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- 183. m MB ■ m