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
"In the second half McBride tried a center drive on Booth and Edwards.
The line held and I rushed in, and grabbed the ball, but before I got
very far the Referee blew his whistle, and after I had run across the
goal line I realized that the touchdown was not going to be allowed.
"Lew Palmer and I were tried at end simply to endeavor to provide a
defense against the return runs of de Saulles on punts. He, by the way,
was the greatest open field runner I have ever seen.
"My senior year started auspiciously and the prospects for a victorious
eleven appeared especially bright, as only two of the regular players of
the year before had graduated. The first hard game was against Columbia,
coached by Foster Sanford, who had a wealth of material drawn from the
four corners of the earth. In the latter part of the game my opponent by
way of showing his disapproval of my features attempted to change them,
but was immediately assisted to the ground by my running mate and was
undergoing an unpleasant few moments, when Sanford, reinforced by
several dozen substitutes, ran to his rescue and bestowed some unkind
compliments on different parts of my pal's anatomy. With the arrival of
Burr McIntosh and several old grads, however, we were released from
their clutches, and the game proceeded.
"After the Cornell game the Yale game was close at hand. We were
confident of our ability to win, though we expected a bitter hard
struggle, in which we were not disappointed. Through a well developed
interference on an end run, Reiter was sent around the end for several
long gains, resulting in a touchdown, but Yale retaliated by blocking a
kick and falling on the ball for a touchdown. Sharpe, a few minutes
later, kicked a beautiful goal, so that the score was 10 to 6 in Yale's
favor. The wind was blowing a gale all through the first half and as
Yale had the wind at their backs we were forced to play a rushing game,
but shortly after the second half began the wind died down considerably
so that McBride's long, low kicks were not effective to any great
extent.
"Yale was on the defensive and we were unable to break through for the
coveted touchdown, though we were able to gain ground consistently for
long advances. In the shadow of their goal line Yale held us mainly
through the wonderful defensive playing of McBride. I never saw a finer
display of backing up the rush line than that of McBride during the
second half. So strenuous was the play that eight substitutions had been
made on our team, but with less than five minutes to play we started a
furious drive for the goal line from the middle of the field, and with
McClave, Mattis and Lathrope carrying the ball we went to Yale's 25-yard
line in quick time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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