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
Charlie de Saulles, after graduation, went to Yale and continued his
wonderful, spectacular career on the gridiron. We will spend an
afternoon with him on the Yale field later.
Billy Dibble went to Williams and played a marvelous game until he was
injured, early in his freshman year. It was during those days that I met
Garry Cochran, Sport Armstrong and other Princeton coaches for the first
time. They used to come over to assist in coaching our team. Our regular
coaches at Lawrenceville were Walter B. Street, who had been a famous
football star years before at Williams, and William J. George, renowned
in Princeton's football history as a center-rush. I cannot praise the
work of these men too highly. They were thoroughbreds in every sense of
the word.
It was one of the old traditions of Lawrenceville football to have a
game every year with Pennington Seminary. What man is there who
attended either school who does not recall the spirit of those old-time
contests?
The Hill School was another of our football rivals. The trip to
Pottstown, Pa., was an event eagerly looked forward to--so also was the
Hill School's return game at Lawrenceville. The rivalry between the two
schools was keen.
Everything possible was done at the Hill School to make our visit a
pleasant one. The score of 28 to 0, by which Lawrenceville won the game
that year, made it especially pleasant.
As I recall that trip, two men stand out in my memory. One was John
Meigs, the Head Master. The other was Mike Sweeney, the Trainer and
Athletic Director. They were the two central figures of Hill School
traditions.
Interest in football was emphasized at that time by the approaching game
with Andover at Lawrenceville. This was the first time that these two
teams had ever played. Andover was probably more renowned in football
annals than any school Lawrenceville had played up to this time. The
Lawrenceville coaches realized that the game would be a strenuous one.
After a conference, the two coaches decided that it would be wise to see
Andover play at Andover the week before we were to play them.
Accordingly, Mr. George went to Andover, and when he returned, he
gathered the team around him in one of the recitation halls and
described carefully the offense and defense of our coming opponents. He
also demonstrated with checkers what each man did in every play and
placed emphasis on the work of Eddie Holt, who was acting captain of the
Andover team. To represent Holt's giant build he placed one checker on
top of another, saying, as I remember, with great seriousness:
"This topped checker represents Holt. He must be taken care of, and it
will require two Lawrenceville men to stop him on every play. I am
certain of this for Holt was a marvel last Saturday."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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