Football days : $b memories of the game and of the men behind the ballEdwards, William H. (William Hanford)
General
Football days : $b memories of the game and of the men behind the ball
Edwards, William H. (William Hanford)
Football
There is no one man at Annapolis who sticks closer to the ship and
around whom more football traditions have grown than Paul Dashiell, a
professor in the Academy. He bore for many years the burden of
responsibility of Annapolis football. His earnest desire has been to
see the Navy succeed. He has worked arduously, and whenever Navy men get
together they speak enthusiastically of the devotion of this former
Lehigh hero, official and rule maker. Players have come and gone; the
call in recent years has been elsewhere, but Paul Dashiell has remained,
and his interest in the game has been manifested by self-denial and hard
work. Defeat has come to him with great sadness, and there are many
games of which he still feels the sting; these come to him as nightmares
in his recollections of Annapolis football history. Great has been his
joy in the Navy's hour of victory.
It was here at Annapolis that I learned something of the old Navy
football heroes. Most brilliant of all, perhaps, was Worth Bagley, a
marvelous punter and great fighter. He lost his life later in the war
with Spain, standing to his duty under open fire on the deck of the
_Winslow_ at Cardenas, with the utter fearlessness that was
characteristic of him.
I heard of the deeds on the football field of Mike Johnson, Trench,
Pearson, McCormack, Cavanaugh, Reeves, McCauley, Craven, Kimball and
Bookwalter. I have played against the great Navy guard Halligan. I saw
developed the Navy players, Long, Chambers, Reed, Nichols and Chip
Smith, who later was in charge of the Navy athletics. He was one of the
best quarterbacks the Navy ever had. I saw Dug Howard grow up from
boyhood in Annapolis and develop into a Navy star; saw him later coach
their teams to victory; witnessed the great playing of Dougherty,
Piersol, Grady and Bill Carpenter, who is no longer on the Navy list.
All these players, together with Norton, Northcroft, Dague, Halsey,
Ingram, Douglas, Jerry Land, Babe Brown and Dalton stand out among those
who have given their best in Army and Navy games.
Young Nichols, who was quarterback in 1912, was a most brilliant ground
gainer. He resigned from the Service early in 1913, receiving a
commission in the British Army. He was wounded, but later returned to
duty only to be killed shortly afterward. Another splendid man.
In speaking of Navy football I cannot pass over the name of W. H.
Stayton, a man whose whole soul seemed to be permeated with Navy
atmosphere, and who is always to be depended upon in Navy matters. The
association that I formed later in life with McDonough Craven and other
loyal Navy football men gave me an opportunity to learn of Annapolis
football in their day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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