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
Sweeney possesses an uncanny insight into the workings of the games and
individuals. Oftentimes as he sits on the side lines he can foretell an
accident coming to a player.
Mike was sitting on the Yale side lines one day, and remarked to Ed
Wylie, a former Hill School player--a Yale substitute at that time:
"They ought to take Smith out of the game; he shows signs of weakening.
You'd better go tell the trainer to do it."
But before Wylie could get to the trainer, several plays had been run
off and the man who had played too long received an injury, and was done
for. Sweeney's predictions generally ring true.
It is rather remarkable, and especially fortunate that a prep. school
should have such an efficient athletic director. For thirteen years
Sweeney acted in that capacity and coached all the teams. He taught
other men to teach football.
Jack Moakley
Had any one gone to Ithaca in the hope of obtaining the services of Jack
Moakley, the Cornell trainer, he would have found this popular trainer's
friends rising up and showing him the way to the station, because there
never has been a human being who could sever the relations between Jack
Moakley and Cornell.
The record he has made with his track teams alone entitles him to a high
place, if not the highest place, on the trainer's roll of honor. To tell
of his achievements would fill an entire chapter, but as we are
confining ourselves to football, his work in this department of Cornell
sports stands on a par with any football trainer.
Jack Moakley takes his work very seriously and no man works any harder
on the Cornell squad than does their trainer. Costello, a Cornell
captain of years ago, relates the following incident:
"Jack Moakley had a man on his squad who had a great habit of digging up
unusual fads, generally in the matter of diet. At this particular time
he had decided to live solely on grape nuts. As he was one of the best
men on the team, Jack did not burden himself with trouble over this fad,
although at several times Moakley told him that he might improve if he
would eat some real food. However, when this man started a grape nut
campaign among the younger members of the squad he aroused Jack's ire
and upon his arrival at the field house he wiped the black board clean
of all instructions and in letters a foot high wrote:
"They who eat beef are beefy."
"They who eat nuts are nutty."
The resultant kidding finally made the old beefsteak popular with our
friend.
Johnny Mack
It would not seem natural if one failed to see Johnny Mack on the side
lines where Yale is playing. In eleven years at New Haven Yale teams
were never criticised on account of their condition. The physical
condition of the Yale team has always been left entirely in Johnny
Mack's hands, and the hard contests that they went through in the season
of 1915 were enough to worry any trainer. Johnny Mack was always
optimistic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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