance to put over the 
 winning touchdown. Crum, a reserve halfback, 
 
 n. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 sitting on the bench and carried away by the 
 spirit displayed by the men on the field, grabbed 
 my arm. 
 
 "Listen, Bill," he begged, "I can score this 
 touchdown! Put me in there. Please!" 
 "Go ahead." 
 
 Crum raced out on the field and on the next 
 play his burley form knifed through the Maroon 
 defense for the touchdown. Score 21-18, with 
 Princeton leading. 
 
 Three minutes of play remained. Chicago, in 
 the shadow of defeat, showed a flash of its former 
 power and cut loose with a nerve-racking series 
 of brilliantly executed passes, intermingled with 
 line plays which swept through the Princeton 
 team and placed the ball on the one yard line in 
 two minutes and thirty seconds of play. 
 
 On this sweep the Chicago team completed 
 four forward passes, the last one, Pyott to Stroh- 
 meir, for twenty-two yards. Then with the ball 
 in the shadow of the Princeton goal, they sud- 
 denly changed the tactics of their irresistable at- 
 tack and used a drive at the center of our line. 
 
 Here was the ball on our one yard line, thirty 
 seconds to play, the fourth down, and the inter- 
 sectional game at stake. 
 
 Princeton made a last, gallant stand. Into 
 
 12. 
 
A Football Classic 
 
 the massed Tiger defense plunged John Thomas. 
 Princeton defended magnificently. The great 
 Maroon back hit his head against a stonewall. 
 It was our ball! 
 
 Cleaves punted out of danger and then the 
 game ended with everyone ragged and nerveless 
 from excitement. First to congratulate us was 
 Alonzo Stagg. His voice seemed hoarse with 
 fatigue — and so was mine. It was the most 
 thrilling, the most spectacular game of football 
 I have ever seen or ever hope to see again. 
 
 *3- 
 
Chapter II 
 
 THE TRAINING OF & MODERN 
 FOOTBALL TEAM 
 
 npHE Princeton eleven which defeated Chi- 
 cago and then surprised the football world 
 by winning from Yale and Harvard in 1922, 
 was selected, trained and developed to meet the 
 changed requirements of the modern game. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago, when I played foot- 
 ball, the development and selection of the varsity 
 was largely a survival of the toughest, the big- 
 gest and strongest men. 
 
 Today the fastest, the brainiest and best con- 
 ditioned players make up the eleven. In my day 
 emphasis was on weight and strength; today it 
 is on speed and brains. 
 
 Just how far we have advanced in the training 
 of a modern football team is illustrated by a 
 comparison with the methods employed a quarter 
 of a century ago. 
 
 There was a very common error in the old days 
 that football was merely a survival of the tough- 
 
 14. 
 
Training a Modern Team 
 
 est, in that the idea of the hardening process of 
 the early season consisted mainly of encouraging 
 severe bodily tests which were supposed to elimi- 
 nate the weaker candidates and strengthen the 
 more rugged. They accomplished the first half 
 of their aim very thoroughly and a week or two 
 of practice used to be enough to drive all the 
 light men to the sidelines or infirmary, along 
 with a fair percentage of the .heavy fellows. 
 
 This practice was less fatal in those days when 
 every coach had to get weight, and a fast light 
 man had to be extraordinarily good to get much 
 consideration, even if he managed to survive the 
 clashes of those opening scrimmages. 
 
 The modern game needs faster men than did 
 the old, and the early work must be planned so 
 that none of them shall be hurt or slowed up by 
 any needless accident. 
 
 Some coaches believe in an extended prelimi- 
 nary season lasting at least a month. They be- 
 lieve it necessary to enable the players to get into 
 shape under expert supervision. Several colleges 
 have established training camps where the entire 
 squad spends several weeks before the opening 
 of the season. 
 
 The Princeton- Yale and the Western Confer- 
 ence agreements provide that football practice 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 shall not Start until September 15th, Per- 
 sonally, I do not believe in a long preliminary- 
 season. Unless the practice sessions are held in 
 a particularly invigorating climate the first two 
 weeks of September are apt to be the hottest of 
 the entire summer. Nothing takes the life out of 
 a football player more than the heat. Football 
 was never intended to be a hot-weather game. 
 
 Again, college athletics should be confined as 
 much as possible to the periods during which 
 college is actually in session. Gathering to- 
 gether a squad of fifty or sixty prospective foot- 
 ball candidates in mid-summer cannot but create 
 a wrong impression in the minds of the players 
 and public. This practice often works a real 
 hardship on the players themselves. A great 
 many of them depend on working at jobs during 
 the summer months and need every penny they 
 can earn to pay part of their college expenses. 
 
 I do not mean to minimize the importance of 
 physical condition for, after all, if the football 
 candidate does not keep in shape during the 
 summer months he will be of little use in the fall. 
 But surely the game holds sufficient appeal to 
 let the players take care of themselves. 
 
 Physical condition wins more football games 
 than any single factor. I should much prefer to 
 
 16. 
 
Training a Modern Team 
 
 see a team go into the big games on its toes 
 mentally and physically, even if it did so at the 
 expense of some lack of football knowledge. 
 
 One of the greatest football teams in the his- 
 tory of Princeton, if not the greatest, rose to 
 the supreme heights of glory, not so much on 
 superior individual ability but because of superb 
 physical condition maintained throughout the 
 season. 
 
 Only one man on the squad of that great 1925 
 team was handicapped by injuries. Charlie 
 Weeks, a substitute, slipped and fell during prac- 
 tice on a rainy afternoon and sprained his ankle. 
 
 The modern football team puts in sixty-four 
 hours of actual football practice during the 
 season; two hours a day for four days a week 
 over approximately eight weeks. The coaches 
 have to make every minute count to get the best 
 results. 
 
 It is a stark impossibility to develop any foot- 
 ball squad to the high degree of efficiency neces- 
 sary to compete successfully in the present 
 modern game unless every member of the squad 
 starts the season in first class physical condition. 
 
 Because the members of the 1925 squad re- 
 ported in splendid condition, they outdid them- 
 
 *7- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 selves all season. They romped through a splen- 
 did Yale team for a 25-12 score and defeated 
 Harvard 36-0. 
 
 Football is a hard, rough game, and you must 
 be in first class physical condition to play it 
 safely. 
 
 A month before our training season started 
 we wrote to each player, asking him to stop 
 smoking, to be in bed at half-past ten every 
 night, not to eat between meals, to go through 
 setting up exercises morning and evening, and 
 to do some sprints and running each day. The 
 players did as we asked — we use the honor 
 system of training at Princeton — and they re- 
 ported in excellent shape. After they reported 
 we didn't ask them to do anything the coaches' 
 wouldn't do. We trained with the men. 
 
 During the first days of practice the men re- 
 ceived a thorough training in grass drills, that is, 
 falling on the ground from all angles to aid the 
 blood circulation and harden the muscles. 
 
 There was no falling on the ball — one of the 
 commonest methods of hardening men in the old 
 days and stubbornly clung to even in this en- 
 lightened day. When I played football every 
 team in the country spent more of its first few 
 days in this particular exercise than anything 
 
 18. 
 
Training a Modern Team 
 
 else. One reason for it probably lay in the beau- 
 tiful ease with which any volunteer coach with 
 a leathern lung and an uninventive brain, could 
 put the neophyte through it, bawling lustily at 
 him as his tender-skinned body slid over the rasp- 
 ing turf. Perhaps it was fun, too, for those who 
 didn't have to do it. It amused the bleachers to 
 see the antics of the beginners, and there was 
 some pleasure in it for those who could cover the 
 ball like a hen and a lonesome chicken, but I 
 can see no other excuse for it, then or now. 
 
 At best, this falling on the ball is a useless 
 practice and a feat which was never good foot- 
 ball and is now so directly opposed to sound 
 tactics that it is almost comic. At its worst, it 
 is among the most dangerous forms of early 
 season training. Very few men came through 
 it without losing large areas of skin and acquir- 
 ing choice collections of blue bruises where 
 those bruises hurt most. For that matter its 
 damage was not confined to the early season. I 
 remember vividly the tense minutes before one 
 of the Yale-Princeton games when the set 
 custom called for each team to indulge in an ex- 
 hibition of its prowess at this art of falling on 
 the ball while the packed stand thundered with 
 applause. They were beautiful acrobatics, too, 
 
 19. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 and on this occasion one of the best men on the 
 Princeton team, making a particularly vicious 
 stab at a rolling ball, got up with a broken collar 
 bone and proceeded to watch his team from the 
 sidelines while it took a sound licking, perhaps 
 for the want of him. 
 
 I may as well confess that it took me twenty- 
 five years to see the light and this came near cost- 
 ing me the services of a very necessary player for 
 the whole of the 1919 season, who dislocated his 
 shoulder — and it wasn't a paper-weight shoulder 
 either — by trying to fall on the ball under my 
 personal direction. This settled the matter for 
 me, but if I had needed any final persuasion I 
 got it later, when I watched three team mates 
 struggling among themselves to fall on a ball in 
 a certain big game with no opponent anywhere 
 near and a clear field to the goal before them. 
 Any one of those men could have counted three 
 and then picked up the ball and scored with it. 
 
 This subject of falling on the ball deserves an 
 excursion from the main theme and I mean to 
 hammer it home. I remember that Herman 
 Suter ran ninety-five yards against Harvard in 
 1895, with a ball on which he had conspicuously 
 refrained from falling; that Arthur Poe scored 
 the winning touchdown against Yale in 1898 
 
 20. 
 
Training a Modern Team 
 
 under the same circumstances; that John De 
 Witt repeated the performance, also against 
 Yale, in 1903, and that Ed. Booth did it again in 
 1907 and Sam White against both Yale and 
 Harvard in 1911, while Scheerer's run is still 
 talked about — and in this book there is the story 
 of Howdy Gray picking up a fumble out in Chi- 
 cago and running for a touchdown which changed 
 the whole psychology of the Princeton team. 
 
 And I can recall falling on a ball myself, in 
 the Yale-Princeton game of 1899, which luckily 
 did not cost us the game because we were able to 
 gain twenty-five yards afterwards and Arthur 
 Poe was equal to the emergency with his field- 
 goal in the last minute of play. This particular 
 instance is particularly vivid because I could 
 have picked up the ball more easily than I fell 
 on it and I could certainly have made those 
 twenty-five yards and perhaps a touchdown. 
 
 I distinctly remember that as I lay on the ball 
 it seemed to be a full minute at least before any- 
 body dropped on me. Probably it was only a 
 few seconds in actual fact. 
 
 Very strongly am I against this falling on the 
 ball in early season practice when there is so 
 much more important work to be accomplished. 
 
 21. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Running can be beautifully combined with 
 other drill which is interesting in itself and highly- 
 necessary in the development of the team. 
 
 I know of no more important practice than 
 passing and catching the ball. It is mighty good 
 fun, too. We have the backs and ends lined up 
 in two squads with a passer on each side. At the 
 very start of our work a rivalry is stirred up be- 
 tween the opposing squads by keeping an ac- 
 curate count of the missed passes by each player. 
 Everyone tries to get through this practice with- 
 out missing a thrown pass. 
 
 The pass receiver must be shown how to catch 
 the ball, with arms relaxed at the elbows. He 
 should never fight the ball, but give with it in the 
 manner of a baseball fielder catching a high fly. 
 Pick out a passer who can hurl a soft ball. They 
 are twice as easy to catch. The pass receiver 
 should never run at full speed the entire route. 
 He should be taught to save for the final burst 
 of speed in the last few yards. The passer should 
 be instructed to throw the ball a trifle ahead of 
 the receiver. 
 
 This running and catching of the ball is real 
 sport, as is the catching of punts and running 
 them back. The whole squad can indulge in this 
 practice of charging down toward the catcher, 
 
 22. 
 
Training a Modem Team 
 
 without, of course, attempting a tackle at this 
 stage of the work. 
 
 We spend a half an hour a day catching 
 passes. This practice is held every day of the 
 season and as a result the players seldom if ever 
 muff a pass in a game. 
 
 In the early days of training, the backfield and 
 linemen are separated and later moulded to- 
 gether as a team, after they have mastered the 
 fundamentals of their position. 
 
 The first scrimmage of the 1925 team was held 
 two weeks after the training season started. 
 Each man stayed in the game for about ten 
 minutes. It was in warm, October weather and 
 the men perspired freely. Few men, I have 
 found, are injured when they are properly 
 warmed up. 
 
 There were only two scrimmages before the 
 first game. A few plays had been perfected and 
 used in these early scrimmages. At the same 
 time the coaches were weeding out the men until 
 a squad of thirty-three men composed the varsity 
 squad. Many of the men who were dropped 
 were assigned to an assistant coach who spent 
 the entire fall teaching them the fundamentals, 
 such as passing, kicking, drop-kicking and pick- 
 ing up the ball. 
 
 23. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Several of the men dropped were just as good 
 football players as those retained but they were 
 not in such splendid physical condition and could 
 not compete with the flaming spirits who had 
 whipped themselves into shape earlier in the 
 year. The dropping of these poorly conditioned 
 men lessened the probability of injuries on the 
 varsity squad. 
 
 As the season progressed, we concentrated 
 more than ever on the varsity team, having, 
 usually, one day of scrimmage a week until mid- 
 season; then one week with two days of scrim- 
 mage ; then one day a week until toward the end 
 of the season, when we may or may not have a 
 week with two days of scrimmage. 
 
 Scrimmaging is often overdone, and more 
 teams are overworked than underworked. The 
 worst fault a coach can be guilty of is working 
 his men to death. 
 
 The highly successful Brown eleven of 1926, 
 I have heard, scarcely, if ever, scrimmaged dur- 
 ing the middle or toward the end of the season. 
 And Notre Dame is said to scrimmage not more 
 than one day a week during the playing season. 
 
 A team is not brought up to a final point of 
 perfection until the end of the season. A general 
 let down is permitted before the final spurt. At 
 
 24. 
 
Training a Modern Team 
 
 Princeton this let down comes two weeks before 
 the big games of the year. The squad is given 
 two full days of rest and told to get their minds 
 off the game. This short vacation works wonders 
 with the men for the strain of daily football is 
 beginning to tell and some are liable to get "fed 
 up" on the sport. 
 
 Monday is the easiest day of the week. We 
 review the game of the previous Saturday and 
 point out our mistakes. Then the players do a 
 little limbering-up work. Tuesday is devoted to 
 hard individual work and to signal practice. 
 Wednesday is scrimmage day. There is warm- 
 ing-up work and a half hour of scrimmage. 
 Thursday is devoted to polishing up individual 
 work and correcting faults noted in scrimmage. 
 There also is a long signal drill. Friday is an- 
 other easy day — just light work lasting not more 
 than an hour. 
 
 About the middle of each season we have a 
 week of hard, hammer-and-tongs, blood-and-iron 
 scrimmage work in which players often win their 
 positions. It is in this week that a winning foot- 
 ball team is sometimes made. 
 
 The weight of our players is watched very 
 closely. Each man is weighed every day, and 
 a record kept. There is something wrong if, by 
 
 25. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Monday or Tuesday, a player has not regained 
 the weight lost in Saturday's game. 
 
 The trainer of a football team is a very im- 
 portant cog in the machine. We are very for- 
 tunate at Princeton in having one of the best 
 conditioners of men in the country — Keene Fitz- 
 patrick. 
 
 When a fine player is carried to the sidelines 
 injured it is indeed a relief to know that he will 
 get the best possible care and attention. 
 
 The rights of the trainer are to be respected. 
 I remember many instances in the old days when 
 it had been solemnly agreed between the coach 
 and trainer that a time limit should be set on the 
 days's practice. Not infrequently the coach 
 overruled the trainer's call for time, to put "just 
 five more minutes" on some individual play he 
 wanted to perfect. These five minutes were 
 nearly always costly, for it is a provable fact 
 that men are hurt far more easily when they are 
 tired than when they are fresh. Time after time 
 these few extra minutes of scrimmage cost teams 
 the services of their most valuable men. 
 
 Often the observing eye of Fitzpatrick has 
 detected the drawn faces and lagging step of a 
 wearied player. Immediately, after consulting 
 one of the coaches, Keene approached the man. 
 
 26. 
 
Training a Modern Team 
 
 "Better take the rest of the afternoon off. Get 
 under the showers and make sure you get a good 
 night's rest. Not less than nine hours," and an- 
 other probable football injury was averted. 
 
 The old custom of football players appearing 
 on the field under a mass of padding is now be- 
 coming obsolete. Of course the men are heavily 
 padded in the early season practice before the 
 muscles are hardened, but as the season pro- 
 gresses, the excess padding is removed and dis- 
 carded. Pads retard speed, and speed is king in 
 modern football. 
 
 Princeton teams of today go into the big games 
 with practically no padding, except on the 
 shoulders. At that stage of development the men 
 should be so conditioned that the only time they 
 are subject to injury is when they are hit very 
 hard while they are in motion. The slight bruises 
 body pads would prevent are not enough to 
 justify their use. 
 
 The difference between the old and new type 
 of football affects almost every detail of training 
 routine, even down to the diet of the players. 
 The old idea was to feed the players red meat 
 and all they could swallow of it. The best 
 modern methods agree that the right diet is the 
 wholesome, moderate, well-balanced rations $o 
 
 27. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 which the men are or should be accustomed the 
 year around. Today there is none of the old 
 craze for putting on weight at the expense of 
 overburdening even a boy's capacity for di- 
 gestion. 
 
 I'm not a crank on diet. Our players eat ac- 
 customed, healthful food, but we ask them to 
 eat slowly and not to overeat. We also have 
 them lie down for a half hour before dinner, and 
 find that it does them good. Keene Fitzpatrick 
 suggested that each man eat an apple every day, 
 that the one big meal of the day be in the evening, 
 an hour at least after the close of practice; that 
 coffee, which stimulates the heart action, be re- 
 placed by tea as a beverage. 
 
 It appals me to see the way some teams are 
 stuffed with food an hour or so before they are 
 sent out on the field. 
 
 Modern college laws have required a little 
 more from the athlete than from the other stu- 
 dent, both as regards his conduct and study. The 
 athlete, even where faculty control is conspicu- 
 ously benevolent, is always under observation 
 and usually under suspicion. He is something 
 like the minister's son in that when he slips every- 
 body knows it and many people gladly say: "I 
 told you so." The athlete cannot play unless he 
 
 28. 
 
Training a Modern Team 
 
 keeps out of trouble and is listed well up in his 
 class. He is required to keep his body and mind 
 clean not only for the limited period of football 
 season, but the year around. 
 
 There is one phase of the training of a modern 
 football team which I believe should be abolished 
 — Spring practice. During the past three years 
 we have experimented with it and have found 
 the benefits of such training so insignificant in 
 comparison with the obvious disadvantages that 
 I believe it will soon be abandoned. 
 
 Football is an autumnal sport. It should be 
 restricted to the fall. In the spring the men of 
 varsity calibre are usually engaged in another 
 form of sport — baseball, track, lacrosse or crew. 
 At best, spring training is a haphazard, un- 
 organized affair. Scrimmage for us is impossible 
 and the probability of severe injuries not worth 
 the risk. 
 
 Conditions vary in the different institutions, 
 however. At Notre Dame, I am told, Knute 
 Rockne holds an extended session of six weeks' 
 duration and in this spring workout manages to 
 get in a lot of scrimmage work. "Hurry Up" 
 Yost devotes considerable time to spring prac- 
 tice at Michigan. He stresses passing and kick- 
 
 29. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 ing with a long drill on fundamentals. But 
 scrimmage is rarely attempted. 
 
 This past spring we supplemented our spring 
 work with a course in running. Keene Fitz- 
 patrick, our trainer, directed this work three days 
 a week. Apparently we have gotten more good 
 out of this running exercise than any other train- 
 ing outside the regular football season. 
 
 It is remarkable how few boys really know 
 how to run. And running is the basis of football. 
 Today the game is first and last a test of speed. 
 Last fall I had on the squad three men who were 
 positively slow of foot. Keene Fitzpatrick took 
 them in charge this past winter and spring, 
 worked with them, and speeded the men up to 
 a marked degree. In fact you wouldn't know 
 they were the same players. 
 
 Spring practice, in my mind, is not a good 
 thing for football. It tends to over-emphasize 
 the game, takes much of the fun out of it for 
 the players by making it a grind, and as a method 
 of whipping a team into shape it is unsatis- 
 factory. All a coach can do is to size up his 
 squad, make some tentative plans for the coming 
 season and get acquainted with the new men. 
 
 Football is no game for weaklings. It re- 
 quires spartanlike training. The hard, aggres- 
 
 30- 
 
Training a Modern Team 
 
 sive modern game demands that we drive the 
 boys pretty hard during the limited grind of the 
 season. But no matter how hard we work them, 
 no more than two hours of football is permitted 
 in one day. That's one football rule to which 
 there is no exception. We do all our football 
 playing down on the field and forget it on enter- 
 ing the training house. 
 
 If I chance to meet a player downtown, I 
 don't call him down for a punt he fumbled that 
 afternoon, or put him through an examination 
 on football tactics. The idea of having your 
 men eat, sleep and talk football might work — 
 but not at Princeton. 
 
 Football is merely a healthy form of recreation 
 indulged in by the men engaged in securing a 
 college education. It takes two hours of their 
 day, a day filled with the one hundred and one 
 demands on the modern undergraduate from the 
 social and scholastic side of college life. The 
 present popularity of football, we believe, is de- 
 served, but rather than have the players get a 
 distorted idea of the importance of the game, we 
 would have them forget it after leaving the field. 
 
 I've read a lot about football players who hate 
 the game, but as far as I know we've never had 
 one of them at Princeton. I shall make no at- 
 
 3 1 - 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 tempt to deny that there are some parts of the 
 training and practice which are tedious and dis- 
 agreeable, yet the healthy competitive spirit of 
 the game, the companionship and association, as 
 well as the thrill of the game itself far transcend 
 any of its unpleasant features. I think there are 
 boys who revel in football and who, when the 
 season is over, feel badly about it. In fact, I 
 think most of the players are really sorry when 
 the season is over. 
 
 3*. 
 
Chapter III 
 
 THE QUARTERBACK CARRIES THE 
 MENTAL BURDEN 
 
 POINDING the right player for the position 
 of quarterback, and teaching him general- 
 ship, is the most difficult job I have to tackle in 
 most seasons. 
 
 After twenty-five years of observing football 
 players, I have listed several qualities, which, 
 blended together, make the ideal quarterback. 
 
 He must have courage and brains. He must 
 be able to think fast and straight. He must have 
 initiative and lots of it. According to the dic- 
 tionary, initiative is the first move ; the power of 
 initiating; ability for original conception and in- 
 dependent action. 
 
 And the quarterback must have a stirring, 
 ringing voice that has the same quality as music 
 to the dancer; it is the life blood of a football 
 team. 
 
 Mai Logan, the Harvard quarterback, had 
 this compelling quality in his voice. "As we 
 
 33- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 reached midfleld," said Tacks Hardwick, "Lo- 
 gan's voice in calling signals sounded at a steady, 
 even beat. It was like the smooth hum of a 
 motor. But as we came within striking distance 
 of the goal it suddenly turned to a sharp, staccato 
 effect, where one could feel the hair lifting along 
 the back of the head. Logan's voice at this point 
 was a big factor in fairly driving the team for- 
 ward. It had an inspirational effect beyond all 
 belief." 
 
 A real quarterback must possess brains, 
 courage, initiative and a compelling voice. 
 Blessed indeed is the coach who is alloted such a 
 man in his football squad. 
 
 Dan Caulkins, the Princeton quarterback, was 
 such a jewel. In 1926 the Princeton eleven 
 stumbled along through a disasterous midseason 
 with Caulkins nursing a charley horse on the 
 sidelines. The team lacked the spark, the driving 
 power, so important to winning football. 
 
 Then Caulkins went back into the game. Cool, 
 confident, with a ringing voice, he had the effect 
 of a new spark plug to a faltering motor. The 
 voice of Caulkins carried them forward with the 
 smoothness and precision of a well-timed ma- 
 chine. He had leadership; and more than one 
 player confided to me that the mere presence of 
 
 34- 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 Caulkins on the field made all the difference in 
 the world. They played better than they knew. 
 
 A quarterback lacking a crisp, staccato voice 
 is at a big disadvantage. A steady dull intonation 
 cuts heavily upon the morale of the team. Ecker- 
 sall of Chicago had a magnetic voice, as did Don 
 Lourie and Wingate of Princeton. And Stuhl- 
 dreher, of Notre Dame had an inspiring voice as 
 well as brains, courage, coolness, speed, stamina 
 and leadership. So did Richeson, of Yale. 
 
 There is one thing that every coach should 
 make plain to every member of his team — the 
 quarterback is the boss of strategy of the team 
 on the field. No other player has a right to in- 
 terfere with him. That includes the captain. 
 His job is to keep up the team's fighting morale 
 — not to tell the quarterback what plays to use. 
 
 Many football fans seem to have gotten a mis- 
 taken impression of the huddle system. When 
 it was introduced at Princeton a sports writer 
 in New York wrote several clever stories about 
 the Princeton team going into conference. They 
 were entertaining, but not true. There is no con- 
 ference. The quarterback gives the orders, and 
 the other players are not permitted to butt in. 
 
 I've seen more than one game lost through the 
 interference of other players with the quarter- 
 
 35- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 back. One of the most important games played 
 two years ago ended in a tie because three juniors 
 in the backfield "rode" the sophomore quarter- 
 back until he didn't know whether he was play- 
 ing football or golf. The final whistle blew while 
 the three juniors were arguing over which scor- 
 ing play to use. Some years ago we had a 
 similar experience here at Princeton. The 
 quarterback did not order a kick on fourth down 
 with a half yard to go because the captain — a 
 lineman — told him to put the play over him and 
 it would go. The quarterback did as he was told, 
 but the play didn't go, and we lost n chance to 
 score. 
 
 Every man on the team should believe 
 thoroughly in the quarterback. The coach should 
 try to build up in the minds of the other players 
 the idea that he is infallible. He should never 
 bawl him out on the field before the other 
 players. I remember very vividly seeing a 
 promising quarterback ruined by the constant 
 yelping of an assistant coach. Only one coach 
 should be permitted to give the quarterback in- 
 struction. 
 
 A coach hasn't time to teach generalship to 
 the entire team, but he must make time to teach 
 it to his quarterback. There are several methods. 
 
 36. 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 One is to make the quarterback learn a lot of 
 rules, and then hope that he will apply them cor- 
 rectly in the big games. I don't believe in this 
 method. I'd rather try to teach my quarterback 
 to think football. It is absolutely essential that 
 the coach "sell" his conception of strategy to his 
 quarterback. I've seen quarterbacks — whose at- 
 titude always was; "Oh, well, he said to do it, 
 so I'll have to, but my way is better!" 
 
 A field general who feels that way about the 
 brand of generalship that he is using isn't going 
 to get much pep into his work or out of his team. 
 So I try to convince my quarterback that I am 
 right. When he doesn't agree with me I argue 
 with him, as one football player with another, 
 and try to prove to him that he is wrong 
 
 You can teach generalship indoors with a 
 blackboard and a piece of chalk, or with checkers 
 on a table, but I think that the best place of all to 
 teach it is right out on the playing field. I try 
 to get my quarterback out there with me for a 
 half hour or so every day. My method is similar 
 to the "case system" in law. 
 
 For instance, we'll be walking down the field. 
 Pretty soon I'll stop and say: "You've got the 
 ball here on Yale's thirty yard line. It's third 
 down, and you have five yards to go. There has 
 
 37- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 been no score, and just three minutes of play. 
 What are you going to do?" 
 
 If the quarterback answers with the right play, 
 we go on to something else. If he calls the wrong 
 play, in my mind, we stay right there and talk 
 it over until I think that I've convinced him that 
 he is wrong. 
 
 Quarterbacks with speed and at least a normal 
 share of brains are not hard to find. Quarter- 
 backs with courage are plentiful. Quarterbacks 
 with initiative are rare. The average signal 
 caller is inclined to work by standard methods, 
 to follow a set pattern. There are not enough 
 of them with the ability to strike at the unex- 
 pected sectors in an unexpected way at an unex- 
 pected time. And this is reasonable enough, con- 
 sidering the burden carried by a young collegian 
 before critical crowds of 60,000 people. 
 
 This quality for pulling the unexpected can be 
 overdone. There is a story told about a Michi- 
 gan quarterback who misapplied one of Coach 
 Yost's best scoring plays — good within the ten 
 yard line. It was almost a sure scoring play 
 when used for the first time. But the Michigan 
 quarterback was so anxious to get it off his mind 
 that he used it around midfield, instead of wait- 
 ing until they were within striking distance. It 
 
 38. 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 gained twenty-five yards, but upon reaching the 
 ten yard line later on there was no deception left 
 in it and it failed to gain. 
 
 Percy Haughton was one of the first coaches 
 to make his quarterback a field general. He was 
 required to do little else than run the team. It 
 was Haughton's belief that a quarterback calling 
 the signals should be protected at every chance, 
 not allowed to run with the ball or to figure 
 greatly in the interference. 
 
 I differ with his ideas on the quarterback job. 
 The modern game, with its premium on direct 
 passing, makes it possible and profitable to use 
 the quarterback really as a third halfback or 
 second fullback so far as the offense is con- 
 cerned, and putting a line-smashing runner at 
 quarter is very far indeed from wasting him. 
 Heretical as it would have seemed to a player of 
 the nineties, it is plain truth to say that designa- 
 tions which distinguish the men in the backfield 
 are anomalous and unnecessary. Under the 
 modern game the four backs, on offense certainly 
 and on defense to a large extent, are completely 
 interchangeable — all carry the ball and work in 
 interference without much regard for their de- 
 nominations in the lineup. 
 
 Those who saw the Four Horsemen of Notre 
 
 39- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Dame probably didn't know who was the quarter- 
 back. Stuhldreher led the interference, took out 
 tacklers with deadly effect by bringing them to 
 earth with steady accuracy, and yet he ran his 
 team with unerring coolness and judgment in 
 the big games. 
 
 Grantland Rice is authority for this state- 
 ment: "In the Army game where Stuhledreher 
 had taken out man after man by spilling tacklers 
 in turn, a certain Notre Dame run was stopped 
 with a thud. Someone had broken through the 
 South Bend interference. On the next play 
 Stuhldreher just watched for the Army tackier. 
 Having spotted his man, he again called the same 
 signal, and this time the Army man suddenly 
 found himself on the back of his neck with both 
 feet spinning in the air as Crowley went on for 
 eighteen yards." 
 
 George Pfann, of Cornell, was another of 
 these all-around quarterbacks who not only led 
 the team but filled every emergency in the back- 
 field. He directed the team, passed, kicked and 
 regularly ran with the ball. 
 
 In contrast to Pfann, who was a demon on 
 the offense, but for all the difference just as 
 valuable to Harvard, was Charlie Buell, one of 
 the brainiest quarterbacks developed in the 
 
 40. 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 modern game. He weighed only 140 to 145 
 pounds, was pink-cheeked and frail-looking and 
 possessed no dazzling speed to carry him along. 
 But he had football brains and caused more 
 trouble than all the 200 pound linemen the Crim- 
 son had. 
 
 Buell not only possessed the ability to select 
 the best plays given to him but had an uncanny 
 knack of finding his way out of tight situations. 
 He had initiative, courage and keen judgment 
 and always thought along independent lines. 
 Apparently he was never impressed with zone 
 play or any standard methods of what to do and 
 what not to do. 
 
 Zone play is a good servant but a bad master. 
 I teach it to my quarterbacks and then tell them 
 to forget it. My idea is that they will forget the 
 details, which might make them think that a 
 certain play always should be used under certain 
 circumstances in some particular part of the field, 
 and remember its broad principles which are a 
 good ground work for generalship. 
 
 My ideas on zone play can be summed up as 
 follows : 
 
 Between your goal line and your twenty-five 
 yard line you should either kick on first down or 
 try a long-gaining play and kick if it fails. No 
 
 41. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 criss-cross, triple-pass or other dangerous plays 
 should be used in this territory. 
 
 Between your twenty-five yard line and mid- 
 field, kick on third down, until then try out op- 
 ponents' defense. 
 
 Between the center of the field and your oppo- 
 nents' twenty-five yard line you should use any 
 plays that will gain ground, and kick on fourth 
 down. This is good territory for the use of trick 
 plays. 
 
 Between your opponents' twenty-five yard line 
 and their goal line you should use any plays that 
 will gain, being sure to remember not to use 
 center-of-the-line plays inside the ten yard line. 
 Also, you should remember not to forward pass 
 over the goal line on second or third down. 
 
 When a quarteback has learned when to 
 punt, when not to forward pass, not to use center 
 of the line plays inside the ten yard line, to play 
 to the score, and the broad principles of zone 
 play, he is well along the path that leads to good 
 generalship. And by this time, through constant 
 practice in thinking football, he should have de- 
 veloped the ability to make many of his de- 
 cisions subconsciously. Most of the things that 
 we do really well we do more or less uncon- 
 sciously. Bobby Jones or Ty Cobb don't have 
 42. 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 to think about their swing when hitting a ball. 
 Neither does a good quarterback have to think 
 through a maze of rules to choose the right play. 
 
 But there are some facts that every quarter- 
 back always should keep in the back of his mind. 
 One of them is that there are twenty-two foot- 
 ball players in a game. Some systems of foot- 
 ball strategy seem to have been built on the as- 
 sumption that there are only eleven — all on your 
 side. The position of your opponents always 
 must dictate your game. The quarterback must 
 be taught to take full advantage of the position of 
 the defensive players and make the defense play 
 for him. He should remember that the left side 
 of a defensive line nearly always is the stronger 
 side. If he is using a shift play, and his oppo- 
 nents do not shift with him, he never should send 
 a play to the weak side of the line. But if they 
 do shift, and his strong-side play is stopped he 
 should try a play to the weak side. His object 
 always should be to play two men against one; 
 never one man against two. If the defensive 
 ends are playing in, he should send his plays out- 
 side of them. He should notice if the opposing 
 center is playing in or out of the line. For ex- 
 ample, the defensive center nearly always is in 
 
 43- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 the line on third down with one yard to go. 
 That's a good spot for a forward pass. 
 
 The quarterback should be careful to watch 
 the direction of his plays. The side lines are bad 
 lines — he must try to keep away from them. 
 The best line of play is the line with the goal 
 posts. He should keep in the center of the field, 
 if possible. 
 
 When he finds himself near a side line, he 
 should make his plays toward the center of the 
 field. All football fields are not perfectly level. 
 It's a lot easier to run downhill than uphill, yet 
 I've seen quarterbacks run their plays uphill 
 when they just as well could have run them down- 
 hill. The position of the sun and the direction of 
 the wind are to be considered in football general- 
 ship. The quarterback should try to get these 
 elements playing on his side. On a wet field he 
 should play a little safer than usual. 
 
 When a team is near a side line and has to 
 kick, the quarterback should protect the kicker 
 by running the play toward the center of the field 
 before kicking. In my opinion he never should 
 have a player run with the ball if he intends to 
 ask him to kick on the next play. A player who 
 just has been shaken up by a hard tackle isn't 
 any too certain to get his kick off smoothly and 
 
 44- 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 quickly. If you can get your kicks off under two 
 seconds, none of them will be blocked. It 
 shouldn't be forgotten that a kick may be an 
 offensive play. It often is a good idea to kick 
 on first down when you think that you can get 
 more than normal yardage — you have the sur- 
 prise element on your side. 
 
 A football team depending to win on the other 
 fellows mistakes is going to get licked. You 
 must force your own breaks. A good field 
 general always is on the alert for an opportunity 
 to gain an advantage over his opponents. Some- 
 times when a substitute comes into the game he 
 will send a punt at him before he has a chance to 
 get warmed up. Or when an opponent has made 
 a bad error, he'll shoot a play at him before he 
 has recovered from its effects. 
 
 A few years ago a Harvard quarterback went 
 into the Yale game and on the very next play 
 the ball was intentionally kicked to him. Of 
 course he fumbled and was immediately removed 
 from the game. The psychological effect of the 
 play was realized by the Crimson coach. 
 
 I don't believe in hard and fast rules of foot- 
 ball strategy. There is no rule ever made that 
 shouldn't be broken under certain circumstances. 
 But there are three things that I want my 
 
 45- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 quarterback to know, and when he has learned 
 them so thoroughly that he applies them almost 
 by instinct, I consider he has learned half of the 
 strategy of football. 
 
 First of all, I want him to know when to punt. 
 
 He should punt on fourth down, whatever 
 the distance to go. 
 
 It isn't easy to get a quarterback to learn that 
 rule so thoroughly that he will obey it no matter 
 how strong the temptation is to break it. I'll 
 have to admit that sometimes that temptation is 
 strong. With only a few feet, or perhaps only 
 a few inches, to go, it is hard not to try to gain 
 by a running play, and so keep possession of 
 the ball. 
 
 Let's see how it works out in actual play. We 
 have the ball in the center of the field. It is 
 fourth down, with a foot to go. Our quarterback 
 disregards the rule, and tries one of those "sure 
 plays." "Sure plays" sometimes are stopped. 
 This one is stopped. Our opponents get the ball 
 in the center of the field, on first down. They 
 are all set to start an offensive. 
 
 Now for the other side of the picture. Instead 
 of trying to gain that foot, our quarterback obeys 
 orders and calls for a punt. The kicker sends 
 the ball to one side of the field, so as to limit our 
 
 4 6. 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 opponents' field of action. They get the ball 
 deep in their own territory, try a couple of 
 rushes, and have to kick it back to us. We get 
 the ball in about the same position as when we 
 kicked, and on first down. Under conditions 
 such as these, punting merely means postponing 
 possession of the ball and offensive play. 
 
 Always kick on the fourth down unless you are 
 behind. In the Princeton- Colgate game of 
 1925 the score was 0-0 in the middle of the third 
 period. Princeton held the ball at midfield, 
 fourth down and two yards to go. 
 
 The Princeton quarterback elected to rush the 
 ball and failed to make the required yardage. 
 Colgate secured the ball and with it went the 
 football game. The failure of the Princeton 
 quarterback to order a kick cost the Princeton 
 team fifty yards and they were never able to 
 overcome the distance. 
 
 Colgate failed to gain, punted on the fourth 
 down. Princeton received the ball and was 
 downed on the ten yard line. Neither side gained 
 consistently and the last half of the game de- 
 veloped into a punting duel. 
 
 Finally, Colgate blocked a kick, the ball rolled 
 behind our goal line where one of our men re- 
 covered it for a safety. Had we punted in mid- 
 47- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 field instead of attempting to rush the ball on the 
 fourth down, the rest of the game might have 
 been played in Colgate's territory and the out- 
 come somewhat different. 
 
 This illustration is not offered as an excuse for 
 a lost game. The Colgate players, by keeping 
 their heads up and playing smarter football, de- 
 served to win. Anyhow, Eddie Tryon made the 
 victory more decisive by skirting our end for a 
 touchdown and the game ended 9-0. 
 
 The disasterous results of not following the 
 rule to punt on fourth down are many and I will 
 argue all night on the folly of rushing the ball. 
 
 So I make it an almost absolute rule to punt 
 on fourth down. The only exception to this is 
 when you are playing to the score — and in foot- 
 ball, as in bridge, you always should be playing 
 to the score. If you hold the short end of the 
 score in the last few minutes of play, it pays to 
 take chances to retain possession of the ball. 
 Under these circumstances a quarterback is justi- 
 fied in ordering a running play on fourth down. 
 
 Second, I want my quarterback to know when 
 not to forward pass. 
 
 You should never forward pass in the last two 
 minutes of the game if you hold the long end of 
 the score. Suppose you are leading, 7-6. You 
 
 48. 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 try a forward pass. It is intercepted, and your 
 opponents score a touchdown. You are beaten 
 by the score of 12-7, because you took an un- 
 necessary chance. 
 
 Third, I want my quarterback to know when 
 not to send plays at the center of the line. I 
 give him an almost absolute rule never to send 
 a play at the center of the line inside our oppo- 
 nents ten yard line. When a team is fighting 
 under its own goal posts most of its strength is 
 almost sure to be massed on the center of the 
 line. Why handicap yourself by attacking the 
 strongest point, and using a play that your oppo- 
 nents are certain to be expecting? 
 
 I've seen more than one football game lost by 
 a quarterback sending a play up against a stone 
 wall of that sort. In the 1919 Harvard game 
 Princeton played a 10-10 tie. We had to kick 
 a field goal and tie that game instead of winning 
 it, because we sent a play at the center of the 
 Harvard line inside their ten yard mark. That 
 same year, in the Yale-Harvard game, Yale 
 gained over fifty yards on a series of off tackle 
 plays, and then was stopped dead on the four 
 yard line because their quarterback sent a play at 
 the center of the Harvard line. That brand of 
 football doesn't win games. When a team has 
 
 49. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 been driven back almost to its own goal line most 
 of its strength is massed on the center of the 
 line, this means that there must be a weak spot 
 somewhere else in its defense. Find that weak 
 spot! Try an-end-run or a play off tackle — 
 anything but a bull-headed smash into the stone 
 wall. The time to use center-of-the-line plays is 
 when your opponent is expecting something 
 totally different — say when you have the ball in 
 the center of the field, with eight yards or so to 
 go on second or third down. 
 
 In the 1926 Yale-Princeton game, Princeton 
 had the ball on Yale's four yard line. It was 
 fourth down and one yard to go. The score was 
 nothing to nothing. Everyone, including my- 
 self, expected a center rush. The Yale line con- 
 tracted and prepared to stop the assault directed 
 at the center of the line. 
 
 But Dan Caulkins was one step ahead. He 
 sized up the situation, saw the Yale men centered 
 in the line to stop the obvious play, and decided 
 to pull the unexpected. 
 
 Instead of calling for the expected line rush, 
 or even a dash off tackle, Caulkins ordered a for- 
 ward pass hurled to him and started off toward 
 end. 
 
 There wasn't a blue jersey within tackling dis- 
 
 50. 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 tance as Caulkins grabbed the ball and raced 
 over the goal line for an easy touchdown. 
 
 Caulkins protected his play by starting it out 
 as a regular line buck while he drifted out toward 
 the side and then, before the Yale men realized 
 their mistake, it was too late. 
 
 I doubt if any other play would have gained 
 the required distance against the concentrated 
 Yale line prepared to stubbornly resist any 
 offense. Caulkins found their weak spot — the 
 end— and crashed through for the first touch- 
 down. 
 
 Did you ever sit in the stands and listen to 
 some of the wise boys in the crowd roasting the 
 quarterback because he didn't order a drop-kick 
 when he was within thirty-five yards or so of the 
 goal line, and his running plays weren't gaining 
 any too well? It never occurs to these grand- 
 stand coaches that every drop-kicker, like every 
 rifle, has a limit of effective range. The quarter- 
 back they are roasting probably is using good 
 judgment. If he was playing on a team that I 
 coached he was obeying orders. I give my 
 quarterback an almost absolute rule never to try 
 to stretch the effective range of his drop-kicker. 
 If your drop-kicker can't kick over thirty yards, 
 where's the value of trying to have him put it 
 
 Si- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 over from the thirty-five yard mark? I don't 
 want to drop-kick until I can't do anything else, 
 but when I do drop-kick I want to have a real 
 chance to score. Otherwise there's no reason for 
 the play; a drop-kick or a placement kick is more 
 risky than a punt because it takes longer to get 
 off, and there is a bigger chance of it being 
 blocked. That's the reason that so many tries 
 for point after touchdown are broken up. 
 
 In the Princeton-Navy game at Baltimore in 
 1923, Princeton was leading 3-0 up to the middle 
 of the fourth quarter. With the ball on the 
 Navy's thirty-five yard line on fourth down and 
 five yards to go, the Tiger quarterback called for 
 a drop-kick, with the kicker placed on the Navy's 
 forty-five yard line. The ball was snapped back, 
 in streamed the strong Navy linemen, and as the 
 ball ascended from the kicker's toe, it bounced 
 against a Navy man who recovered it and raced 
 to our twenty-five yard line before he was 
 tackled. A few minutes later they tried a place- 
 ment kick and tied the score 3-3. 
 
 The Princeton drop-kicker was very accurate 
 but his range was thirty-five yards — not forty- 
 five. He could kick that distance and no farther. 
 The drop-kick is of necessity much slower in 
 getting off than the punt and is easier to block. 
 
 52. 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 In this case a punt would have placed the 
 Navy on the defense, even with possession of the 
 ball. They would have had to kick out of danger 
 and Princeton would have recovered the ball on 
 approximately the same spot with a clear field 
 and first down ahead of them. 
 
 3?he drop-kick was a mere pot shot. There 
 was only one chance in a hundred of getting away 
 with it. Even so, Princeton led by a mere three 
 points. Would another three points sew up the 
 game? Say Navy scored a touchdown? The 
 game would have ended 7-6 in their favor. 
 
 You noticed that I said an "almost absolute 
 rule." There is a time to break this rule against 
 trying to stretch the range of your drop-kicker, 
 and that time is when you are holding the short 
 end of the score, and three points will win or tie 
 the game for you. Then the quarterback should 
 take chances. The kicker may rise to the oc- 
 casion and add five yards to the normal length of 
 his kick. As you have everything to gain and 
 nothing to lose, it's worth trying. 
 
 In the 1912 Princeton- Yale game the Tigers 
 were leading with a 3-0 score. The ball was at 
 midfield, in Yale's possession, with less than three 
 minutes of play remaining. There wasn't time 
 to make a touchdown, even had they been able to 
 
 S3- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 gain consistently, which they failed to do all af- 
 ternoon. On straight football they were beaten 
 and it was the time to try something spectacular, 
 to take a long chance. Very properly, the 
 quarterback signalled for a drop-kick and 
 Pumpelly, standing on the forty-eight yard line, 
 received the ball, gave it a lusty boot. It sailed 
 down the field, bounced on the cross bar, and then 
 dropped over. The game ended 3-3. 
 
 A quarterback should be required to know the 
 limitations and potentialities of his teammates, 
 and the ground-gaining value of his plays. It 
 is almost necessary to provide the field general 
 with a play certain to make two yards. When 
 he needs this play he needs it badly. He should 
 not be given too many plays, but those given to 
 him should cover every possible emergency. If 
 you've trained him right, he'll pick the right play 
 at the right time. 
 
 Ten plays are better than fifty. And one un- 
 expected play is better than ten obvious plays, 
 for the expected play is always a weak play, and 
 the unexpected play nine times out of ten is the 
 ground-gaining play. By unexpected plays I 
 do not mean miracle plays that work once in fifty 
 attempts. Any standard play, used at a moment 
 when your opponents are expecting something 
 
 54- 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 entirely different, has the element of surprise 
 that makes the out-and-out trick play a winner — 
 when it goes. 
 
 Don Lourie pulled one of the neatest plays in 
 many a moon against Yale in 1920, when he 
 scored a touchdown on a fake place kick at the 
 end of the second period. Touchdowns have 
 been scored on this play before but Lourie's 
 initiative added a certain distinction to the play. 
 
 Princeton led by a 3-0 score with the ball on 
 Yale's forty-two yard line. A second of play 
 remained, which meant that the side with the ball 
 had an opportunity to complete one play before 
 intermission. 
 
 Usually the quarterback would consult his 
 captain and then call his players into a consulta- 
 tion. A lot of talk would be spilled and at the 
 end the opponents would know that a fake play 
 would be tried. 
 
 But not Lourie. Looking over his players and 
 noting the position of the Yale defense, he 
 stepped into his position and gave his signals. 
 He acted as if he had all afternoon to get off the 
 play. He did not appear hurried or excited. 
 
 "Place kick formation!" he shouted. Stan 
 Keck left his position at tackle and a backfleld 
 man replaced him in the line. More signals came 
 
 55- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 and Lourie dropped to the ground on one knee, 
 both hands extended for the ball. 
 
 Before it was passed, he got up and turned 
 to Keck. "You are not back far enough," he 
 said. "Kick to the left. There is a stiff wind 
 blowing. Now make this good!" 
 
 Again Lourie dropped to one knee. Mike 
 Callahan set himself to make the pass and the 
 linemen were braced to hold the opposing for- 
 wards. 
 
 Eleven men on the Yale team prepared for a 
 kick. What else could be used with one second 
 to play? Also, Lourie was careful in getting 
 Keck back far enough to make the kick without 
 being hurried. Eleven minds were concentrated 
 on one play and every effort was made to pre- 
 vent the goal from the field. 
 
 The ball sped back into the waiting hands of 
 Lourie. The Yale forwards rushed through. 
 So did the ends and backfield men. It was their 
 opportunity to spoil the kick. 
 
 Lourie calmly caught the ball and placed it 
 on the ground. The opposing linesmen were all 
 around him. Keck started forward to kick. 
 
 Then something happened. Rising quickly, 
 Lourie shoved the ball under his arm and darted 
 for the sidelines. On, on, he went, for twenty 
 
 56. 
 
The Quarterback 
 
 yards, with blue jerseyed men at his heels. Then 
 he turned and sped toward the goal line. 
 
 Keck spilled one tackier, but two others came 
 at the ball carrier Lourie stopped, dodged one 
 and the other Yale man crashed into his team- 
 mate, the two being put out of the play. 
 
 This gave the Tiger quarterback a clear field 
 and he crossed the goal line without being 
 touched. 
 
 57- 
 
Chapter IV 
 
 BY THEIR PLAYS YE SHALL KNOW THEM 
 
 OLLEGE football teams have achieved an 
 
 individuality of play with which they are 
 forever identified. Notre Dame has excelled in 
 the daring, deceptive style of play. Michigan is 
 unrivalled as exponents of the forward pass and 
 Pennsylvania has long been associated with 
 powerful defensive football. 
 
 Difference of opinion not only made horse 
 racing. It has also been, apparently, the stimu- 
 lus for the open, modern game of football with 
 emphasis on speed, initiative and skill. One 
 coach teaches that the best defense is a good of- 
 fense and another equally successful mentor is 
 strong in its denunciation. 
 
 This blending of ideas as to what is supreme 
 in modern football leads to many spirited dis- 
 cussions — and improvements on team play and 
 strategy. Football of today is essentially a battle 
 of wits and with each team trying to outsmart 
 the other, new plays, formations and defensive 
 
 58. 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 tactics are invented annually. Yet some of the 
 most successful elevens in the country go right 
 along, year in and year out, sticking to the same 
 fundamentals upon which their football system 
 was founded many years ago. 
 
 One of the real landmarks in college football 
 is the "Pennsylvania Defense." Even to this 
 day it has been changed very little since 1892 
 when it was introduced by George Woodruff, the 
 old Yale player. Pennsylvania elevens still cling 
 to it. 
 
 The play depends on a smashing end and a 
 close line. In the Nineties, the backs on the de- 
 fense, with the exception of the quarterback 
 played right behind the rush line. The fullback 
 was placed behind the center rush with the half- 
 backs behind the tackles. 
 
 Woodruff used his ends to smash the inter- 
 ference on all plays. Their job was to "strip it 
 naked." The ends were instructed to go after 
 the interference, — not the ball-carrier, who was 
 practically forced to run wide. 
 
 With the defense line tight and the tacklers 
 streaming in as fast as the ends, the only men on 
 the line burdened with a dual responsibility were 
 the guards. They were expected to make their 
 
 59- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 initial charge and, if necessary, support the op- 
 posite end. 
 
 If a play started around the Pennsylvania 
 right end, the left guard was expected to swing 
 out behind his own line and tackle the runner. 
 The guard usually met the man with the ball a 
 trifle behind the line of scrimmage. And it was 
 no joke to be tackled by a burly two hundred 
 pound guard running at top speed. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Defense was very power- 
 ful before the days of the hidden ball plays and 
 Woodruff's plan is still sound against straight 
 football. A delayed play apparently starting as 
 an end run and, suddenly swerving through the 
 guard, would undoubtedly gain through this type 
 of defense. And such delayed plays would also 
 hold the guard in position. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Defense was so successful 
 at the time of its introduction because the Red 
 and Blue were supplied with four really great 
 guards. They were Woodruff and Wharton fol- 
 lowed by Hare and McCracken. These men 
 were the outstanding linemen of the day. 
 
 Woodruff recognized this and undoubtedly 
 built his defense and attack around them. 
 
 As the game changed, the Penn coaches re- 
 tained the vital elements of the original defense 
 60. 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 but modified it to meet changed conditions. 
 They always kept the smashing end and the 
 close defensive rush line. 
 
 With the introduction of the forward pass and 
 ten yards to gain on four downs, it became neces- 
 sary to place the wing backs back further behind 
 the line. The guards were kept in the line and 
 the center taken out to support the tackles along 
 with the fullback. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Defense was the original 
 6-2-2-1 defense with the guards and tackles low, 
 using their shoulders in their initial charge in- 
 stead of their hands. Each lineman was ex- 
 pected to cover so much space and to think of 
 nothing else. The ends still are expected to 
 smash the interference with the wing backs com- 
 ing up to cover the runner. 
 
 Many teams have copied the Pennsylvania de- 
 fense. It has stood the test of time as well as any 
 other in the country, but with it all I believe it 
 has certain elements of weakness. 
 
 Personally, I am not strong for the smashing 
 end. The defensive end rush should drive in 
 hard and fast and stop the interference. But 
 why should he leave his feet in doing it? The 
 same results can be accomplished by an end rush 
 who comes in hard and fast using his hands on 
 
 61. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 the interference and still keeping his feet. If he 
 is on his feet after the first clash, the end has not 
 eliminated himself from the play. He can fol- 
 low up and, in many events, get the ball-carrier. 
 The end who leaves his feet is out of the play 
 entirely. 
 
 With a smashing end, the wing back is ex- 
 pected to cover the flank — to do so he must come 
 up quickly and is thus apt to leave his territory 
 unguarded against a cleverly masked forward 
 pass. While if the wing back does not come up 
 quickly on swing plays he is very apt to be cut 
 down by opposing linemen cutting over behind 
 the line of scrimmage. 
 
 "Red" Grange had a field day against Michi- 
 gan in 1924? and repeated against Penn in 1925. 
 Soth these teams played a six man line defense 
 and drove the ends in fast and low. I'll admit 
 the ends cut down the interference, but Grange 
 was still running toward the sidelines and then 
 turned down the clear field. By this time the 
 Illinois linemen had cut through and taken out 
 the wing backs. Of course it must be admitted 
 that Grange is an exceptional man. But I still 
 contend that the only defense against a real end 
 run is a fast driving end who keeps his feet and 
 forces the ball-carrier inside. 
 
 62. 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 I should like to discuss the advisability of a six 
 man line. Here again I prefer a fluid defense 
 with the center in or out of the line. The posi- 
 tion of the center rush, whether he is in or out 
 of the line, should depend upon the down, the 
 number of yards to gain and the position of the 
 teams on the field. 
 
 On third or fourth down with only a yard or 
 so to gain there is more chance of a line play than 
 a wide end run. Here the center should be in 
 the line. While on a third down with ten yards 
 to go, an open play is to be expected. 
 
 Of course as I have shown in the chapter on 
 strategy there is always a possibility of a brainy 
 quarterback pulling the unexpected and cross- 
 ing the defense. But I am now counting on 
 probabilities which will happen in the majority 
 of instances. 
 
 Undoubtedly, the staunch supporters of the 
 six man defense and smashing end can point to 
 a very impressive record of positive achieve- 
 ments. No team has put up a stronger goal de- 
 fense than Pennsylvania. On several occasions 
 I have personally seen Penn teams stop the 
 powerful Cornell attack in the shadow of their 
 own goal line. 
 
 Pennsylvania is strong on the defense. It is 
 
 63- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 their long suit in playing the game. And just 
 as the Red and Blue are famed for their defense 
 Notre Dame, the other extreme in football, have 
 become famous for their offense, practicing the 
 proverb of battle field and gridiron that a good 
 offense is the best defense. 
 
 No team in the land has excelled the records 
 made by the Notre Dame teams during the last 
 few seasons. They have been the leading expo- 
 nents of the deceptive, open game and have 
 played smart, intelligent football. 
 
 The Notre Dame offense, for which they are 
 famous, consists of a backfield shift with the real 
 strength of the attack depending on the ends. 
 In contrast to the coaching of Yost, at Michigan, 
 who abandoned close formations several years 
 ago because he considered it almost impossible to 
 box the defensive tackles, the Notre Dame ends 
 have managed to take the tackles better than any 
 I have ever seen. It is conceded to be the hard- 
 est job in offensive football. A good tackle on 
 the defense stops more plays than any one 
 player. 
 
 I have watched the Notre Dame ends do the 
 trick time and again. And they do it practically 
 alone. 
 
 Notre Dame uses a close formation almost en- 
 64. 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 tirely. Starting with a balanced line, the quar- 
 terback under center and the backs in a parallel 
 line about four yards behind the scrimmage line, 
 they get into action. From this original posi- 
 tion the backs shift right or left into a tandem 
 formation. The quarterback handles the ball on 
 line plays and yet he does it so cleverly that it 
 is hard to tell when he gets it and when the ball 
 goes direct to the ball-carrier. 
 
 The end shifts out with the backs. And here 
 lies the strength of the attack. On a wide flank 
 play the end shifts outside the tackle and boxes 
 him in. On an inside play the end apparently 
 shifts out. But he only goes through the mo- 
 tions and ends up in position to drive the tackle 
 put. After a couple of plays the end has the 
 opposing tackle confused. If he goes out he is 
 apt to find the end inside of him when the play 
 starts. If he doesn't move out with the end he 
 is more than likely to be outflanked. With the 
 tackle out of the picture, the Notre Dame inter- 
 ference can pay undivided attention to the de- 
 fensive end. He is swept out of the way and the 
 play moves past the line of scrimmage for a gain. 
 
 Rockne uses the forward pass more as a 
 threat than an actual part of his attack. But his 
 opponents have learned not to discount the 
 
 65. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Notre Dame passing strength. When the occa- 
 sion requires, their forward passing game is 
 very effective. The quarterback does the pass- 
 ing, getting the ball under center and first fak- 
 ing to a back, then running back to make the 
 pass. 
 
 Here is the original position of the Notre 
 Dame attack: 
 
 (1) O O O X o o o 
 
 QB 
 O O Ol 
 
 3 2 
 
 (2) O O O X O O O 
 
 QB 
 O Ol 
 02 
 03 
 
 The end has shifted outside the defensive 
 tackle. The entire backfield has shifted to the 
 right. From this formation expect a wide end 
 run or a cut back inside of the defensive tackle. 
 On a cut back the end fakes out drawing the 
 tackle wide. On this play the end usually boxes 
 
 66. 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 the guard. B 1 and QB drive the tackle out 
 with the help of the tackle, who cross-checks the 
 tackle. B 3 carries the ball on both plays. On 
 the wide end run, the end boxes the tackle B 1 
 and B 2 drive right at the defensive end, with 
 QB helping when necessary. 
 
 Rockne also uses the guards in the interfer- 
 ence and they are very effective on the wide end 
 run. 
 
 Position of players with QB handling the 
 ball. 
 
 (3). O O O X O O O 
 
 O Ol 
 QB 
 
 2 
 03 
 
 The football offense of today is really built 
 around the forward pass. It is just as important 
 to the modern, open game as the massed play 
 was to the old kind of football. The general 
 idea that the forward pass is essentially a shoe 
 string play, heavily loaded with danger for the 
 user, is misleading. Even moderately well exe- 
 cuted, the forward pass is among the safest 
 plays available on the offense for gaining 
 
 6 7 . 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 ground. Consider its possibilities and this fact 
 becomes self evident. 
 
 There are only three things that can happen 
 to a forward pass. It may be caught and held 
 or carried for a substantial gain. It may be 
 grounded and a down wasted. Or it may be in- 
 tercepted by the opponents. 
 
 Analysis of the season's play of any fairly 
 good eleven has shown that the most likely re- 
 sults of passing is that the pass was completed 
 or grounded. On such cases possession of the 
 ball will not change and the worst that can hap- 
 pen will be the loss of a down. The same 
 analysis illustrated that four times as many 
 passes are completed as are intercepted. With 
 a moderately competent player passing the ball 
 this play becomes more one-sided in favor of 
 completion. 
 
 I have always believed the pass was a safe 
 play. It is also pregnant with scoring possi- 
 bilities from any spot on the field and these pos- 
 sibilities necessarily increase in direct ratio to the 
 approach toward the opposing goal. There are 
 two obvious reasons for this: first, there is less 
 distance to be covered by the runner who re- 
 covers the pass, and second, and more important, 
 the defense necessarily draws in as a score be- 
 
 68. 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 comes more imminent, which of course is the 
 ideal situation for the forward passer. 
 
 Again, there is no other play which possesses 
 the force of the pass as a threat. Even if the 
 completed pass itself gains little or nothing in 
 yardage, it gains heavily in the effected morale 
 of the defense and on the physical arrangement 
 of the defending players. 
 
 The new rules permit the same freedom in 
 backward or lateral passing as heretofore al- 
 lowed the forward pass. It is much too early to 
 make any prediction as to the possibilities of the 
 lateral pass under the changed rules. I doubt if 
 the lateral pass will ever become as effective as 
 the forward pass. 
 
 First, it must be made on the run, with the 
 passer not only off his balance but under the 
 necessity of avoiding tackles from the front, back 
 and side, and also it must not be made until the 
 opponent is very close or the intending tackier 
 will have a chance to go after the receiver. This 
 means the pass cannot be the accurate, steady, 
 straight line affair which the forward pass has 
 become, but must be a hurried lob which at best 
 is inaccurate. 
 
 Again, the lateral pass is made, usually, while 
 the passer is still behind the scrimmage line or 
 
 69. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 very close to it. Thus the lateral pass, if com- 
 pleted must still be carried by the runner if any- 
 thing is to be gained, and unless the play is very 
 cleverly masked by a feint, the chance of this 
 gain is rather less than of a running gain after 
 a completed forward pass. In other words, your 
 lateral pass at its very best gives the runner a 
 chance to gain from the scrimmage line, with 
 several defensive players still in a good position 
 to bring him down, while the mere completion 
 of a forward pass involves a substantial gain. 
 
 Michigan's forward passing attack is one of 
 the most effective in offensive football today. 
 Yost, the capable Michigan coach, has developed 
 the forward pass into his most successful play. 
 Every year you will find on the Wolverines an 
 expert passer and several equally expert re- 
 ceivers. Benny Friedman, captain, quarterback 
 and outstanding star of the 1926 eleven, is prob- 
 ably one of the best passers who played at Michi- 
 gan. 
 
 Yost has not stinted himself with time in ex- 
 perimenting, practicing and perfecting the for- 
 ward pass. The Michigan spring practice is de- 
 voted almost entirely to passing and receiving the 
 ball. In the autumn, even, more than a half hour 
 daily is set aside for perfecting the passes. L The 
 
 70. 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 backs and ends are drilled and drilled in catch- 
 ing the ball from all conceivable angles. 
 
 Michigan passes, as a result, are the most ef- 
 fective in the game. The players handle the 
 football with the ease and skill of a professional 
 ball player with a baseball. 
 
 Yost has realized that the real success of the 
 forward passing game is determined, not only in 
 having a good passer, but having competent re- 
 ceivers to handle the thrown ball. Some coaches 
 fail to recognize this and then wonder why passes 
 are not caught with more regularity when 
 thrown within reaching distance. 
 
 Another point. The receiver should be 
 trained to catch the ball in his hands — not his 
 arms. There should be no effort to fight the ball 
 and the arms from the elbows down should be 
 relaxed and never tense. The arms should give 
 with the ball. 
 
 Yost has discovered a method of drilling his 
 passers which has proved very successful. He 
 insists the passer throw a light easy ball. Some 
 passers throw a ball with the speed of a bullet. 
 The ball bounces away from the receiver and the 
 fellow loses confidence immediately. But a soft 
 thrown ball makes the catching easier, builds 
 
 7i. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 confidence, and as the season progresses, the men 
 are equally capable of handling the hard passes. 
 
 All of Michigan's passes are hurled from kick 
 formation, Yost, in contrast to Rockne, has not 
 used a close formation for four or five years. He 
 does not believe in the flat or short pass. All the 
 Michigan forward passes are made well down the 
 field, often over the head of the defensive wing 
 backs. In 1923 I saw the Michigan-Minnesota 
 game. Michigan completed two beautiful passes 
 from midfield. One resulted in a score and the 
 other led up to a field goal. 
 
 Yost works on the theory that the flat or short 
 pass means nothing. Even if completed the re- 
 ceiver is usually downed before he has gained 
 any distance while the interception of the pass 
 may mean the loss of the game. 
 
 "Keep on throwing long passes down field. If 
 they are recovered, your opponents have little 
 chance of gaining," he says. "While on the 
 other hand every time you catch the ball you are 
 on the road to a touchdown. It is worth the 
 risk." 
 
 Few teams have succeeded in checking the 
 Michigan forward passing attack, except at the 
 expense of a greatly weakened first line defense. 
 In the fall of 1926 the Navy stopped their for- 
 
 72. 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 ward passing game by keeping the two wing 
 backs at least fifteen or twenty yards behind the 
 line. They stayed in this territory all afternoon 
 and Michigan seldom completed a pass. 
 
 This was one of the few instances where a 
 variation of the long pass might have worked. 
 But the results obtained over a long period of 
 years have justified Michigan's system of for- 
 ward passing. 
 
 For years the standard close formation in use 
 all over the country has been an unbalanced line 
 with tandem backfield formation. No. 1 back 
 is placed just outside the offensive end and No. 4 
 back behind the center. 
 
 This formation belongs to no particular coach- 
 ing system. Glenn Warner, present coach at 
 Leland Stanford and Gilmore Dobie, of Cornell, 
 have, however, made consistent use of this style 
 of football and improved upon it. 
 
 Glenn Warner's celebrated "double pass" 
 started from this play. As far back as 1906 he 
 used it against Princeton while coaching at Cor- 
 nell. Later he used it very effectively for years 
 at Pittsburgh. 
 
 Gil Dobie's strongest play at Cornell has 
 been a short end run off tackle with both guards 
 
 73- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 out in the interference. This is a powerful play 
 and very hard to stop. 
 
 Teams pitted against this play with an unbal- 
 anced line and tandem backfield realized the only 
 way it could be stopped was by shifting the de- 
 fense. This matched strength with strength. 
 Originally, the running plays from this forma- 
 tion were strongest on the strong offensive side 
 — but as the defense massed against the unbal- 
 anced line, these plays were effective only when 
 the defense could be stopped from shifting in 
 time to meet the drive. And every coach tried to 
 devise a short side play, strong enough to gain 
 consistently against a shifted defense. 
 
 Warner used his criss-cross for this purpose. 
 Dobie used a fake pass with the No. 4 back driv- 
 ing off the short side, with the No. 2 and 3 backs 
 sweeping across in front of him. Of all the short 
 side plays I have seen the criss-cross over a 
 period of years has proved the most successful. 
 
 In 1925 Princeton used a cut back to the short 
 side with the No. 3 back carrying the ball. This 
 play worked beautifully the entire season but we 
 had little success with it in 1926. This is of im- 
 portance because the same men carried the ball. 
 Joe Prendergast gained considerable ground 
 
 74- 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 from this formation in the Harvard and Yale 
 games of 1925. 
 
 Today, I am convinced that most all the short 
 side plays have lost their potency and with them 
 marks the passing of the unbalanced tandem for- 
 mation. It is becoming too easy to stop. 
 
 Warner was also the first coach who realized 
 this and immediately discarded his old forma- 
 tions. In its place he substituted a modification 
 with a wing back outside of each tackle. 
 
 1. Old Formation 
 
 O O X o o o o 
 o o 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 2. New Formation 
 
 O O O X o o o 
 o o o 
 
 o 
 
 Warner has used his new formation with re- 
 markable success at Stanford. It is sound in 
 every respect, with equal running strength to 
 both sides. It spreads the defensive line and 
 there is always a hole somewheres. 
 
 75- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 The Navy modelled their close attack in 1926 
 after the new Warner formation. In my opin- 
 ion the Navy had the strongest close running at- 
 tack in the country. The beauty about this for- 
 mation is that it is possible to run to either side. 
 The wing back outside of each offensive end 
 spreads the defense with the resultant weakness 
 somewhere in the line. 
 
 In the old days of push and pull, Yale had 
 for many years the strongest close attack in the 
 country. In 1923, the Yale team showed a very 
 versatile and powerful attack. They swept 
 through the Army and Princeton from a kick 
 formation play with a split line on the strong 
 side. We were able to do little or nothing 
 against this offense. Stevens and Neidlinger, 
 a great pair of Yale backs, gained consistently 
 all through the game. 
 
 T T 
 O O X O O O O 
 
 O Richeson O Mallory 
 O Neale 
 O Stevens 
 
 From this formation it was equally easy to 
 run, kick or pass. There was a split opening be- 
 
 7 6. 
 
By Their Plays Ye Shall Know Them 
 
 tween the two tackles and between the end and 
 outside tackle. Mallory played behind the sec- 
 ond tackle. He worked effectively on our de- 
 fensive tackle, who could be boxed in or out ac- 
 cording to his position. Either Eicheson or 
 Neale could carry the ball through the line, with 
 Stevens in a splendid position to run, pass or 
 kick. 
 
 77- 
 
Chapter V 
 
 BETWEEN THE HALVES IN A 
 FOOTBALL, GAME 
 
 T BELIEVE a good many football games are 
 ■ lost by the way in which the team is handled 
 right before the big games. One of the greatest 
 mistakes any coach can make is to give his players 
 any hard work the day or so before the game, 
 or attempt to teach his team any more football 
 in those closing periods. By Thursday the team 
 should be through as far as football is concerned. 
 If the players are to do their best on Saturday 
 they must have plenty of rest the day before. I 
 am beginning to think it a mistake to have any 
 practice at all on Friday. 
 
 Nor do I believe in herding the players to- 
 gether at some out of the way place the night be- 
 fore the game. The men should sleep in their 
 own beds and follow their usual daily routine. I 
 have had some very disastrous experiences in fol- 
 lowing any other plan. And have become con- 
 vinced, the more the importance of the game is 
 
 7 8. 
 
Between the Halves 
 
 magnified beforehand the more keyed up the 
 average boy becomes and the less likely to do his 
 best when the game begins. 
 
 There are of course some simple precautions 
 every coach should take, I believe a good many 
 games are lost in or near the dressing-rooms be- 
 fore the play begins, and it profits a coach very 
 little to gain all the season and lose his cham- 
 pionship merely for want of a little forethought 
 about what seems a wholly unimportant detail. 
 
 For instance, very naturally, as the game 
 draws near, everybody who knows any member 
 of the team or coaching staff becomes possessed 
 of an overpowering desire to interview him. I 
 suppose it is inevitable that friends who have 
 come a long way to see the game or who merely 
 want to prove to themselves and their com- 
 panions that they really do know somebody on 
 the inside, should forget that by intruding at this 
 time they are doing their level best to beat their 
 team, but whatever the reason it is decidedly a 
 part of winning football to see that the men are 
 absolutely protected against this thoughtless dis- 
 traction. 
 
 I have seen dressing-rooms so crowded with 
 outsiders that the men actually were cramped for 
 space, and some of these interested spectators in- 
 
 79- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 sisted on smoking, while others bewailed the fact 
 that their connection with the assistant rubber's 
 third cousin had not enabled them to get a seat 
 on the fifty yard line and demanded that this in- 
 justice be rectified at once. One gets a beautiful 
 slant on the human sense of self-importance on 
 occasions like this. It is really more difficult than 
 it sounds to safeguard a team of boys already 
 under a high nervous tension from the petty an- 
 noyances of their friends and of overzealous par- 
 tisans who make up for their lack of acquaintance 
 by a vociferous patriotism which takes the edge 
 off every man's determination as nothing else 
 can do. 
 
 It is really an essential thing to get a man on 
 guard at the door of the quarters who is not only 
 without human sympathies but has the authority 
 necessary to hold his ground against old players 
 and former captains, even, who seem to forget 
 how they hated these visitations in their own day, 
 and are bent on imparting some of their vintage 
 ideas to the coach and team at the last moment. 
 
 Besides being absolutely sheltered from dis- 
 tractions, the team should have a brisk warming 
 up on the field. This preliminary practice should 
 be carefully planned out ahead of time. When 
 the players are on the field they should be get- 
 
 80. 
 
Between the Halves 
 
 ting some actual practice, not just loafing 
 around. A short regular routine will help every- 
 body in getting used to the crowd and the feel 
 of the ball. The ends and backs should have 
 about five minutes practice in receiving passes, 
 from the men who will pass in the game. The 
 backs should catch punts while the line should 
 be given some slow starts. I generally figure on 
 a work out of about ten minutes. Unless it is 
 raining when the practice should be shortened. 
 The team should be then taken from the field for 
 a final talk with the coach, in which the old line of 
 hysterical adjurations have no place whatever. 
 The fighting spirit grows best in a quiet atmos- 
 phere of earnestness, and will profit from being 
 permitted to suggest itself as I have already tried 
 to point out. This last conference cannot include 
 any new football teaching, although I remember 
 cases in which it was used for exactly that pur- 
 pose. With me this last talk is as carefully con- 
 sidered beforehand as if I were making a set 
 address. An extemporized burst of rhetoric 
 won't do. Generally speaking, it is a stimulus 
 rather than an admonition that I aim for, and 
 every man will have his own way of handling the 
 problem, anyway. I know that some coaches 
 proceed on the assumption that noise has its 
 
 81. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 value and perhaps it has. I know that others 
 make a practice of calling in old-time heroes or 
 professional graduates given to spread-eagle elo- 
 quence to use these final minutes. I am not 
 arguing against them. I merely describe my 
 own idea of the way to give a team the winning 
 feel. 
 
 Unconsciously every player takes his cue from 
 the coach in these trying minutes. It is not 
 enough for the coach to have his own nerves 
 under control and to show a kind of cool calm- 
 ness which is the best index of confidence, but he 
 must also know, and show that he knows, exactly 
 what is to be done by everybody at every minute. 
 It is very easy to let some minor annoyance dis- 
 turb one's equanimity, and the ease with which 
 this can happen to the coach is an excellent proof 
 of the harder tension on the men. Somebody is 
 perfectly certain to have neglected his duty some- 
 where and there is always a mass of trivial things 
 left undone or done wrong by rubbers and other 
 assistants. I remember seeing one coach who had 
 held himself beautifully in check until a few mo- 
 ments before the opening whistle suddenly ex- 
 plode in a frothing rage because one of the foot- 
 balls was insufficiently inflated. And at game 
 after game I have watched something of this sort 
 
 82. 
 
Between the Halves 
 
 happen, until for myself I am on very vigilant 
 guard against any provocation. 
 
 A team which sees its leader fly off the handle 
 over a missing blanket or a broken shoe-lace can- 
 not be blamed for showing a certain uneasiness 
 itself. 
 
 The best way of avoiding these seemingly triv- 
 ial dangers is to know in advance what one is 
 going to say and do during every minute. I map 
 out the time well ahead and stick to my schedule 
 like a limited train. This applies especially to 
 the game itself, when, although I am not in di- 
 rect charge of play on the field, I am still vitally 
 involved. I know and write down exactly how I 
 am going to make substitutions and I think this 
 over about as carefully as if it were our most im- 
 portant play. It isn't very long since I watched 
 a championship thrown away by a mere confu- 
 sion in a single substitution, and I am not likely 
 to forget it for a long time to come. I also be- 
 lieve it is good policy to let each prospective sub- 
 stitute know in advance which man he will re- 
 place so that he may keep a closer watch on that 
 particular player and his opponent, and go in, 
 when he does go, better equipped than the first 
 choice could be, by knowing how the opponent 
 behaves on the field. 
 
 83- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 In line with this same plan, I carefully prear- 
 range the seating order of the substitutes, so that 
 those who play one position will be grouped to- 
 gether and under instructions to watch their par- 
 ticular predecessors rather than the general play. 
 I always keep the substitute quarterbacks beside 
 me and discuss with them as the play proceeds 
 the merit or defect of strategy and tactics as 
 exhibited by the first-string man. 
 
 This attention to petty detail may sound 
 sordid, as if winning football had nothing in it 
 except a passion for the long end of the score. I 
 have no patience, to be sure, with the view that it 
 is in some fashion unsportsmanlike to regard 
 winning as a trivial detail and playing as the 
 paramount consideration. Somehow that always 
 sounds to me like a rather feeble alibi for defeat, 
 and I can't help noticing that the people who talk 
 most about it when they lose are those who go 
 frantic with delight when they win. But it is 
 perfectly true that the right attitude toward the 
 game I call winning football is one of unweary- 
 ing desire to play the best that is in the player, 
 win or lose, and I conceive that these seemingly 
 minor points are quite as vital in their way as 
 the mechanics of the play which nobody will ever 
 
 84. 
 
Between the Halves 
 
 criticize a man for knowing and considering and 
 perfecting. 
 
 I have been writing throughout rather from 
 the point of view of a coach who has assistants 
 and need not attend in person to every part of 
 his work. Of course, there are instances by the 
 hundred in which one man has to do all the coach- 
 ing without any help at all, and his job becomes 
 particularly difficult when he faces his champion- 
 ship game. No one man can possibly watch the 
 individual play of eleven men at the same time 
 closely enough to know when any one of them is 
 tired or weakening or hurt, nor can one man 
 criticize that individual play intelligently later 
 on. 
 
 All good football players have or acquire a 
 sort of pluck which is admirable in itself but not 
 always sensible or discreet. I remember watch- 
 ing one game in which a lineman played through 
 several minutes with a broken shoulder, a piece 
 of stark heroism which I should hardly believe 
 myself if I had not seen it. Fine as his courage 
 and stoicism were, he would have been far more 
 useful on the sidelines, and he cost his team fifty 
 or sixty yards before his overburdened coach be- 
 came aware of the truth. That coach, too, was a 
 very competent fellow, and the incident serves 
 
 85. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 to show how many things one man would have to 
 watch if he should even try to rely on his unaided 
 powers of observation. I advise getting assis- 
 tance from old players, or friends who know the 
 game or even substitutes themselves in keeping 
 a close individual watch on every man on the 
 field, not only to be informed of his physical con- 
 dition but to judge as far as may be of his play 
 and its possibilities of improvement. Three or 
 four good men can easily watch the individual 
 play of the eleven, but no one man should even 
 attempt it. 
 
 During the first half I believe that the coach's 
 job is chiefly to observe, through his own eyes 
 and others', and not to meddle more than he 
 must with the leadership of the eleven on the 
 field. If you have not managed to teach your 
 quarterback and captain to think for themselves, 
 your team will be very apt to be beaten before 
 you can wigwag orders to them from the side- 
 lines and will deserve it, too. Such intervention 
 as may properly fall to your part concerns rather 
 the relief of wearying players and the choice of 
 men to replace them especially since the adop- 
 tion of the rules allowing a player to leave the 
 game and later return to it, which in themselves 
 open up a very considerable field for sideline 
 
 86. 
 
^3 
 
 o 
 
 ■si 
 
 5Si 
 5* 
 
Between the Halves 
 
 strategy which is often wholly neglected. A sub- 
 stitute going out on the field must always be 
 warned again about reporting to the officials and 
 avoiding speech with the other players until after 
 a play has been made. Even, so there will be 
 enough instances of forgetfulness to satisfy any- 
 body. 
 
 This particular rule has always seemed to me 
 the most futile piece of academic legislation ever 
 inflicted on the game. It does not and cannot 
 conceivably prevent a coach from communicating 
 as often as he likes with his men, and those who 
 believe in captaining a team from the sidelines 
 never could have managed it by sending out sub- 
 stitutes as couriers. Instead, it involves a trying 
 delay at every substitution and suggests to the 
 spectator that one object of winning football is 
 to evade or break the rules of the game if it can 
 be done without detection. Again, it seems to 
 work an injustice which its sponsors could not 
 have foreseen, in the recurrent inability of a 
 frantically happy substitute to remember the 
 penalty for a perfectly natural action or 
 omission. 
 
 I have absolutely no desire to win distance 
 and still less to win games because such a thing 
 happens to the other side, and naturally I have 
 
 87. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 still less taste for losing them through forgetf ill- 
 ness on ours. Some day this rule will go; and it 
 will be good for the game when it does. You 
 cannot ever stop sideline coaching until you 
 abolish the spectators and attempts to make it 
 more difficult are merely to complicate the play 
 and penalize, not the offender, but the innocent 
 and forgetful boy who if he had a message to 
 carry illegitimately would certainly not break the 
 rule. 
 
 There is one and only one way of stopping a 
 coach from trying to captain his team during 
 games, and that is a beautifully effective one, 
 which requires no officials and no rules. It lies 
 here: The team which is run from the sidelines 
 will lose every time against fairly even opposi- 
 tion trained to do its own thinking. The quarter- 
 back has too many things to watch on the field to 
 keep his eye on the sidelines, and no coach can 
 get the close view of the playing positions which 
 is essential to sound field tactics. It is like pass- 
 ing laws against suicide. They never prevent the 
 attempt or punish the successful offender. The 
 only infraction they can reach is failure to offend. 
 Getting consistently beaten will cure any bad 
 habit a coach can acquire. 
 
 One thing that a coach can and should do is to 
 
 88. 
 
Between the Halves 
 
 hold his own stopwatch, or, better still, have one 
 held for him by somebody close by who is com- 
 petent to do it, as not everybody is. Knowing 
 exactly how the time stands plays a heavy part 
 in sideline strategy, especially in these days of 
 quarter periods and the possibility of replacing 
 a tiring player. 
 
 The fifteen-minute interval between the halves 
 is pure gold for the coach who knows how to use 
 it and a time of trouble and defeat for the man 
 who has failed to realize its possibilities in each 
 direction. All the trials of the preliminary sus- 
 pense are multiplied here. For every intruder 
 who tries to break in before the game there will 
 be three at the door between the halves, and the 
 man who would be merely disorderly in the first 
 instance is apt to create a riot now. The old 
 player has smeiled blood and powder during the 
 first half, win or lose, and there is no stopping 
 him once he gets past the gate. Bedlam is peace- 
 ful compared to the dressing rooms if the door is 
 not double-barred and triple-guarded. The small 
 boy and the merely inquisitive spectator, rein- 
 forced by amateur Napoleons each with an un- 
 stoppable play, and the small army of throat- 
 itching revivalists, all gather hungrily at the gate 
 and it takes not only watchful waiting and armed 
 
 89. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 neutrality, but a downright rupture of diplo- 
 matic relations to avoid their inrush. 
 
 My own memories of the days when I lay 
 gasping for breath and found that all the avail- 
 able air was already in use, when two earnest and 
 ingeniously profane exhorters bent over me with 
 conflicting floods of asterisked rhetoric, are still 
 painful memories and on more than one instance 
 I have watched a two touchdown lead wiped out 
 after one of these impromptu camp-meetings. 
 
 For five minutes after the whistle my men are 
 guaranteed absolute and undisturbed rest and 
 quiet. Not one man gets near them except the 
 trainer, and not even I intrude in that interval. 
 However good their condition, the strain on the 
 nerves is enough to make this indispensable. 
 When I contrast the difference between teams 
 treated like this and those subjected to the in- 
 describable tumult and shouting of my own play- 
 ing days I wonder how anybody could have failed 
 to draw the inference for himself and yet I still 
 see case after case of the old-fashioned methods 
 whose other policies are far from foolish. 
 
 Rightly used in this way, five minutes will fit 
 a team to listen intelligently to criticism and sug- 
 gestion directed at play and to whatever, emo- 
 tional stimulus seems advisable. These five min- 
 
 90. 
 
Between the Halves 
 
 utes of rest for the team provide the coach with 
 his opportunity to get reports from the men who 
 have been detailed to watch individual play, so 
 that when he does talk he can know exactly what 
 he ought to say and waste no time in beating 
 about broad bushes. It helps a team amazingly 
 to discover that their coach is fiendishly aware 
 of minor happenings on the field and they play 
 better after finding it out, every time. 
 
 I know that some men have experimented with 
 the alternative of keeping the team on the field 
 between the halves, and although this has the one 
 advantage of making sure that they are not 
 breathing bad air, I think it never pays. The 
 players will inevitably stiffen up. They hear and 
 see too much, besides, and there is no doubt that 
 they miss the rest and relaxation which only pri- 
 vacy and quiet will allow. 
 
 There used to be a general idea that a losing 
 team could be miraculously heartened by a scien- 
 tific tongue-lashing on the part of the coach or 
 of some specially selected artist in invective dur- 
 ing this rest interval. I have seen it work my- 
 self, but on more occasions I have seen it fail, 
 and for my part I prefer not to use the device 
 on general principles. After all, an atmosphere 
 of quiet, business-like directness is more effective 
 
 91. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 with most men, and they profit best from the con- 
 fidence and liking inspired by a competent critic 
 and leader. I dislike, on principle, all forms of 
 artificial stimulation, from oratory to coffee, and 
 it seems to me that the game ought to be played 
 by mind and muscle and heart rather than by 
 unnatural spurring of any sort. The best teams 
 I have seen have uniformly been those which 
 were cool and clear-headed. The charge of a 
 merely maddened fanatic is a mean thing to stop, ~ 
 in war or anywhere else, but the man who stops 
 it is nearly always the one who keeps the red blur 
 of emotion from distorting his vision, who can 
 fight as hard as the dervish but does not let go of 
 his wits to do it. 
 
 Win or lose, if there is more than one game of 
 the championship sort, the ensuing interval is a 
 hard affair to meet, and this is far harder with a 
 defeated team than with a winner, naturally 
 enough. Even a winning team has to be handled 
 carefully while it waits for the next game, or it 
 will go astray along one or the other of the many 
 easy avenues which open before it — over-confi- 
 dence, a let-down in physical condition, or any 
 one of a score of pitfalls can turn a sure cham- 
 pion into a sure loser. 
 
 During this gap, if we have won, I find that 
 
 92. 
 
Between the Halves 
 
 there will be bad play in the first practice scrim- 
 mage, and I make sure of one fairly long session 
 as soon as possible after the game, to get all this 
 bad play out of the team's system, so to speak, 
 at once. In the main, the important thing is to 
 guard against a let-down born of too much work 
 or too much confidence. And it is also important 
 to protect the team as much as possible from the 
 well meant attentions of its friends. 
 
 With a losing team, the task is to recreate and 
 stiffen confidence even more than to correct the 
 faults of play itself. There is no sovereign 
 remedy for defeat and one team always presents 
 a problem different from those offered by the 
 others. I have to suit my method to my men and 
 the circumstances, but it is always essential to 
 instill cheerfulness as much as possible. Defeat 
 leaves a gloom which is very hard to dispel and 
 which wet-blankets mental and physical energy 
 as nothing else will. Here, too, the men have to 
 be protected steadily against outside influence — 
 against sympathizers who account for defeat in 
 comforting but generally misleading fashion, or 
 earnest admonishers who volunteer suggestions 
 often, if not always, at variance with the facts. 
 After the final game, it does not do to forget that 
 teams may come and teams may go but the game 
 
 93- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 goes on forever, and that next year's champion- 
 ship can be won or lost in this year's dressing 
 room or train. A winning team means diplo- 
 matic management or it will let enthusiasm over- 
 balance judgment with sometimes very bad re- 
 sults indeed, and a losing eleven needs even more 
 careful handling or the sting of defeat will leave 
 scars that will erTect the whole coming season. 
 
 94. 
 
Chapter VI 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FOOTBALL 
 
 TT is impossible to train any football team by 
 A the yardstick and get the best results. One of 
 the most important things for a coach to do is to 
 study his squad and learn the dispositions and 
 temperaments of the various members who com- 
 pose it. When he has done this he has something 
 to work on. 
 
 It has been my experience that most football 
 players work best under encouragement. A few 
 have to be driven, but not many, and as a usual 
 thing a good word will accomplish much more 
 with the average boy than a call-down. I have 
 seen players ruined by improper handling, while 
 a mediocre player often rises to great heights by 
 being touched in the right spot. 
 
 I remember an amusing incident that hap- 
 pened several years ago at Princeton. We had 
 a powerful lumbering fellow on the team who 
 didn't like to work in practice, and yet he was 
 just the one who needed the work. On account 
 
 95- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 of his great strength and natural ability he was 
 indispensable to the team, — if he could be gotten 
 into shape. We tried everything: put him on 
 the scrub, and even put him off the team en- 
 tirely. But nothing seemed to work; he seemed 
 to sense that we would always need him in the 
 end. 
 
 At last I went to him one day and said: "We 
 are going to lay off the captain for a few days, 
 he needs a rest, and I want you to captain the 
 team this week, and don't forget the captain has 
 to be the first man in every play." 
 
 Our plan worked like a charm. That after- 
 noon and all week, as acting captain, he worked 
 like a Trojan. And as a result, when the big 
 games came around, the player we had almost 
 given up was one of the strongest on the line. 
 
 In 1925 we decided to use two complete sets 
 of backs in the first few games, alternating their 
 order of playing in each game. I could see 
 Caulkins, the man I was counting on to play 
 quarterback, was not doing himself justice in 
 these early games. I was a bit alarmed, and after 
 thinking the matter over, went to him and ex- 
 plained my reason for playing him as I did. He 
 told me he was greatly relieved, as when we 
 didn't start him he had imagined there was some- 
 
 9 6. 
 
The Psychology of Football 
 
 thing wrong with his work, and try as he would 
 it affected his play. 
 
 On the spot I assured him the coaches were 
 more than satisfied with the way he was playing, 
 and from that day his general play showed a big 
 improvement. Caulkins ran the team in the 
 Harvard and Yale games without a mistake, and 
 was one of the outstanding players. He was the 
 type of player who always tries his hardest. Al 
 Wittmer, who is coaching our line at Princeton, 
 was another of this type, and I could mention 
 any number of others. It is ruination to push 
 any player of this temperament. They thrive 
 on encouragement and light work. 
 
 I am a great believer in strict discipline on the 
 field. If the practice sessions are set for a certain 
 time they should start promptly on time. No 
 player should be permitted to come straggling in 
 ten or fifteen minutes late. I think it is a good 
 idea to call the roll each day before practice. 
 
 Every coach should insist that the players be 
 on time for meals and that they go to bed at a 
 sensible hour. A business-like air about the 
 field breeds confidence. I always insist that 
 every man on the squad live up to the very letter 
 of the training rules. I don't believe the coach 
 should be a detective and pry into what the fel- 
 
 97- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 lows are doing every minute of the day. More 
 will be accomplished by putting the players on 
 their honor. If a man breaks training, he should 
 be dismissed instantly from the squad, — the coach 
 who attempts to temporize with this sort of thing 
 is lost. I know it is hard to fire a valuable man, 
 but it pays every time. I am glad to say my ex- 
 periences of this kind have been few and far be- 
 tween. 
 
 The coach should know what he is going to do 
 on the field every minute of the time. It is a 
 good idea to map out carefully what you are go- 
 ing to do beforehand, and be sure you stick to 
 your set program. In the old days I shall never 
 forget how the coaches would come out on the 
 field with no set program, and just flounder 
 around with no definite idea of what was to come 
 next. They would sometimes disagree as to the 
 assignments on a certain play, and much valuable 
 time would be lost arguing about it on the field. 
 The worst thing in the world is for the players to 
 lose confidence in their coaches. If the coach is 
 on his toes every minute of the practice and acts 
 as if he knew what he was doing, the players will 
 follow him enthusiastically. But he must know 
 how to lead and how to organize the work. 
 
 Every man on the squad should be treated 
 
 98. 
 
The Psychology of Football 
 
 alike ; every coach should guard against showing 
 any favoritism. The youngest player should be 
 made to feel as much at home on the field as the 
 veteran of several seasons. It has been the cus- 
 tom for years at Princeton for the players to call 
 the coaches by their first names. Personally I 
 think it is a good idea. I have never seen anyone 
 become familiar on the field with any coach be- 
 cause of it. Every fall some of the new men are 
 a bit diffident about doing it. And I always make 
 it a point to urge them to do so, as it is most im- 
 portant for every man to feel he is on the same 
 footing with the rest. 
 
 Several years ago I coached at The University 
 of Missouri. We were fortunate enough to win 
 the Valley Championship, and we didn't start off 
 the season with any too promising material 
 either. The experiences of that year convinced 
 me that it is not always the best material that 
 produces the best football teams. What every 
 coach should work for is to get every man to put 
 every thing he has in him into his play every min- 
 ute of the time. The team that goes on the field 
 in that attitude is the team that will be successful 
 in nine out of ten times. 
 
 It has been our custom at Princeton for a num- 
 ber of years to invite President Hibben to take 
 
 99. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 dinner with the team some evening towards the 
 end of the season. He always gives the squad a 
 talk and his visits are eagerly looked forward to 
 by every one. 
 
 On one occasion he brought out how important 
 it was for every player to keep his mind and at- 
 tention fixed on the play just ahead of him. 
 "Don't think particularly about the next half," 
 he said, "but fix your attention on the next play, 
 and try to do your best in that play, — the others 
 will take care of themselves." President Hibben 
 compared the proper attitude of the football 
 player to the attitude of a golf player who is al- 
 ways intent on the next shot, — if it is a bad one 
 he should forget about it and go on to the next 
 one, — I admit this is mighty hard to do, 
 especially in golf. This it seems to me should be 
 the state of mind of the football player. To go 
 in and do his very best in every play. 
 
 During my stay at Missouri we made a trip 
 through Iowa, playing two games, one with the 
 University of Iowa, and the other with the Iowa 
 Agricultural University at Ames. We were 
 fairly successful on this trip and made a better 
 showing than any Missouri team had done 
 against these two opponents for several years, 
 i oo. 
 
The Psychology of Football 
 
 That fall our main objective was the University 
 of Kansas, whom we played Thanksgiving Day. 
 
 I didn't want our players to get a distorted 
 idea of their ability from the result of these two 
 games. The team that gets over-confident is the 
 team that is usually beaten, — when we neared 
 Columbia I heard the whole undergraduate body 
 was waiting for us at the station with the band. 
 I felt this would have a bad affect on the players. 
 So when we got within about six miles of Co- 
 lumbia, I told every one a walk would do him 
 good after the long train ride, and we got off 
 the train and hiked in the back way and missed 
 the celebration entirely. 
 
 Before the Yale-Princeton game at "New 
 Haven in 1925, Yale was a top-heavy favorite. 
 They had swamped a strong Army team a few 
 weeks before. This same Army team had de- 
 cisively beaten Notre Dame. Every sporting 
 column in the East was full of the prowess of 
 this wonderful team, and no one conceded that 
 Princeton had an outside chance. We had de- 
 feated Harvard 36-0 the week before; but we 
 had beaten Harvard the year previous and then 
 had bowed to Yale; so there were few who held 
 out much hope of our winning from what was ad- 
 mitted to be a very strong Yale team. After 
 
 IOI. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 the Harvard game the papers said we might put 
 up a good fight but that would be all. 
 
 As a matter of fact we had a very strong team, 
 — one that everyone except those who had fol- 
 lowed it closely had under-estimated. I felt the 
 team hadn't reached its peak yet and that, if 
 properly handled, would be at its best against 
 Yale on Saturday. I could see, however, our 
 players were becoming very much affected by all 
 the talk about the unbeatable Yale team and they 
 were beginning to wonder whether they had any 
 chance. While there is nothing worse than over- 
 confidence, — Tad Jones had that to handicap 
 him at New Haven, — on the other hand, the in- 
 feriority complex is nearly as bad. 
 
 I made up my mind the situation demanded 
 heroic measures, — I first arranged for open prac- 
 tice on Wednesday before the game, and selected 
 a team to oppose the Varsity composed of 
 coaches and the strongest substitutes. We in- 
 vited the entire college down to this practice, and 
 to ensure a big attendance we had a big meeting 
 of the Key men beforehand who took charge of 
 the details. I have never seen a larger or more 
 enthusiastic attendance at any practice since I 
 have been coaching at Princeton. 
 
 I then made a careful analysis of the Yale 
 
 102. 
 
The Psychology of Football 
 
 Team from the statistics in the program and 
 compared their weights, ages, and playing rec- 
 ords with the members of our own team. I found 
 the Yale line averaged exactly three pounds less 
 than our own. While their backfleld was a trifle 
 heavier, all in all there was no difference in the 
 weights of the two teams. In addition, our fel- 
 lows were just as old and had practically as much 
 playing experience. On paper there was no 
 reason why Yale should overwhelm us. 
 
 The practice on Wednesday was the best of the 
 year. The Varsity had no difficulty in defeating 
 the scrub, although it was reinforced with Stan 
 Keck, Al Wittimer, Jack Winn, and Buz Stout, 
 all in the pink of condition and all playing their 
 hardest. After the practice I asked Keck what 
 was the matter, why he hadn't been more success- 
 ful in stopping the Varsity plays, he exclaimed : 
 "Why six men seemed to hit me at once." So I 
 felt the team was in pretty good shape. 
 
 The next day I called a meeting of the team 
 and went over the Yale statistics, man for man, 
 and compared them with our own team. There 
 showed that our line, which everyone said was 
 much inferior, was in reality heavier than the 
 Yale line and just as old. I then asked why Yale 
 should be such a top-heavy favorite? "There 
 
 103. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 are only eleven men on each side," I said. "As 
 you are not spotting the Yale team a thing when 
 it comes to physical qualifications, why should 
 they be such a top-heavy favorite?" 
 
 I could see that what I said had made an 
 impression, and the entire attitude of our fellows 
 changed. From that time on they had an air of 
 cool confidence about them that was most reas- 
 suring. 
 
 The hardest job a coach can have, however, is 
 to combat over-confidence. It is more insidious, 
 and has demoralized more teams than anything 
 else. Nothing alarms me more than to have a 
 team I am coaching go into a big game a favorite. 
 The records are full of games lost by the teams 
 that should have won easily on past perform- 
 ances. We had such a situation at Princeton 
 as far back as 1897. Princeton had a veteran 
 team composed of stars. Two weeks before the 
 Yale game they swamped a supposedly power- 
 ful Lafayette team 57-0. Yale was weak that 
 year, — or so considered. They had been beaten 
 by Brown just before the Princeton game. The 
 Tigers went to New Haven supremely confident ; 
 their only doubt was as to the size of the score. 
 From the start of the game Princeton was out- 
 played and Yale won 6-0. 
 
 104. 
 
"RED" GRANGE 
 Most talked of player in football history. 
 
The Psychology of Football 
 
 In 1924 Princeton defeated Harvard 34-0, and 
 the next week lost to Yale 10-0. All week before 
 the Yale game I tried my hardest to convince the 
 members of our team that Yale would play a ter- 
 rific game. In a way the players realized it 
 themselves, but they couldn't forget the ease 
 with which they had run up a big score the week 
 before, and they felt they could do it again. 
 When the game started it took Yale about five 
 minutes to demonstrate they couldn't. 
 
 Football coaches the country over have appre- 
 ciated the value of Phychology and Jesse 
 Hawley of Dartmouth, a few years ago, of- 
 ficially introduced it by inviting a professor of 
 psychology to talk to his football players. 
 
 Professor Henry T. Moore, of the department 
 of psychology at Dartmouth, gave the football 
 men a new and interesting slant on their sport. 
 Such phrases as : indirect vision, somatic percep- 
 tion, reaction time, were brought out during the 
 talk. "Reaction time" probably meant nothing 
 to some of the men before Prof. Moore explained 
 that there is an exact instant when an athlete, 
 after hearing a command to action, is ready to 
 respond with the utmost of his strength and skill, 
 — that he can give only a portion of his powers 
 
 105. 
 
/ 
 
 Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 when forced to act before that instant arrives or 
 after it has passed. 
 
 The margin of victory is always a mental one 
 between teams of even reasonably equal merit. 
 The element of luck, to which so many unex- 
 pected defeats and triumphs are attributed, is, 
 more often than not, a mere manifestation of 
 mental difference. It is not the lucky team which 
 wins, but the slow-witted eleven which loses. 
 
 The problem of modern football is first and 
 always to outwit the defense, to surprise the of- 
 fense. And the team capable of utilizing not 
 merely brain and brawn, but the subtle quality 
 referred to as psychology has more than an even 
 break of coming through a winner. 
 
 106. 
 
Chapter VII 
 
 ANY BOY CAN BE A FOOTBALL PLAYER 
 
 Hp HE normal American boy with a healthy 
 longing to play on his school or college 
 football team often holds back because he is 
 small in stature, lacking in weight or natural 
 ability. 
 
 I sincerely believe that the average healthy 
 youngster, all things being equal, can be devel- 
 oped into a football player capable of holding 
 down a varsity job. There is no trick in it. 
 Football players, even the best of them, didn't 
 just happen to step out on a college gridiron 
 and find themselves great players. 
 
 Football, within its limitations, is a craft, an 
 art. A boy with an abundance of natural ability 
 must be carefully trained to meet its rigid re- 
 quirements; just like the young violinist, poet, 
 actor or golfer. Every boy has his individual 
 problem. He may be lacking in endurance, 
 speed and initiative. He may be awkward, 
 clumsy and lazy. There is always something 
 
 107. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 to be overcome when one is young and plas- 
 tic. 
 
 Athletic history is filled with examples of 
 subnormal boys who have developed into vigor- 
 ous men. Likewise, many puny youngsters have 
 made themselves into champions, or near cham- 
 pions, by diligently applying themselves. 
 Bobby Jones, the most wonderful golfer in the 
 world, is an outstanding example. At a tender 
 age, his very life was all but despaired of by a 
 physician. His parents were told he must have 
 outdoor exercise. They moved near a golf club, 
 and then Bobby started to develop. 
 
 Don Lourie, picked by Walter Camp in 1920 
 for his All- America Football quarterback, was 
 a slight, fragile looking boy whom most people 
 would have believed unfitted for football. He 
 had speed, intelligence and a perfect knowledge 
 of the game. Through inquiries I learned that 
 he had played with a football from the time 
 he could kick it, and that helped to overcome all 
 physical disabilities. 
 
 Frank Murray, one of the surest drop-kickers 
 I have ever seen, began in childhood and taught 
 himself to kick by practicing in his back yard at 
 Nashville, Tennessee. He was not strong, but 
 liked the game. His father erected a goal post 
 
 108. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Player 
 
 in his yard and bought Frank a football. The 
 boy practiced kicking by the hour. As a result, 
 he developed physically, and when he went to 
 college, he could drop-kick a goal at almost any 
 angle. 
 
 There is a general impression that only big, 
 brawny men have a chance to excel in football. 
 We have only to look back over the records and 
 find that many men small and puny have been 
 stars of the first rank. 
 
 The Poe brothers of Princeton— Johnny, Ar- 
 thur and Nat — were stars back in the golden 
 nineties when close formations and mass attacks 
 put a premium on strength and bulk. In the 
 last few years the little fellows are creeping into 
 the headlines as stars all over the country. Uter- 
 itz, of Michigan; "Andy" Thompson, of Penn; 
 Gorman, of Princeton; Way, of Penn State; 
 Dinsmore, of Princeton ; Goodwine, of Yale and 
 Buell of Harvard are a few of the most out- 
 standing. 
 
 There is a place for every type of boy on 
 a football team. If he has a fighting heart, 
 the right spirit, and the determination to work, 
 he will not be ignored, no matter if he is lacking 
 in some physical qualification. 
 
 I believe in giving not merely a warm wel- 
 
 109. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 come to every man who presents himself at the 
 field-house, but in putting a special and careful 
 effort on the candidates who show little imme- 
 diate promise. Some of the best players ever 
 developed were drawn from this group of men — 
 men who had failed to make prep-school teams 
 because of relatively slow development, and who 
 as freshmen or sophomores were still well behind 
 their mates in football knowledge and experi- 
 ence. Such boys are sometimes slow to take hold 
 on the field and the first impulse of a coach dis- 
 tracted with trying to distinguish between a 
 hundred strange faces, is to clarify his problem 
 by eliminating them at once. There could hardly 
 be a more serious blunder. 
 
 The experienced and confident player is sure 
 of himself and knows a little of what is to be 
 done, but the beginner feels shy and strange. He 
 needs encouragement not only for his own sake 
 but for the effect on the rest of the squad. No 
 coach can afford to give anybody a legitimate 
 reason for feeling slighted. Such grievances 
 damage the morale more effectively than any- 
 thing else. To pick an eleven on the first day 
 or in the first week is impossible and unwise. 
 
 I like to see competition for places on my 
 teams alive and keen right up to the final games, 
 
 no. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Player 
 
 and this cannot be done except by keeping the 
 slower learners interested and eager. There is 
 always a possibility, too, that one of them will 
 suddenly develop into first class material. 
 
 Every year some man is discovered at Prince- 
 ton. Last season it was Lawler, an end. The 
 year before, Hull, a halfback. 
 
 These men toiled with the scrubs day in and 
 day out and finally showed enough ability to land 
 varsity jobs. 
 
 According to Alonzo Stagg, relatively small 
 men, weighing 160 pounds or less, have been the 
 most spectacular players Conference football 
 has produced. Eckersall weighed only 132 when 
 he reported on the squad, and never more than 
 145. His successor, Wallie Steffen, Rollie Wil- 
 liams of Wisconsin, Oliphant of Purdue and the 
 Army, Pete Russell, Paddy Driscoll of North- 
 western, Chick Harley of Ohio State, John Mc- 
 Govern of Minnesota, Harold Porgue and his 
 Illinois co-star, Pottsy Clark, Kipke of Michi- 
 gan — all were in this class. Aubrey Devine and 
 Grange weighed 170 and 175, respectively. 
 
 The smaller man carries his weight in better 
 balance, is more agile, usually more graceful. 
 Running with a shorter stride, he can check, 
 
 nr. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 pivot, swerve, stop and get underway without 
 loss of speed or balance. 
 
 Stagg favors men who have football imagina- 
 tion, who are able to lose themselves in the drama 
 of the game. He believes that football 
 players are born, not made. "Certainly," he 
 says, "physical attributes enter into being a foot- 
 ball player, but a manufactured tackle or full- 
 back always will remain an automaton, a me- 
 chanical player. 
 
 "When I can possibly do without such a player 
 I won't have him around." 
 
 Coach "Hurry Up" Yost, of Michigan gives 
 five qualities which make the football player. 
 They are: 
 
 Determination. 
 
 Perseverance. 
 
 Co-ordination. 
 
 Brains. 
 
 Strength. 
 
 They are within the grasp of anyone seeking 
 football honors — all can be developed, except, 
 possibly, strength, and that certainly, can be in- 
 creased. 
 
 "As to natural qualifications," says Yost, 
 "You may reverse the order. The first thing a 
 
 112. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Player 
 
 coach seeks in a candidate is not strength but 
 the determination to do. The strong, brainy, 
 perfectly co-ordinated boy is not an athlete un- 
 less he possesses the determination and willing- 
 ness to persevere. And the greatest athletes are 
 not the strongest or the biggest or the smartest. 
 
 "By determination is meant the quality found 
 in every great athlete which enabled him, by 
 sheer force of will, to do the seemingly impossi- 
 ble when the occasion demands. 
 
 "The hardest thing to find is the boy who has 
 the mental and moral courage, the ability and 
 determination to do a thing well, and certain to 
 do his best when the mental pressure is the great- 
 est — in the heat of stiff competition. 
 
 "Willie Heston, who I believe, was one of the 
 greatest football players, had no power of en- 
 durance when he reported for football. He tired 
 very quickly and was out of wind in a short time. 
 But Heston was one of those boys who gritted 
 their teeth, and showed that he was determined 
 to overcome his shortcoming. 
 
 "Heston was an indefatigable worker when he 
 acquired wind and the necessary endurance. In 
 one season he was seemingly tireless and always 
 possessed enough reserve power to carry him 
 through for an extra yard when needed. 
 
 "3- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 "Harry Kipke was another. The captain of 
 the 1923 championship team, was the most valu- 
 able punter who ever wore the Michigan colors. 
 
 "This just didn't happen. Kipke had athletic 
 ability by nature and became the games's great- 
 est kicker by paying a price few boys are willing 
 to pay. 
 
 "Kipke's greatness was his ability to place 
 punts exactly where he wanted them. This abil- 
 ity was a result of hours upon hours of practice. 
 Kipke has practiced kicking a football ever since 
 he has been able to hold on to one. Even after 
 he entered college he took a football with him on 
 vacations and practiced kicking from all angles. 
 Little wonder he became a famous kicker!" 
 
 "It is impossible to weigh determination, cour- 
 age, grit and perseverance on a scale. Yet they 
 are the things which, blended together, make the 
 sterling football player." 
 
 "Natural ability" maintains Lawson Robert- 
 son, the veteran trainer at the University of 
 Pennsylvania, "is seventy-five per cent of the 
 battle in winning a place on a football team. 
 
 "The remaining twenty-five per cent comes 
 under the head of application. Men endowed 
 with natural athletic ability who are willing to 
 114. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Player 
 
 apply themselves to their game should soon be- 
 come adept at it. 
 
 "In this classification, spirit and determina- 
 tion are combined. If the aspiring athlete does 
 not have the right spirit and heart and strength 
 of will to 'dig in' he will not make good. He 
 might as well put his athletic ability in his back 
 pocket. 
 
 "Under application also comes discipline. 
 And this means insistent following of definite 
 training rules. Self effacement and the sinking 
 of too much ego are essential to success." 
 
 Lawson Robertson prefers the type of athlete 
 with the deep chest. This "barreled type" of 
 man has the necessary endurance, the power, to 
 come through in a pinch. 
 
 "These slim fellows," he says, "just haven't 
 got any place to pack it in. You've simply got 
 to have some place to store the reserve power — 
 plenty of lung space." 
 
 The late Walter Camp, dean of American 
 sportsmen, in advising a boy with athletic aspi- 
 rations but woefully lacking in physical qualifica- 
 tions, said: "The boy with a narrow chest is 
 automatically dropped from the football squad 
 and other athletic teams, not because he cannot 
 be developed into a strong, athletic man, but be- 
 
 H5- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 cause the coaches have not the time to develop 
 him. If he started four years before entering 
 college to develop his chest, he might have been 
 kept on the varsity squad when he tried for the 
 team and developed himself into a great athlete." 
 
 Fathers and mothers can help their boys to 
 become healthy, vigorous football players. Here 
 are a dozen rules which the parents may follow 
 in assisting the youngster: 
 
 First: Have competent physicians and den- 
 tists watch his physical condition. 
 
 Second: Give him good, clean athletes for 
 hero worship. 
 
 Third: Encourage him in home work, a 
 simple routine for which is included below. 
 
 Fourth : Watch his food ; make him eat slowly 
 and with regularity; and do not permit him to 
 play immediately after meals. 
 
 Fifth: Stress the playing of football, base- 
 ball, and tennis and see that his playing field is 
 properly laid out. 
 
 Sixth: Be sure he gets plenty of sleep. 
 
 Seventh: See that he takes a bath after each 
 game or exercise. 
 
 Eighth: Require him to play with boys his 
 own weight. 
 116. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Player 
 
 Ninth: Do not permit him to play when in- 
 jured. 
 
 Tenth: Prevent him from "babying" him- 
 self. 
 
 Eleventh : Teach him to be a good sportsman. 
 Twelfth: Correct any awkwardness or clum- 
 siness. 
 
 Any boy with the love of a game can become 
 adept at that game, provided the youngster is 
 started right. The first duty of parents is to see 
 that the boy is in shape to play the game he is 
 interested in. It is most important that every 
 boy should be carefully examined by a compe- 
 tent physician before he is allowed to play a 
 game like football. A dentist should also look 
 his teeth over. 
 
 Between the ages of ten and fifteen there are 
 weaknesses in some youngsters, not necessarily 
 organic, which would certainly prove danger- 
 ous to a boy playing such a game as football. 
 
 I have a son thirteen years old. For several 
 years I have had him examined regularly by one 
 of the best doctors of Philadelphia. I have his 
 eyes examined a£ the same time by an oculist; 
 and twice a year he is sent to the dentist. The 
 results of the various examinations are submitted 
 to me and I keep a chart index of my boy's 
 
 117. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 weight and height. To date, I am glad to say, I 
 have caught nothing but a bad pair of tonsils: 
 and since they have been removed my son has 
 shown much more endurance. 
 
 This petty attention to details about his health 
 may sound silly but as a matter of fact, I regard 
 it as the most important thing a father can do 
 for his boy. Certainly no one wants to encour- 
 age his son to play football and then find out 
 that the youngster has a weak heart. 
 
 Fine players in all games are not essentially 
 men of the heroic type, but those possessed of 
 the "feel" and love of the game. That is what 
 the parent should endeavor to develop in a boy, 
 rather than unusual skill. Once a boy is imbued 
 with the spirit, the love, and "feel" of the game, 
 it becomes easy to bring him to stardom. 
 
 Also, he should be accustomed to the imple- 
 ments of the game. In football, the boy should 
 be given a uniform and ball. He should be en- 
 couraged to run, kick, catch, and pick up the ball 
 until it becomes a second nature with him. 
 
 Take a boy to see good games and encourage 
 him to read of them. Stimulate his interest in 
 every possible way. If your boy is clumsy or 
 awkward encourage tennis, swimming and base- 
 ball, as well as skating, dancing and calisthentics. 
 
 118. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Player 
 
 The most awkward boy can be made into some- 
 thing like symmetry by early attention and the 
 inculcation of the love of the game. Symmetry, 
 co-ordination, spirit and love of the game mean 
 more than hard muscles. And I believe this ease 
 and grace, as well as what is termed the ability 
 of the natural player of any game is nothing but 
 the development of that player from childhood. 
 
 It is extremely important that the young boy 
 allowed to play football should be pitted 
 against those of his own size and weight. The 
 father should investigate the teams with which 
 his boy plays and see that the weight rule is 
 strictly enforced. Once a youngster reaches the 
 high-school or college age the difference in weight 
 is not irnportant. For boys under fifteen, how- 
 ever, it is a very serious matter. 
 
 Football develops initiative, courage and team- 
 play. It is a democratic game in every sense of 
 the word and no boy is going to make his school 
 or college team because of his wealth or social 
 position. He is going to make it on his own 
 merits. 
 
 After every football season we find the news- 
 papers filled with increasing stories about the 
 improved scholastic standing of the football 
 team. Jake Slagle, of Princeton, and Larry 
 
 119. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Noble of Yale, have publicly announced that 
 they study better, feel better, while engaged 
 regularly in some kind of sport. Both of these 
 men are three letter athletes and leaders in their 
 respective schools. 
 
 The explanation of this is easy. The athlete, 
 in the modern college, is respected only if he 
 maintains good grades, keeps fit and clean all the 
 year around, and realizes that the undergradu- 
 ates expect of him a kind of behavior consistent 
 with his prominence and popularity. This job of 
 keeping out of mischief and staying sound in 
 mind and body is enormously simplified for him. 
 And yet he spends his time among those who are 
 sometimes lazy and foolish in their ideas of man- 
 liness and conduct. 
 
 The right football spirit in any school re- 
 quires that every man who even hopes to play 
 on the team shall stand well in his classes and be- 
 have himself outside of them, in season and out. 
 I have seen this influence work like a miracle on 
 men who, wanting the support and restraint of 
 their fellows' opinions, had proved impossible for 
 faculty or coach to manage. 
 
 Of course there are some who will go wrong. 
 Several years ago there was at Princeton a great 
 drop-kicker who made a great name for himself 
 
 120. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Player 
 
 in one season. It went to his head and he fre- 
 quented the nearby cities, indulged in all kinds 
 of easy living, and before he wised up, he had 
 flunked out of college. 
 
 I try and avoid this type of boy when selecting 
 my players, what I look for at first, as I study 
 my men, is that quality best described as ability 
 to handle oneself — -a close correlation between 
 mind and muscle which manifests itself in bal- 
 ance, speed — perhaps one might say — rhythm or 
 grace. This is not the most important quality 
 but it is the most vital of these which are visible 
 on short acquaintance. The natural football 
 player has a tremendous start on the others, in 
 his mere ability to make his hands and feet and 
 body do what his brain directs and do it quickly 
 with a minimum of wasted effort. 
 
 Next, I try and find men with nerve and cheer- 
 fulness, who do not complain too readily of minor 
 bumps and bruises. Any one who is inclined to 
 be sorry for himself on slight provocation is 
 pretty sure not to make a good football player, 
 however well he may be equipped otherwise for 
 what ever the modifications applied to football, 
 they have not lessened the demands on grit and 
 courage and endurance. If they had, I for one 
 would want no more of it. 
 
 121. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 A few years ago we had at Princeton a great 
 athlete known from coast to coast for his achieve- 
 ments. He was the kind of a fellow who could 
 do almost anything well. I remember one in- 
 stance when, for no reason at all, he stepped out 
 on the fifty yard line with two footballs and said 
 he would drop-kick one over each goal post. 
 
 He did. And with a grand gesture walked 
 off the field, leaving a squad of intensely an- 
 noyed football men staring at his broad back as 
 it disappeared into the dressing room. 
 
 There was no reason for this display of kick- 
 ing prowess for the fellow lacked something 
 which made him of any use until he got all the 
 brass knocked out of him. And it was not until 
 his senior year that he came around and played 
 the game he was capable of playing. 
 
 On every squad there are a few men whose 
 instinct is to produce a ready alibi and to start 
 an argument over every mistake they make. It 
 would be pleasant to send such men back to golf, 
 the birthplace and natural habitat of the whole 
 Alibi family, but this will not serve, for some of 
 the best natural football men I have ever handled 
 have had this habit in its extreme degree. The 
 only thing to be done is to cure them as quickly 
 and as thoroughly as may be, and patience and 
 
 122. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Flayer 
 
 diplomacy only aggravate the disease. A quick 
 operation of down-right rebuke is the only effec- 
 tive measure I know and it sometimes helps to 
 administer this treatment in public. It cures 
 more than one patient at a time. 
 
 There is another type of player who is a thorn 
 in any coach's basket of roses. The unimagina- 
 tive boy who is perfect physically but lacks the 
 fire and spirit to rise to a fighting pitch in a 
 game. I remember one big, burly lineman we 
 had several seasons back who was perfect in the 
 technic of line play, who did everything you 
 asked him to, always tried to please, but who 
 refused to take his football seriously and only 
 played because he thought his weight, speed and 
 ability were needed on the team. Also, he liked 
 the companionship of his mates. 
 
 Personally, I would rather have a less perfect 
 player who played in every game every minute, 
 was up to his neck in the spirit of the thing and 
 played as though he loved it. 
 
 The real football player, never feels his 
 bruises. He is enjoying every minute of play. 
 The hotter the battle, the more his body glows 
 with a physical exaltation and his nerves thrill 
 to the impact of flesh against flesh. 
 
 With football of today a game of skill, intelli- 
 
 123. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 gence and speed, the quick-thinking lad with the 
 perfectly co-ordinated muscles is on a par, if not 
 superior to, the bigger and slower man. 
 
 The best example of a real modern football 
 team was the great 1924 Notre Dame eleven. 
 The backfleld, composed of Stuldreher, Miller, 
 Crowley and Layden, were fast, light men; great 
 on the offense and steady on the defense. 
 
 This entire first team averaged 168 pounds, 
 the second team 178 pounds and the third team 
 was still heavier. But everyone of the Four 
 Horsemen could run a hundred yards between 
 9-4-5 and 10 2-5 seconds. 
 
 With the growing importance attached to the 
 forward pass, the daring open style of play, 
 small men all over the country are making big 
 reputations so that the size or build as a neces- 
 sary factor in football is being discarded. 
 
 Out on the coast a few years ago, "Tut" Im- 
 lay, of California, was a sensation. A slippery 
 little fellow who, it is said, was one of the best 
 players in that country developed for years. It 
 was uncanny to watch him catch punts with 
 three or four tacklers waiting to rub his nose in 
 the dirt, only to have him grab the ball and side- 
 step his way through them for a considerable 
 gain. He was such a wiry little fellow with a 
 
 124. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Player 
 
 change of pace and straight-arm that made him 
 the best open field runner on the Pacific Coast. 
 
 The little fellow is compelled to face great 
 odds. This has sharpened and developed his 
 competitive instinct. Things don't come quite so 
 easy for him, and this means harder work and, 
 therefore, greater development. He must use 
 every resource, and this often means that his tim- 
 ing is better and surer, and there is less waste in 
 everything he does. The tall rangy fellow has a 
 longer stride, but they don't get there any 
 quicker, or get as many revolutions per minute, 
 as an engineer would say, over the little fellow. 
 
 Invariably the crowd is with the game little 
 fellow for he is, after all, the exemplification of 
 courage and spirit that warms the heart of the 
 spectator. 
 
 The recent death of Frank Hinkey recalls an- 
 other great little man who earned his fame in the 
 older, rougher days of football when he weighed 
 less than 150 pounds. In his reign at Yale many 
 claim that not one yard was gained around his 
 end. He was one of the most deadly of all 
 tacklers, sure, hard and clean, a dynamic force 
 that drove 200 pound ball-carriers into the dirt 
 time and again. 
 
 125. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Joe Sternaman, formerly of Illinois and now 
 playing professional football, is another of the 
 little men who delight in roughing up the big 
 fellows. 
 
 "Sternaman," said Zuppke, "is the greatest 
 professional football player in the world. He 
 weighed 136 pounds when he played for me at 
 Illinois and he was a great player then. He 
 weighs 144 now, and is the best end in the game. 
 
 "I would pick Sternaman against any man I 
 ever saw in a life-and-death battle. In that kind 
 of fight I believe he would wreck Jack Dempsey 
 completely. I saw him almost wreck a heavy- 
 weight champion wrestler in college who out- 
 weighed him by more than seventy pounds. 
 
 "He is a ball of fire inside, with as much nerve 
 as I ever saw in my life. The big men are fine. 
 But there is always room for a good little man, 
 no matter what the game may be." 
 
 The names of little fellows are all over the rec- 
 ords for greatness. Handicapped by size and 
 weight they have dodged and twisted and 
 squirmed their way through the bigger and 
 heavier men until their names regularly appear 
 in tHe selected All- America teams. The utility 
 of the brainy little fellow is appreciated by the 
 126. 
 
Any Boy Can Be a Player 
 
 coaches who realize that intelligence, skill and 
 speed can be condensed into a small, wiry body. 
 And gray matter is not determined by bulging 
 muscles and deep chests. 
 
 127. 
 
Chapter VIII 
 
 THE VALUE OF FOOTBALL 
 
 T^VEAN Christian Gauss, of Princeton, was re- 
 cently discussing university problems at an 
 alumni gathering. Of course, football was men- 
 tioned, and when it was he said with considerable 
 emphasis, "For my part, I wish we played foot- 
 ball every Saturday during the college year. My 
 job during the football season is much easier, as 
 far as enforcing discipline in the university goes, 
 than at any other time." 
 
 Dean Gauss hit the nail on the head. The 
 temptations surrounding the college boy today 
 have increased ten-fold since I was an under- 
 graduate twenty-five years ago. The automobile 
 has eliminated distance. Most, if not all, of our 
 universities and colleges are within easy reach of 
 half a dozen cities and towns of considerable size. 
 The college or university undergraduate is not 
 going to spend his entire time in study. Nor do 
 I believe he should. What is he going to do, 
 then, when he is not studying? Certainly he is 
 
 128. 
 
The Value of Football 
 
 not going to sit down, fold his arms, and medi- 
 tate. Quite the contrary, he is going to be up 
 and doing, for he is full of animal spirits, vitality, 
 and enthusiasm. 
 
 Football offers a partial solution. During the 
 football season, ninety-nine per cent of the 
 undergraduates in almost every college and 
 school in the land are at the football field every 
 Saturday afternoon, — out in the clear, bracing 
 autumn air and, which is more to the point, out 
 of mischief and out of the way of temptation. 
 
 Hero-worship may be a bad thing, but any 
 one who has had even a little experience with the 
 young of the human species knows that it is uni- 
 versal and ineradicable. You must deal with it 
 whether you like it or not. Why not make it as 
 useful and helpful as possible? 
 
 If a boy has no one else to admire, he will ad- 
 mire and envy a dead-game gambler quite as 
 blindly as he will follow a splendid specimen of 
 the sound mind in the sound, clean body. I have 
 seen so many decent young fellows acquire mis- 
 erably distorted views of life from fixing their 
 admiration on unworthy objects that I have no 
 doubt whatever as to the value of fine, straight, 
 upstanding football heroes as patterns and ex- 
 amples. Without claiming that football works 
 
 129. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 miracles, I can say emphatically that a first class 
 player cannot be a cad, a bully, or a crook. 
 
 Sometimes I hear well-meaning people, even 
 people who know a little about the surface of the 
 game itself, speak slightingly of football enthu- 
 siasm in the colleges. Sideline and grandstand 
 spirit they call it. And if it were true that such 
 an atmosphere breeds a tendency to take one's 
 own exercise on the bleachers, I should agree 
 with them in part at least. But I find it strongly 
 effective in exactly the opposite direction. The 
 more you can rouse football enthusiasm in a man 
 utterly unable to play the game, the easier it be- 
 comes to persuade that man to develop his body 
 and to keep it in decent running repair. 
 
 More men go out to play soccer or tennis or 
 golf in a college where football interest is keen 
 than where it is not, and of course the goal to- 
 wards which every athletic director is working is 
 to get as many students as possible to participate 
 in some sort of athletics. 
 
 Newspaper reports of tremendous receipts 
 from football games sometimes give well-mean- 
 ing people the idea that the game is run for some- 
 body's profit. Perhaps in some cases these 
 receipts are not altogether wisely used, but in the 
 vast majority of instances, every penny is man- 
 
 130. 
 
The Value of Football 
 
 aged as carefully as it would be in any big busi- 
 ness and applied scientifically to the general 
 athletic needs of the university, 
 t The man who pays for a football ticket in the 
 fall always pays for half a dozen other sports, 
 which he may not care to see but which are just 
 as important to the all around development of 
 the student body as football itself. Even at the 
 biggest and most prosperous institutions, there 
 are no more than two or three sports that can 
 meet their own necessary expenses. The only 
 way in which others equally valuable can be 
 maintained at all is either by assessment on the 
 undergraduate body or by the surplus from the 
 treasuries of the profitable games. It would be 
 a pity indeed to sacrifice the splendid sport of 
 rowing merely because it cannot be managed 
 behind closed gates and viewed only by those who 
 pay for the privilege.| As many tennis courts as 
 possible and college golf courses, if only nine 
 holes, are necessary parts of the athletic equip- 
 ment of every college but they are seldom, if 
 ever, self-supporting. Again, the rise in prices 
 has affected athletics just as much as anything 
 else. We have to pay nearly three times as much 
 for a pair of football shoes as we paid a few 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 years ago and other equipment has advanced pro- 
 portionately. 
 
 | The college football game is not run for 
 profits. It is a spectacle incidentally and not 
 primarily, and the student bodies whose rivalry 
 makes it possible are hosts for the day to a body 
 composed mainly of graduates and their friends, 
 each of whom makes a contribution to the gen- 
 eral athletic fund of both colleges which is grate- 
 fully received and wisely used. | 
 
 The assertion, so often loosely made, that foot- 
 ball is taking up too much of the students' time, 
 is not borne out by the facts. The demands of 
 practice and games together take up less time 
 than any other competitive sport. Last fall at 
 Princeton football took up exactly sixty-six 
 hours of the players' time, while the University 
 was in session. The Fall term started Septem- 
 ber 29 and the football season closed with the 
 Yale game on November 14. During this period, 
 the Varsity football squad never spent more than 
 two hours on the field in any day, — from 3 :30 to 
 5:30 in the afternoon. Two days a week the 
 practice sessions hardly lasted over an hour. 
 Before the opening of college, we had a two 
 weeks conditioning period commencing Septem- 
 
 132. 
 
The Value of Football 
 
 ber 15, All in all, the Princeton football season 
 lasted just eight weeks and four days. 
 
 I admit the Princeton season is the shortest 
 in the country, but only by two or three weeks. 
 Coaches everywhere are recognizing more and 
 more that it is better to underwork their charges 
 than to overwork them. The football player in 
 the vast majority of instances is a mere boy in 
 years and cannot be at his best when he is tired 
 and bruised. 
 
 To counteract the extravagant statements that 
 are sometimes made about the excessive demands 
 on the football players' time and its interference 
 with college work, the Football Coaches' Asso- 
 ciation, which is composed of all the leading foot- 
 ball coaches in the country, adopted a resolution 
 recommending that practice sessions should 
 never exceed two hours and that fall practice 
 should not start prior to September 15 unless 
 college had actually opened. In the discus- 
 sion that preceded the adoption of this resolution, 
 it was the consensus of opinion that such limita- 
 tions on practice could not retard the efficient de- 
 velopment of any team. 
 
 Consider as a basis of comparison the amount 
 of time given over to other sports. The candi- 
 dates for the crew start preliminary training in 
 
 133- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 the Fall, spend a good part of the winter in a 
 more or less monotonous grind on the rowing 
 machines, and are out again until early Summer 
 as soon as the ice is off the water. Baseball runs 
 for four months in the Spring and usually one 
 month in the Fall. Basketball and hockey, often 
 considered minor sports, are played continuously 
 for three or four months. I see no reason why 
 there should be any objection to the length of the 
 playing season of our various games, within rea- 
 sonable bounds. I am simply pointing out how 
 easy it is to distort facts when football comes up 
 for discussion. 
 
 Modern college rules require a little more in 
 actual fact from an athlete than from any other 
 student, both as regards conduct and study. The 
 athlete, and particularly the football player, even 
 where the faculty control is conspicuously 
 benevolent, is always under observation. He is 
 something like the minister's son, — when he slips 
 everybody knows it and many people say, "I told 
 you so." He cannot play football unless he 
 keeps out of trouble and stands well in his classes. 
 Neither can he play football unless he keeps his 
 body clean and fit, not just in training season 
 but the year around. 
 
 Many players have told me that they did better 
 
 134. 
 
The Value of Football 
 
 work in college during the football season than 
 at any other time because of the routine of regu- 
 lar hours, plenty of sleep, and a feeling of re- 
 sponsibility due to the knowledge that in order 
 to keep on the team they must be up in their 
 college work. 
 
 The increasing tendency toward disregard for 
 law and order in this country is causing anxiety 
 to those who give even superficial consideration 
 to the trend of the times. There are a good 
 many classed as decent respectable citizens en- 
 couraging the criminal violation of the law. And 
 remember, too, the younger generation is today 
 confronted by both an unfamiliar opportunity 
 and a heavy and constant temptation to imitate 
 their elders. 
 
 Lincoln said this nation could not endure half 
 slave and half free. Neither can it continue half 
 dry and half wet. If prohibition is to stay in 
 force, much as some may disagree with it, the law 
 must be observed. To date official Washington 
 shows but a negligible minority in favor of any 
 modification. If prohibition is to be enforced, I 
 seriously believe athletics, and particularly foot- 
 ball, can be of real help. 
 
 One reason why the game has taken such a 
 hold on the public is its essential atmosphere of 
 
 135- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 straightforwardness and downrightness, its con- 
 tempt for chicanery and fraud. Anyone who at- 
 tempts to play football even moderately well 
 must be in the pink of condition, not only during 
 the actual playing season but through the entire 
 year. There are few boys in any college who 
 wouldn't make almost any sacrifice to play on the 
 team, and most of them realize that if they dissi- 
 pate their chance is lost beyond recovery, 
 
 I am firmly of the opinion that the more we 
 encourage healthful athletic competition, the 
 better citizens we make. The successful football 
 player twenty years ago was indisputably the 
 man who had strength first of all, courage next, 
 and intelligence only as a minor incident if at all. 
 Under the playing conditions of today, games 
 are won and lost simply on a mental difference 
 which more than offsets physical differences just 
 as great. 
 
 I have seen great football classics decided 
 solely by mental superiority, a difference in 
 speed and clearness of thought, which was quite 
 as visible and far more effective than the differ- 
 ence in physical qualities. I am firmly convinced 
 that the winning football player is the thinking 
 football player and that the most vital qualifica- 
 
 136. 
 
The Value of Football 
 
 tion for those who wish to excel at the game is 
 brains. 
 
 Football is distinctly a team game, one of self- 
 effacement for the common good, of willing 
 subordination of selfish motive and individual 
 ambition to the cause of the team which personi- 
 fies the university or school behind it. The 
 grandstander may have temporary success, but 
 he seldom lasts. The greatest running backs I 
 have ever coached have been men who seldom if 
 ever carried the ball. It is hard for the general 
 public to understand this side of the game, but 
 the boys who play it understand and appreciate 
 it. 
 
 There is no doubt football has its faults, but 
 the benefits from the game and its influence on 
 those who play it far outweigh its defects. In 
 an address before the National Collegiate Ath- 
 letic Association in New York, President Ernest 
 M. Hopkins, of Dartmouth, sounded a note of 
 warning which should be carefully considered by 
 those who ascribe evils to football much greater 
 than really exist and who seek to eliminate it 
 from our school and college activities. President 
 Hopkins said, "There is scriptural authority for 
 the fear that a miraculously created void may 
 not be advantageously filled. The evil spirit 
 
 137- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 which returned to the antiseptically swept and 
 garnished chamber from which it had been cast 
 out, came not alone, but had associated with itself 
 seven other devils, and the latter state was cor- 
 respondingly worse than the former." 
 
 "It is not surprising in a country where we 
 strive to make man temperate by legislation, in- 
 dustrious by court decree, and happy by politi- 
 cal oratory, that we should assume our ability to 
 make men scholars by denying them the oppor- 
 tunity for indulging in any other interest. But 
 arguing from analogy, we lack certainty that this 
 would be the inevitable outcome." 
 
 • In the history of civilization, Greece stands 
 out as a well-known landmark. What do we as- 
 sociate with Greece? Greek learning and Greek 
 culture, — but above all, the Greek athlete. Facts 
 and figures are forgotten, qualities of mind and 
 body are not. 
 
 138. 
 
Chapter IX 
 what's wrong with professional football? 
 
 6 '\A7"HAT do you think" — friends and ac- 
 * V quaintances are continually asking me — 
 "of the future of professional football? Will it 
 last? Is it a good thing?" 
 
 Yes and no. There are too many "ifs" in an- 
 swering such a question, too much to be said 
 for and against professional football to be 
 summed up in one short, sweeping statement. 
 
 Professional football, in the main, is merely 
 a parasitical outgrowth of the college game, ex- 
 ploited by fight-promoters, moving picture men 
 and public spirited citizens of equally public 
 spirited communities. 
 
 Its purpose is to provide entertainment, rec- 
 reation, for the spectators — putting on a show, 
 a travesty, a three ringed circus. The promoters, 
 who know little of the spirit behind the college 
 game, and care less, make no false pretenses 
 about the game. They are merely business enter- 
 prisers, gambling with public interest and favor. 
 
 139- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 I have no quarrel with professional football. 
 All things being equal, I think the promoters 
 are managing their "show" as cleanly as it can 
 be managed. Its effect on the college game is 
 negligible, for the professional game lacks the 
 flame, the spirit, that keeps the college game 
 going upward and onward in the appreciation of 
 the general public as a hard, bristling sport ; com- 
 pelling in spirit and inspiring in sentiment. 
 
 A quarter of a century of football, as player, 
 fan and coach, have taught me first of all that 
 the game is played, not by eleven men, but by 
 eleven hundred or eleven thousand — by the whole 
 student body and graduate body of the institu- 
 tion, large or small, which these men represent.. 
 
 College football is interwoven with college 
 life. The spectacle, with student bands, organ- 
 ized cheering, enhanced by the color and intense 
 emotional stimulus of a big game cannot be du- 
 plicated on the soil of a big league baseball park 
 or in the shadows of mills and factories. The 
 synthetic counterfeits of collegiate enthusiasm 
 manufactured by the professional clubs have 
 been as successful and inspiring as a Sunday 
 school picnic on a rainy day. 
 
 It takes something more compelling than a 
 pay check to arouse the flaming courage, the grit 
 
 140. 
 
Professional Football 
 
 and endurance manifested on the gridiron 
 against the background of Gothic buildings, 
 shaded lawns and familiar faces of classmates. 
 It takes spirit, college spirit. The only analogy, 
 I think, is love of country. 
 
 This may sound like the loose and windy bom- 
 bast of the common collegiate spellbinder. My 
 experience, however, has convinced me that there 
 must be some strong, underlying motive, some 
 form of tangible loyalty — to a coach, a team or 
 an institution, prompted by the heat of hard 
 competitive sport, to bring about the best results 
 in football. 
 
 The most damning evidence against profes- 
 sional football is the attitude of the players them- 
 selves. 
 
 Of course it is not expected that they will emu- 
 late Phil Brett, the Rutgers captain of 1891, 
 who, sitting on the field after suffering a broken 
 leg against Princeton, said between sobs that 
 "I'd die for Dear Old Rutgers," which proved 
 to be a burden on him ever since. That is asking 
 too much. But stories of the other extreme are 
 too common to be ignored as exceptional. 
 
 There is the story of a great football player, 
 fresh from the triumphs of the campus who was 
 lured into the game not so much for the money 
 
 141. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 but because he really glowed and reveled in the 
 clash of flesh against flesh and would miss a meal 
 rather than an opportunity to hit the line. 
 
 In his first game his team was behind. The 
 college star was the only man who gained con- 
 sistently against the opponents. He carried the 
 ball for three straight times, gaining ten, fifteen 
 and ten yards at a clip. Panting, but eager to 
 keep going, he asked the quarterback to take it 
 again. 
 
 "Aw, take it easy kid," warned the veteran 
 quarterback of many professional campaigns. 
 "Cut the rah-rah stuff and make some of these 
 hirelings do some work. They're making a 
 sucker out of you." 
 
 The quarterback called for the fullback to take 
 the ball. He protested. "I've got a bad knee." 
 The other halfback was called. He could 
 scarcely walk, he said, let alone carry the ball. 
 
 "Aw, right," yelled the quarterback. "I'll 
 take it. I've got 200 bucks on this game." 
 
 Later, in the dressing room, after the game 
 was decided in favor of the collegian's team, with 
 himself and the quarterback carrying the 
 burden, the collegian talked over professional 
 football with the seasoned veteran. 
 
 "The slogan of the professional athlete" said 
 
 142. 
 
Wide World 
 
 WHAT'S WRONG WITH PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL? 
 
 Above: The Yellow Jackets of Philadelphia defeat the New York Foot- 
 ball Giants in the first professional game at the Polo Grounds. Score 
 lJf-0. Note that at least nine players are standing. 
 
 Below: The University of Alabama's offensive crashing amy through 
 Stamford line in East-West gridiron battle at Pasadena, January 1st, 
 1927 . Score 7-7 . Note the tense attitude of the players. 
 
Professional Football 
 
 the quarterback, "is: Don't get hurt; we play- 
 again tomorrow, and you're no good to the team 
 or yourself lying on a hospital cot. 
 
 "After all," he continued. "We're not kidding 
 ourselves in this game. Tomorrow the sun will 
 come up and next winter it will snow and be just 
 as cold and if I don't lay something away I'll be 
 just as broke and — oh, who cares anyhow! 
 
 "The spectators come to see some spectacular 
 runs and get a few thrills. They don't relish a 
 stonewall defense on the one yard line. They 
 want to see some galloping ghost cut loose for 
 ten or twenty yards through a broken field — and 
 this bird'll not disappoint them. 
 
 "I've missed more tackles than I could shake 
 a stick at. And if more fellows would forget 
 they ever played college football the way I do 
 they'd be turning 'em away at the gate." 
 
 That is not the expression of one player; it is 
 the creed of the majority and sums up profes- 
 sional football. Until the attitude of the player 
 changes the game has a very hazy and dubious 
 future. 
 
 There is something distinctive about football. 
 I can easily understand a professional making a 
 living pole-vaulting, playing tennis, golf or base- 
 ball. The usual run of sports demand less than 
 
 i43. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 football, which depends solely on the spirit moti- 
 vating the players. 
 
 The demands of football are such that the 
 player, to be right, must keep in splendid physi- 
 cal condition. In the majority of cases, with the 
 professional players selling bonds, insurance and 
 real estate, working as dentists, lawyers, hustling 
 ice and milk and baggage, as well as living about 
 in clubs and hotels, any form of systemized train- 
 ing so essential to real football is impossible. 
 
 What is the result? The professional men 
 cannot give their all. They cannot let go. They 
 know that if they are injured they are off the 
 payroll until they are ready for action again. A 
 really serious injury puts them out for good. 
 
 The men who play are not fools. They know 
 they are not in the physical shape of their college 
 days. They are leading different kinds of exis- 
 tence, not so particular about their waistline and 
 conscious that they are slowing up and getting 
 brittle. Many of them are married. The easy 
 money of the professional game made it possible 
 for them to get settled, in comparison with their 
 classmates engaged in slower but more perman- 
 ent positions. With love of wife and home and 
 social interests bearing down on them it is only 
 144. 
 
Professional Football 
 
 natural that they would go through the motions 
 of football with as little as possible bodily danger. 
 
 Last fall one of the famous college players 
 who went into the game talked with a group of 
 his former team mates about the professional 
 football. 
 
 "I expect to play in at least twenty-two games 
 
 this season," he said, "at per game. Like to 
 
 know where I could make that much money doing 
 anything else." 
 
 "That is," interrupted one of the gathering, 
 "if you don't get hurt." 
 
 "Oh, I'll see that I don't," assured the profes- 
 sional. "We've got a hustling club, for pro's. I 
 picked up a lot of players from small colleges 
 who are out to show up the players like myself 
 with big reputations. I'm all for it and let them 
 go right ahead. 
 
 "I stand right behind them and swear at them 
 in the line and tell them to get in there and fight 
 — to smear those birds — so I won't have to do it. 
 
 "But I've got to keep my head up," continued 
 the professional who was a glutton for punish- 
 ment and one of the best defensive halfbacks in 
 college. "The old urge to let go and take a leap 
 at some cocky bird coming through is awfully 
 
 145- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 strong. I did it last week in Chicago and cured 
 myself for life. It's a dangerous habit. 
 
 "This fellow came tearing through the line like 
 a bowlegged panther. There was nothing be- 
 tween him and our goal but yours truly. 
 
 "In an unguarded moment I forgot myself — 
 a reflex action — I guess, or something — but I let 
 go and hit him head on at the knees. 
 
 "He was all knees. My face looked like a 
 drunken sailor's when I got up. 
 
 "Well, you can bet I didn't bother that fellow 
 with the knees that afternoon. I gave him the 
 right of way and every time he cut loose I just 
 wasn't within tackling distance. Of course I ran 
 after him — but not fast enough." 
 
 This player also said that the idea of the game 
 was to give the spectators a "run for their 
 money" between the twenty yard lines. Then 
 the players tightened up and played real football 
 within the shadow of the goal posts. 
 
 The position of professional football is indeed 
 a precarious one and I regret to see the game die 
 out entirely because of over-exploitation. Big 
 Bill Edwards, president of one of the profes- 
 sional leagues during the past year, when the 
 revival of the professional game was rather aus~ 
 146. 
 
Professional Football 
 
 picious, expressed an opinion several years ago 
 which, I believe, still holds : 
 
 "Football will never be commercialized," he 
 wrote in the Philadelphia North American on 
 December 4th, 1920. "The essential features of 
 the game, the demands it makes on the players 
 spiritually, the innate sportsmanship it requires 
 of its adherents make the probability remote of 
 it ever being exploited professionally with any 
 degree of success." 
 
 Circumstances do alter cases and no doubt Mr. 
 Edwards changed his mind regarding profes- 
 sional football in the intervening time since he 
 wrote the above and assumed the office of presi- 
 dent of the professional football league. 
 
 But I still find Mr. Edwards' statement sound 
 and logical. It is just as good today as when he 
 wrote it and will be so ten years hence. 
 
 Football thrives on one thing — spirit. That 
 spirit must be real, fostered by a common inter- 
 est and working toward a common end for an in- 
 stitution, a place, or an ideal. Mere football for 
 football's sake will never go, except spasmodi- 
 cally. 
 
 There is a spirited community in the outlying 
 section of Philadelphia where professional foot- 
 
 147. 
 
Football j Today and Tomorrow 
 
 ball thrives under the only conditions possible 
 for the game. 
 
 That football is possible outside the college 
 campus, that it can be a real thing and can go on, 
 year after year, with a steady popularity is illus- 
 trated by the Frankford Yellow jackets. 
 
 The Yellow jackets, I believe, won the pro- 
 fessional championship of the United States last 
 season. They did not have the biggest names 
 or the highest priced stars in their lineup. But 
 they played real football, under ideal football 
 conditions, with every man, woman and child in 
 the community cheering for them. 
 
 Frankford is an interesting place. An indus- 
 trial center, primarily, bubbling over with civic 
 pride. The Yellow jackets belong to the com- 
 munity, with the residents owning jointly the 
 stock. Every dollar taken in at the gate over 
 expenses is expended towards the welfare of 
 Frankford — Not a nickel is made by the pro- 
 moters. 
 
 The players, like Tex Hamer, former Penn- 
 sylvania Captain, have played there for several 
 years ; live in the community, and are in business 
 there. The newcomers are invited around to the 
 homes of the residents for dinner, bridge and 
 social gatherings. Every football player is 
 
 148. 
 
Professional Football 
 
 known by his first name and in turn knows hun- 
 dreds in the community in the same way. This 
 sort of thing breeds a natural interest and spirit. 
 
 In these days of football exploitation, with all- 
 star aggregations trouping about the country 
 like so many circuses, it is worth the time of any- 
 one to wander out to Frankford on a Saturday 
 afternoon in the autumn. 
 
 A steady stream of men and women and chil- 
 dren flowing toward the football field. On the 
 arms of girls are the colors of the Yellow- 
 jackets, in their hands, pennants. They cheer 
 for the players because they know them, because 
 it is their team. They have a clannishness that 
 is refreshing, that would put many colleges to 
 shame — and very few of them ever saw a college. 
 
 Football started in Frankford many years ago, 
 an outgrowth of the game which spread through 
 all the industrial centers of Pennsylvania. The 
 residents liked the game, liked the idea of watch- 
 ing their boys play against a neighboring team. 
 They did not know that the playing lacked the 
 finesse, the skill and interest of the high school 
 games, but it was their team, their boys; and they 
 stood behind them. 
 
 From this sand-lot aggregation has developed 
 a great community organization, very wealthy 
 
 149. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 and powerful in the section, with football mak- 
 ing enough money to carry their sports program 
 — just like the college game. 
 
 Today the name of Frankford Yellow jackets 
 is the biggest in the realm of professional foot- 
 ball. It is supported by working people from 
 the surrounding factories, mills and offices, as 
 well as the local business men. Football means 
 the Yellow jackets and the differentiation be- 
 tween intercollegiate and professional football 
 means nothing at all to them. 
 
 Communities like Frankford are the rock 
 foundation of the professional game. There are 
 many such places scattered over the country, — 
 Green Bay, Wis., Clifton Heights, etc., — made 
 up of commercial and industrial people with an 
 aptitude for all kinds of competitive sport. 
 
 Modern football has a tremendous appeal to 
 these men working in mills, factories and offices, 
 They have imagination and respond to the thrill 
 of the man against man clashes in football. They 
 play baseball in the summer and basketball in the 
 winter and are adept at it. 
 
 Just as the majority of our major league ball 
 players come from this class of people, so too, 
 could men of the professional game be recruited 
 from their ranks. 
 
 150. 
 
Professional Football 
 
 In the coal regions of Pennsylvania, where the 
 professional game has flourished for years, they 
 developed many such players. One of them is 
 known far better than "Red" Grange will ever 
 be in that section. His name is "Blue" Bonner, 
 a backfield star, now living at Pottsville. He 
 made college players coming into that section 
 look like the schoolboys they were. 
 
 My contention is that if the professional pro- 
 moters get the majority of their players from the 
 industrial groups they can do more with them in 
 the way of training, etc., than with the college 
 star fresh from the campus. 
 
 The college ball player, for all the bunk writ- 
 ten to the contrary, has not been a howling suc- 
 cess as a professional. For the same reason he 
 will not, in the majority of cases, make a go of 
 professional football. 
 
 His heart isn't in the game. It isn't a case of 
 play or starve. He has his education to fall back 
 on and his memories of stirring contests during 
 his college days, which makes the professional 
 game seem dull and flat and cheap. 
 
 But the youth who has had nothing but the 
 dull routine of a factory or a coal mine staring 
 him in the face, who has a natural craving for 
 blue skies and green turf and the competition of 
 
 151. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 football and baseball, the life of a professional 
 athlete is the peak of romance and human 
 achievement. He'll get in there and fight for all 
 he's got. 
 
 I remember watching one of these teams play- 
 in Philadelphia. They were called the Home- 
 stead Professionals and could have beaten the 
 average college team with eight men. 
 
 This type of athlete has been all but ignored 
 by the promoters exploiting the popularity of 
 football. They filled their lineups with names, 
 not players, and let it go at that. Joe Merriwell, 
 who made that great run against Siwash in 1917 
 is still playing on his reputation, although he has 
 a few chins, a rotund figure and no wind at all. 
 
 There will always be great college players who 
 love the game of football so much that they will 
 continue to play it until forced to the sidelines 
 with bad knees, broken legs or old age. "Red" 
 Grange, I believe, is of this type. 
 
 Last summer, when Grange was working in 
 Hollywood on his football picture, he made such 
 an impression as an actor that the moving picture 
 people offered him more money to remain there 
 than he could have made speculating with profes- 
 sional football. "Red" refused. Football was 
 
 152. 
 
Professional Football 
 
 his game, the breath of life to him and more im- 
 portant than money. 
 
 There are few "Red" Granges. But there are 
 equally as many in the college football ranks as 
 in the baseball ranks. We will always have the 
 Sislers, just as we have the Granges. 
 
 With a proper blending of athletes from the 
 colleges and sand-lots, and one league in the 
 country, professional football will go. And on 
 merit and skill alone. 
 
 When men love a game they will make sacri- 
 fices for it. With players who are really "sold" 
 on football as a means of livelihood, and with the 
 right type of man in charge who selects his team 
 and demands of them the restrictions placed on 
 the college athlete, professional football will be a 
 game apart, something just as good, if not better 
 from a playing standpoint, than the college 
 game. 
 
 But it is not to be expected that the profes- 
 sional team will outdraw the college eleven. That 
 is asking too much and the teams should not be 
 compared. The professionals game can be 
 played on Sundays in cities like New York and 
 Chicago with the assurance that enough people 
 will turn out to see a real football game. They 
 
 153. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 could play on Saturdays in places like Frank- 
 ford. 
 
 There is money in professional football but 
 not enough to have the sport continue in an ex- 
 ploited, circus-like manner employed by the 
 promoters, who, after all, handled it like a box- 
 ing bout, a show and band concert. 
 
 It has as much chance of permanence as pro- 
 fessional baseball but will never become as popu- 
 lar as the summer pastime because it will be first, 
 last and always, of minor importance to the inter- 
 collegiate game of football. 
 
 154. 
 
Chapter X 
 
 THE MODERN GAME 
 
 \ll THEN President Roosevelt called the rep- 
 * * resentatives of Yale, Harvard and Prince- 
 ton to the White House in October, 1905 to 
 discuss the future of football, he not only saved 
 the game by demanding that the rules be 
 changed, but made possible modern football as 
 it is known today. 
 
 A difficult period it was, in football history. 
 Several newspapers, engaged in a crusade 
 against the game after the bloody season of 1905, 
 when 18 players were killed, 11 of them high 
 school lads and three collegians; with 149 in- 
 jured seriously, 88 in the high schools and 47 in 
 the colleges, referred to football as "murderous, 
 brutal and dangerous." So strong was the wave 
 of popular opinion against the sport that the 
 legislatures in some western states passed a law 
 making it a penal offense to play football. 
 
 President Eliot, of Harvard, when asked to 
 step into the breach, declined for lack of juris- 
 
 155. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 diction. The faculty of Columbia promptly 
 abolished the sport; Northwestern and Union 
 stopped playing for one year while Stanford and 
 California abandoned football in favor of Rugby. 
 But the majority of colleges awaited the outcome 
 of the President's conference before taking ac- 
 tion one way or the other. 
 
 The situation was indeed serious. Football had 
 not fully recovered from the black eye of the 
 1893-94 period, the days of the fiercest and 
 bloodiest games in its history, when a great hue 
 and cry went up for- the abolition of the game. 
 Present day football followers, perhaps, cannot 
 appreciate the viciousness and roughness of foot- 
 ball in those early days. 
 
 At Harvard a football strategist, Lorin De- 
 land, who was not a player, invented the flying 
 wedge, which became the steam roller play of 
 football. It was a combination pile-driver and 
 stampede. This play was improved upon by the 
 great Pennsylvania team of 1894 which started 
 forming the flying wedge from the line of scrim- 
 mage, by dropping linesmen back to form a 
 wedge with the backs and massing against an 
 end or tackle. 
 
 Football, ew&in 1905, was a boring, dull sort 
 of an affair; a cross between a battle-royal and 
 
 i 5 6. 
 
The Modern Game 
 
 cattle stampede.f I have often wondered how 
 the spectators managed to sit Jhrough the game. 
 There were intervals when they never saw the 
 ball at all, but just a drab mass of twenty-two 
 players eternally pushing and shoving each other 
 up and down the field. The thrill of watching a 
 fleet-footed halfback weaving in and out of a 
 broken field, the smartly executed forward pass, 
 was unknown to them. End running had become 
 an almost forgotten art. The light, shifty back 
 had little chance to excel. § 
 
 There was little or no need for brains in this 
 trial of strength, weight and iron courage. The 
 whole strategy of attack was centered on ham- 
 mering and slamming away at some spot in the 
 defense. Play after play was hurled at the same 
 defensive guard or tackle until they were forced 
 back through sheer exhaustion. 
 
 Usually the entire offense was built around a 
 "push and pull" order of attack, with a big 200 
 pound tackle drawn out of the line and placed 
 at the head of the procession. 
 
 The ball was given to the tackle. Four backs 
 and two ends fell in behind him, all pushing and 
 pulling. The big tackle was expected to keep 
 his feet while his mates pushed him through the 
 defense. 
 
 157- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 To the modern football fan it would be almost 
 comical to watch the big tackle, pushed this way 
 and that, like a wilted Hercules, by his mates. 
 Little wonder the old-timer coming back to his 
 alma mater after many years is amazed at 
 modern football, referring to it as a "glorified 
 basketball game." In comparison, it surely is 
 just that. 
 
 When the 200 pound tackle did not carry the 
 ball his weight was utilized. His job was, on 
 the offense, to hammer and knife his broad body 
 through the line, the ball-carrier following on his 
 heels. 
 
 The greatest team was usually the heaviest 
 team. There was the great Michigan team which 
 had not been defeated in 1901, '02, '03, and '04. 
 During this period they ran up a total of 2,326 
 points and had a mere 40 points scored against 
 them. They had won 43 games. 
 
 The record of the 1905 team was more bril- 
 liant than the other years. In a series of 12 
 games prior to the great Chicago game, they had 
 a total of 495 points against nothing for oppo- 
 nents. They were called the point a minute team. 
 Chicago defeated them by a safety. I travelled 
 west for the game and on the Michigan team saw 
 eleven giants. Schultz, the All- America center, 
 
 158. 
 
The Modem Game 
 
 weighed 220 pounds; Octopus Graham, at one 
 guard, weighed 246; Schulte, the other guard, 
 195; and Captain Curtis, was another giant, at 
 left tackle. 
 
 Compare this weight with the famous Notre 
 Dame team of 1924, with its famous Four Horse- 
 men. The whole team averaged 168 pounds! 
 
 But there was a marked difference even in the 
 rules which made the heavy team of 1904-5 the 
 best team. In those days it was only necessary 
 to make two or three yards per down. The rules 
 provided for a gain of five yards in three downs. 
 It was almost impossible to stop one of the steam- 
 roller attacks, with only two yards needed for a 
 down, when properly concentrated in a short dis- 
 tance. 
 
 On the defense there was only one thing to do 
 —hit it head on. If the line attempted to stop 
 the attack standing up it was bowled over in 
 short order. 
 
 And there was common talk of foul play in the 
 heat of scrimmage. What with the increas- 
 ing number of serious injuries, the arguments 
 against the abolishment of football were not any 
 too feeble. 
 
 President Roosevelt demanded that all the ob- 
 
 159- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 jectionable features be removed from the game 
 and that "brutality and foul play should receive 
 the same summary punishment given to a man 
 who cheats at cards." 
 
 "Football," he continued, "is a good game for 
 young men and boys to play, but unless the rules 
 are changed, as it is becoming too dangerous, the 
 game will have to be abolished." 
 
 And concluding his remarks to the representa- 
 tives of the Big Three he said: "I want you all 
 to go back and use your influence to have the 
 rules changed." 
 
 President Roosevelt certainly made a splendid 
 contribution to the game by throwing his tremen- 
 dous influence on the side of football. After the 
 session at the White House there was little heard 
 of abolishing the game. This meeting, in addi- 
 tion, gave needed impetus to the claims of those 
 who said the rules should be changed. 
 
 In those days Harvard, Princeton and Yale 
 played a much more important part in football 
 than they do today. They were then a Big Three 
 in reality. The rules committee was an unofficial 
 body more or less self-appointed and entirely 
 dominated by Eastern ideas. They had become 
 a bit too conservative. Today, I am glad to say, 
 1 60. 
 
The Modem Game 
 
 football is national and no section of the country- 
 is able to control its development. 
 
 Drastic reforms were adopted all over the 
 country. Following the close of the 1905 sea- 
 son, a meeting of representatives of many lead- 
 ing universities and colleges was held in New 
 York, in January, 1906, to consider football and 
 just what should be done about it. This meet- 
 ing resulted in the formation of the National 
 Collegiate Athletic Association. 
 
 General Palmer E. Pierce, then a Captain in 
 the United States Army and representing West 
 Point, was elected president. His administra- 
 tion has been so successful and satisfactory that 
 he is still the head of the organization. 
 
 After many sessions, a joint committee finally 
 revised the rules, announcing them on January 
 12, 1906. The following changes were made: 
 
 1 — the number of yards to be gained was in- 
 creased from five to ten and one additional down 
 was added. 
 
 2 — The rules were amended to provide for the 
 forward pass and onside kick with the qualifica- 
 tions as to the pass that it must cross the line of 
 scrimmage at a point five yards from the center. 
 A kicked ball was onside as soon as it passed the 
 scrimmage line. 
 
 i6i. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 To bring about a more open style of play the 
 forward pass was introduced. Everyone on the 
 offensive side was made eligible to recover a 
 kicked ball from scrimage as son as it touched 
 the ground, and the playing time was divided 
 into quarters, hurdling was forbidden, drawing 
 back tackles and guards to use as interfers was 
 stopped, and the linemen forbidden to inter- 
 change with back unless permanently or unless 
 he be five yards behind the line. 
 
 Many different opinions were blended into the 
 revision of rules by a most representative body 
 which was composed of the following members: 
 L. M. Dennis, of Cornell; chairman; W. T. 
 Reid, Jr., of Harvard, secretary; James A. Bab- 
 bitt, of Haverford; John C. Bell, of Pennsyl- 
 vania; Walter Camp, of Yale; F. Homer Curtis, 
 of Texas; representing the South; Charles D. 
 Daly, of West Point; Paul J. Dashiell, of An- 
 napolis; J. B. Fine, of Princeton; E. K. Hall, of 
 Dartmouth; James T. Lees, of Nebraska; C. 
 W. Savage, of Oberlin; A. A. Stagg, of Chicago, 
 and Dr. H. L. Williams, of Minnesota, 
 
 The real vice of the old game, the committee 
 agreed, was the "push and pull" play. This rule 
 was not touched. It was contended that the for- 
 ward pass and the onside kick opened up the 
 
 162. 
 
The Modern Game 
 
 game while the yards necessary for a first down 
 discouraged the massed plays and invited the 
 open style of football. 
 
 Harvard, Princeton and Yale barred fresh- 
 men from the varsity team, imposed a year's resi- 
 dence on players coming from other colleges and 
 made other necessary reforms. The Western 
 Conference also put through new rulings. One 
 year's residence and a full year's work were re- 
 quired of all varsity candidates, with the playing 
 limited to three years of varsity competition. 
 
 In the Western Conference Thanksgiving 
 Day games were abolished and practice limited 
 from the day school opened. The training table 
 was discarded and schedules limited. 
 
 Thus were the major changes made in foot- 
 ball and the modern game was just beyond the 
 horizon, coming slowly but surely. 
 
 At Princeton we had never mastered the art 
 of massed plays and I, for one, was enthusiastic 
 about the new rules. I believed it would make 
 football more interesting to play and to watch. 
 
 Immediately we set to work planning new 
 plays to meet the changed requirements of the 
 game, as I suppose they did at every other insti- 
 tution. The meeting lasted for three days with 
 many former Princeton players contributing ad- 
 
 163. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 vice and suggestion for new plays, tried out on 
 the field of the Princeton Preparatory school of 
 which, Mr. Fine, our representative, on the Rules 
 Committee was head-master. 
 
 Among those present were Phil King, Walter 
 Booth, Martin V. Bergen, Langdon Lea, Eddie 
 Holt, Bert Wheeler, and Garrett Cochran. 
 
 It was the unanimous opinion of those present 
 at the meeting to use the pass and onside kick as 
 much as possible. We tried different ways of 
 forward passing and finally came to the conclu- 
 sion that the end over end pass was best. No 
 one suggested the spiral pass. Phil King urged 
 the end over end pass, citing an instance in the 
 Yale-Princeton game of 1893 when Doggie 
 Trenchard had made a long end over back- ward 
 pass across the field to King, himself, on what is 
 known as a "shoe-string" play. He said that 
 Trenchard's pass had been thrown with speed 
 and accuracy. 
 
 We also came to the conclusion that the for- 
 ward pass would not be successful unless it was 
 played with deception. This was as true of the 
 pass then as it is today. Few, if any, successful 
 passes are made unless masked so as to give the 
 appearance of a running play. 
 
 Bert Wheeler made a valuable contribution to 
 
 164. 
 
The Modem Game 
 
 the meeting by suggesting the running kick and 
 when we doubted its feasibility he went out on 
 the field and showed us how it could be done. 
 We finally mapped out a complete new set of 
 plays under the new rules for the 1906 season. 
 
 I have always believed that the new rules ap- 
 plied to football in 1906 not only opened up the 
 game but made all teams more or less equal. The 
 smaller colleges, even, which were trampled on 
 year after year, turned about and were prepared 
 to put up a stiff game and sometimes came off 
 the field a winner. 
 
 This change in football was made possible by 
 the introduction of the forward pass; the most 
 radical advance in the history of the game. All 
 the other rules were restrictions; tlie^pasjTwas a 
 constructive and sweeping addition, even with 
 the lateral limitations with which it was hedged 
 about for the next four years. And with the 
 forward pass came a new kind of football king 
 — the triple threat man. 
 
 Ned Harlan, of the 1906 Princeton team, 
 could run, kick and pass. He was superb on the 
 running kick play suggested by Bert Wheeler 
 which, before the season closed, became our 
 strongest play. 
 
 It was my good fortune to become head coach 
 
 165. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 in 1906 and as I was heartily in favor of the new 
 rules — because after all, Princeton experienced 
 great difficulty with the old massed plays with 
 which Yale was supreme — it was stimulating to 
 see the rejuvenated Tigers sweeping through the 
 opposition with the new style of play. We de- 
 feated Army, Navy, and Cornell, then coached 
 by Glenn Warner, and crowned our early season 
 record by swamping Dartmouth, 42-0. 
 
 Experimenting with the forward pass, the 
 Princeton men outdid themselves. When the 
 ball was hurled toward a player, he managed, 
 somehow, to get it. By mixing up this play with 
 end runs and line plays, we breezed right along 
 with nothing to mar our perfect record than the 
 coming game with Yale. 
 
 The result of the Yale game of 1906 was a 
 tremendous disappointment. I expected to see 
 our team win handily with the forward pass and 
 the tie score of 0-0 was, to me, worse than a de- 
 feat. It was in the season of 1906 that I learned 
 my first important lesson in coaching. Young 
 and inexperienced, but full of enthusiasm, I 
 pushed the team to the limit in every game. As 
 a result, the players burnt themselves out. Our 
 defeating Dartmouth by a 42-0 score was the 
 climax of our season. From that day on we went 
 
 166. 
 
The Modem Game 
 
 down hill rapidly and two weeks later barely tied 
 a mediocre Yale team. I believe a team can only 
 be at its peak for a couple of games a season. 
 If a coach wants his team to go at top speed at 
 the end of the season he must plan the develop- 
 ment of his team accordingly. 
 
 The exciting game of modern football that we 
 know today was beginning to show itself as early 
 as 1907. Princeton led Yale by a 10-0 score 
 at the end of the first half when Yale came back 
 in the second half, and aided by the superhuman 
 playing of Ted Coy, and the use of the forward 
 pass, succeeded in defeating Princeton. Up to 
 this time the 1907 game was the most heart-pal- 
 pitating game of football in history. 
 
 An incident occurred in this memorable game 
 which was without precedent in football and 
 necessitated another rule in the book. 
 
 There was no time limit set on a team between 
 the halves. It was customary for the referee to 
 notify the opposing elevens to come back on the 
 field and begin the second half. 
 
 But when the messengers were sent to the Yale 
 dressing rooms, the team could not be found. 
 Up and down the field I walked, while the 
 referee, Mike Thompson, just didn't know what 
 to do about it. 
 
 167. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 The minutes dragged. More than 30,000 
 people shivered and mumbled in the stands. On 
 the field the Princeton players jogged up and 
 down, passing and kicking. Every now and then 
 they cast anxious eyes toward the gates, hoping 
 to see the familiar blue jerseys coming on the 
 field. 
 
 Finally, eight minutes over the time limit the 
 Yale team sprinted out on the field. The coaches 
 explained that the referee did not warn them that 
 time was up, but, deciding that it must be, they 
 came back on the field. 
 
 TEere is a story told that an old Yale football 
 player, sitting up in the stands, and noted for 
 his ability in sizing up an opponent's weakness, 
 was called into the Yale dressing room and asked 
 to instruct the men in a new defense and offense 
 between the halves. He is supposed to have 
 taken them out somewhere under the stands and 
 instructed them in combating our offense and 
 gaining through our defense. It's a good story, 
 but I doubt its truth. But from then on a defi- 
 nite time is allowed each team between the halves. 
 The officials are expressly instructed to notify 
 each team three minutes prior to the ending of 
 the intermission, and if either team does not ap- 
 168. 
 
The Modem Game 
 
 pear within two minutes after time is called, it 
 is penalized twenty-five yards. 
 
 In the second half a tremendous change came 
 over the Yale team. One could tell instantly 
 that Yale's style of play had changed. They 
 started out to score and never stopped until the 
 big Blue procession ploughed over the Princeton 
 goal line. 
 
 Our men could not stop Ted Coy. The blonde 
 fullback played as a man inspired. Around the 
 ends he flashed one minute: the next his broad 
 shoulders knifed their way through the line with 
 several men hanging on his neck. Twice the 
 Yale quarterback called on Coy to put the ball 
 over on the fourth down and twice Coy crashed 
 through. 
 
 Yale scored in about twelve minutes after the 
 second half started. The score was then 10-6 and 
 they battled against time. We managed to hold 
 them for downs twice and Harlan punted down 
 the field. 
 
 But Coy was still flaming. His famous "T'ell 
 with the signals — give me the ball!" was said to 
 be yelled during his famous march through the 
 Princeton team which went the entire length of 
 the field and ended with the second and winning 
 touchdown. 
 
 169. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 The game was gradually opening up and in 
 the next few years Sam White, with his gifted 
 knack of picking up muddy footballs and run- 
 ning for touchdowns, as well as Pumpelly's sen- 
 sational drop-kick in the 1912 game, supplied a 
 diversity of thrills for the rapidly growing game. 
 
 There was still further tinkering with the rules 
 in 1912. A touchdown was increased to six 
 points. The offensive side given four downs and 
 the length of the playing field changed from 320 
 to 300 feet. The onside kick was practically 
 abolished and the kick-off was changed from the 
 center of the field to the forty yard line. The 
 restriction of the length of the forward pass was 
 removed, and a kicked ball striking the ground 
 did not put the kickers side onside as formerly. 
 
 The legislation affecting the forward pass had 
 the most far-reaching influence and really 
 marked the beginning of the modern forward 
 passing game. 
 
 The timing of the pass was given considerable 
 attention although the possibilities in this respect 
 were not fully appreciated until Notre Dame 
 came East in 1913. Then, as now, the Hoosiers 
 had a cleverly developed pass and in this respect, 
 led football. 
 
 In 1912-13-14-15, Percy Haughton's Harvard 
 
 170. 
 
The Modern Game 
 
 teams were supreme in the East. Haughton util- 
 ized the triple threat man, deception, and stressed 
 field generalship. 
 
 All over the country football teams, aided by 
 the forward pass, the open game, and the empha- 
 sis on strategy, were enjoying an unprecedented 
 wave of popularity. The uncertainty of the 
 games brought out big crowds. In 1915 the 
 charmed circle of the Big Three's football su- 
 premacy was broken by the splendid record of a 
 great Cornell team. In 1916 Glenn Warner's 
 University of Pittsburgh led the East and then 
 followed a general expansion of football in 1917 
 to 1921. 
 
 The smaller colleges of the West and South 
 suddenly came into the limelight with powerful 
 teams. At Georgia Tech, Heisman developed 
 the Golden Tornados into a first class team. 
 Down in the blue grass country of Kentucky 
 little Center College with its hundred or more 
 students, surprised the football world. This 
 little band of footballers, led by "Bo" McMillan, 
 delighted in bowling over bigger and stronger 
 elevens to the North, South and East of Dan- 
 ville, Kentucky. In 1920, from the Pacific 
 Coast came the news that Andy Smith former 
 Pennsylvania man, had developed a world beat- 
 
 171. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 ing team at California. His Golden Bears were 
 considered one of the finest teams in the land. 
 Princeton led the East. And the following year, 
 the colleges filled with boys back from the battle- 
 fields of France, from the training camps and in- 
 dustries, the country was cluttered up with 
 powerful football teams. 
 
 In 1922 the rules were again changed. A try 
 for a point from scrimmage after touchdown was 
 introduced. Princeton, with a supposedly medi- 
 ocre team, but not lacking in intelligence, speed 
 and courage, surprised the football world by go- 
 ing through the season undefeated after winning 
 from Chicago, Colgate, Yale and Harvard. 
 
 Yale had a wonderful eleven in 1923 and easily 
 won the Big Three championship. Cornell also 
 had a powerful team. 
 
 The place kick-off was changed from the forty 
 yard line to the center of the field in 1924, only 
 to be put back again in 1925. 
 
 Notre Dame had the best team of the country 
 in 1924. This team travelled 10,500 miles, 
 played in seven states and in temperatures from 
 10 degrees above at Princeton to seventy at 
 Pasadena on New Year's day. They scored close 
 to fifty touchdowns during the season. 
 
 Dartmouth had one of the finest teams in the 
 
 172. 
 
The Modern Game 
 
 land in 1925 and Princeton again won from Yale 
 and Harvard. In the last meeting of the Big 
 Three as such, in 1926, Princeton again tri- 
 umphed over their ancient rivals. 
 
 In 1925 Princeton adopted the Huddle Sys- 
 ten, used with success by Zuppke and several 
 other coaches in the Middle West and South. It 
 has been a huge success. 
 
 When we adopted the huddle system the crit- 
 icism was raised that it slowed up the play. I 
 asked some newspaper men to time the Navy- 
 Princeton game and see who got off their plays 
 the faster. They reported we averaged about 
 one second faster under the huddle system than 
 the Navy, using the old system. 
 
 The only defect in the huddle system is that 
 the quarterback has not the opportunity to size 
 up the defense. But this works both ways. The 
 advantages of the huddle more than balance this 
 one defect if it can be defined as such. In the 
 system of signals under the huddle they can be 
 made simplier. If you wish you can merely 
 designate the back who is to carry the ball. 
 
 I am sorry to say there are some teams who 
 see no objection to trying to get an opponent's 
 signals in advance. A scout cannot catcji a 
 signal under the huddle. 
 
 173- 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 The noise of the cheering and the blare of the 
 bands at a big game make it sometimes difficult 
 to hear the signals when they are called by the 
 quarterback from his position. And it is hard 
 enough to gain ground against stiff opposition 
 without missing the signals. 
 
 The huddle too, offers great possibilities of 
 quick change of formation. This, to my way of 
 thinking, is its greatest advantage. Your oppo- 
 nents don't know until just before the ball is 
 snapped what you are going to do, and how you 
 are going to line up. 
 
 Princeton won the Big Three championship 
 with the Huddle System in 1925 and 1926. 
 
 Following last season, several new rules were 
 adopted and will be put into effect during the 
 1927 season. Under the new rules the possibil- 
 ity of shift plays has been curtailed and no doubt 
 goal kicking will be more difficult with the goal 
 posts ten yards back of the line. I doubt very 
 much that the lateral pass will become much of a 
 ground gainer, although it can be used with 
 effect as a threat. 
 
 Under the new rules it appears that the de- 
 fense has gained more than the attack. Earned 
 touchdowns will become the order of the day. 
 Under the present ruling whenever a punt 
 
The Modern Game 
 
 catcher drops a kick, opponents may recover the 
 ball but the player doing so cannot run with it. 
 
 In the past many teams have punted most of 
 the afternoon, playing for a break. More than 
 one football game has been won by fast end work (y 
 and fumbled punts, converted into a touchdown. 
 With this possibility eliminated, one can expect 
 a limited amount of punting. The tendency will 
 be to rush the ball as much as possible. 
 
 And with everything to be gained and nothing 
 lost by dropping a punt, the receiver will gain in 
 confidence and no doubt many of them will come 
 tearing up the field under punts on a dead run. 
 This will make it difficult for the opposing ends. 
 It is almost impossible for an end to time its 
 tackle properly with the punt catcher on the run. 
 
 The one place the lateral pass may come in 
 handy is after the punt has been caught. It is 
 going to be very easy for the man catching the 
 punt to toss it backward to a team mate. The 
 linemen charging down the field will have to be 
 constantly on the watch for such a play. 
 
 The lateral pass can be placed in the same class 
 as the short forward pass. There will be no gain 
 until the lateral is completed and then the 
 amount of ground gained will be questionable. 
 
 In the 1921 Harvard-Princeton game the 
 
 175. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 Crimson completed several short passes for slight 
 gains — the receiver was always thrown after he 
 moved a few yards — while in the second half 
 Ralph Gilroy, the Princeton fullback, inter- 
 cepted two of these passes and gained more 
 ground than Harvard had on the eight com- 
 pleted passes in the first half. 
 
 The threat of the lateral is more effective than 
 the lateral itself. If it is properly worked the 
 ends will be at a tremendous disadvantage. Here 
 a loose man must always be covered. Even the 
 lateral down field, after the forward pass has 
 been completed, is a possibility. 
 
 A few years ago Penn made a few gains 
 against Cornell on a lateral after a forward pass. 
 Yale tried a similar play against Princeton last 
 fall, but, fortunately for us, the last man receiv- 
 ing the ball slipped and fell. 
 
 I have talked with a good many coaches and 
 they do not all agree with me as to the possibili- 
 ties of the lateral pass. Time will show whether 
 I am right or not. 
 
 As we have not used the shift plays to any ex- 
 tent in the East, the rule providing for a full stop 
 after change of position will not affect us in this 
 section. West Point has used the shift more than 
 any other team in the East. 
 
 176. 
 
The Modern Game 
 
 The shift play has proved successful because 
 it enabled the offensive team to get the jump on 
 its opponent. It is always harder for a man on 
 the defense to change his position than for a man 
 on the attack, who knows where the play is going. 
 
 Under the old rule it seemed perfectly possi- 
 ble to beat the ball and get away with it. This, 
 of course, made the shift even more effective. 
 The five yard penalty meant very little. Under 
 the new rule, with the one second stop it will be 
 impossible to shift and start simultaneously. 
 
 Ira Rogers, the West Virginia coach, has an- 
 nounced his team will not use the shift this fall. 
 Rogers learned his football under Spears, who 
 is now at the University of Minnesota. Spears 
 developed the shift to a high degree of efficiency. 
 So an announcement of this kind from Rogers 
 is significant. 
 
 Notre Dame has used the shift play very suc- 
 cessfully for the last few years. As yet I have 
 not learned just what Rockne will do. He is a 
 very resourceful coach but I believe Notre Dame 
 in 1927 will drop the shift and come out with a 
 brand new offense. 
 
 Football, as played today, is one of the finest 
 sports in America. Through the years of its tur- 
 bulent growth the men interested in the game 
 
 177. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 have eliminated the objectionable features of 
 play until the future of the game, with its 200,- 
 000 players and millions of supporters, is indeed 
 rosy. 
 
 But football is not perfect. There is still room 
 for improvement and criticism. I do not mean 
 the stereotyped kind of criticism acknowledged 
 to be the aftermath of every season and just as 
 sure to come as the first snows. Rather, the hon- 
 est criticism of men who have the best interests of 
 the game at heart. 
 
 The two most objectionable features to the 
 modern game are really by-products and non- 
 essentials to the sport itself. They are spring 
 practice and scouting. 
 
 Football is an autumn game. It is associated 
 with cool, crisp days, with leaden skies and burn- 
 ing leaves. And it should be restricted to the 
 fall season. 
 
 It is only fair to the players that spring prac- 
 tice be eliminated. The average boy of twenty 
 is not thinking of football on warm spring days. 
 He longs to play baseball, to run, to pull an oar 
 on the lake or play tennis or golf. To have him 
 taken away from his fun — for indeed a football 
 man trains enough during the season — and be re- 
 quired to don a heavy football suit and report to 
 
 i 7 8. 
 
The Modern Game 
 
 the coaches in fear and trembling that if he does 
 not he might be dropped from the squad in the 
 fall, is indeed a gross injustice. 
 
 Little wonder football men are reported from 
 time to time to call the sport a grind ! It is not 
 fair to the men. 
 
 The most likely candidates for the football 
 team, I have found, are men of pronounced ath- 
 letic ability who are interested in more than one 
 form of sport. During the last spring I noticed 
 a great number of these men running from other 
 athletic fields, tired and wearied after baseball, 
 lacrosse, track and crew, donned their football 
 togs and then tried to give their best to the 
 coaches. 
 
 It can't be done. I admired their stamina and 
 spirit and was fully conscious of the danger I 
 submitted the men to in the way of injuries and 
 burning themselves out. No man can keep up 
 two strenuous sports at the same time and do jus- 
 tice to his college work. This is the real danger 
 of spring practice. 
 
 But what are the benefits? Scarcely any. All 
 a coach can do is get a line on his men, encour- 
 age running, which is the basis of modern foot- 
 ball, and get to know the new fellows on the 
 
 179. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 squad. There can be no organized work without 
 taking men away from other activities. 
 
 Scouting should be abolished. It destroys in- 
 itiative and when initiative and independent 
 thinking go out of football it loses its greatest 
 force as a collegiate game. 
 
 As I see it, scouting is one of the few bad in- 
 fluences affecting the game of football today. It 
 is un-American and certainly foreign to the tra- 
 ditions of the game and to the high ideals of 
 sportsmanship we are continually prating about. 
 In addition, it has a tendency to kill free, quick 
 thinking on the part of the players — to deaden 
 their initiative and individuality and to encour- 
 age a "win at any cost" attitude on the part of 
 players and coaches which cannot have anything 
 but a demoralizing effect. 
 
 Today the life of a scout is one round of pleas- 
 ure and entertainment. The various football 
 managers now vie with one another in extending 
 courtesy to the opposing scout. A block of the 
 best tickets in the stadium is always at their dis- 
 posal. Frequently representatives from five or 
 six different colleges are found parked in this 
 section, where they can hold more or less infor- 
 mal reception and exchange notes on the play. 
 
 Upon the scouts' return after the game a very 
 1 80. 
 
The Modern Game 
 
 formal typewritten report, resembling the con- 
 fidential statement of one of the best detective 
 agencies is prepared. This report is filed with 
 the head coach and reads somewhat as follows: 
 "Siwash vs. Eureka, Oct. 21, 1927. Day clear, 
 temperature 52, crowd approximately 50,000, 
 score 20-3." The report then goes on to describe 
 the play in the minutest detail, giving offensive 
 and defensive formations, individual character- 
 istics of the players — often the right end may 
 vary his position if he is to take the tackle or go 
 out for a pass. 
 
 The quarterback may stand a certain way on 
 some plays and another way on others. A care- 
 ful analysis is made of the running ability of the 
 different backs. 
 
 Last fall Tad Jones and I agreed not to scout 
 the other for our annual game. The plan worked 
 very well. After the game several of the players 
 commented on it and Sturhahn, the great Yale 
 guard, said: "It was finer in every way. To 
 play Princeton without scouting them made the 
 game more enjoyable. We weren't on the field 
 two minutes before we tried to find out for our- 
 selves what to expect from Princeton. When 
 the games were scouted we watched for what we 
 were informed would be likely to happen and we 
 
 181. 
 
Football, Today and Tomorrow 
 
 tried to note certain personalities of the team 
 that would indicate a coming play. That wasn't 
 tried against Princeton. 
 
 "We were out there for ourselves to gather 
 our own information and it was more fun." 
 
 My team was never more alert than in the 
 Yale game. The boys had hardly walked on 
 the gridiron than they began to try to find out 
 what Yale had. They knew nothing about Yale 
 formations and plays, except that which they 
 might have picked up from reading stories of the 
 games in which Yale had played, and that in- 
 formation was pretty well disjointed. 
 
 Yale has announced that it has agreed with all 
 opponents for this year to forego scouting. This 
 is a move in the right direction. There is a sen- 
 timent against scouting at Dartmouth and it will 
 surely crystallize into direct opposition to it. 
 
 In my opinion the universal abolition of scout- 
 ing is merely a few years off. Before the 1927 
 season closes there will be a more general tend- 
 ency^ from the colleges to do away with it. 
 " President Hopkins, of Dartmouth, suggested 
 several reforms to college football which were 
 answered by the Athletic Council at Hanover 
 last spring. They said in part : 
 
 "We are unable to say that football, with its 
 
 182. 
 
The Modern Game 
 
 present organization and absorbing interest, does 
 or does not occupy too important a place among 
 college activities." 
 
 "Yet," continued the Athletic Council's 
 spokesman, "without establishing a fictitious 
 value, we may not ignore the real worth to the 
 colleges of the intense interest that surrounds 
 this game, accepted as the best of college sports, 
 providing valuable physical and character train- 
 ing for the players under competent direction 
 and, as stated in your letter, producing for the 
 college communities certain very vital values and 
 making the game a natural rallying ground for 
 student and alumni loyalties, incidently produc- 
 ing revenues which chiefly support the entire 
 athletic and recreational program of the col- 
 leges." 
 
 Enemies of football and advocates of its aboli- 
 tion are few and negligible. With certain slight 
 modifications it will continue, as it deserves to 
 continue, the great college game. It is the 
 friends of football who are concerned about it 
 now. They hope to see it stripped of its un- 
 healthy intensity, its alleged over-emphasis and 
 find it restricted more in the realm of sportsman- 
 
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