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
Those who saw the Army defeat Yale at West Point in 1904 must realize
what a blow it was to the Blue. The first score came as a result of a
blocked kick by West Point, which was recovered by Erwin, who picked up
the ball and dashed across the line for a touchdown. The Army scored the
second time when Torney cut loose and ran 105 yards for a touchdown.
Sam Morse, captain of the Yale 1906 team, who played right halfback in
this game, tells how the nightmare of defeat may come upon us at any
time, even in the early season, and incidentally how it may have its
compensations.
"An instance of the psychology of football is to be found in the fall
of 1904, when Jim Hogan was captain of the Yale team," says Morse. "I
had the pleasure of playing back of him on the defensive in almost every
game of that year, and I got to depend so much on those bull-like
charges of his that I fear that if I had been obliged to play back of
some one else my playing would have been of inferior quality.
"Yale had a fine team that year, defeating both Harvard and Princeton
with something to spare. The only eleven that scored on us was West
Point, and they beat us. It is a strange thing that the Cadets always
seem to give Yale a close game, as in that year even though beaten by
both Harvard and Princeton by safe scores, and even though Yale beat
Harvard and Princeton handily, the Army played us to a standstill.
"After the game, as is so often the case when men have played themselves
out, there was a good deal of sobbing and a good many real tears were
shed. Every man who has played football will appreciate that there are
times when it is a very common matter for even a big husky man to weep.
We were all in the West Point dressing-room when Jim Hogan arose. He
felt what we all took to be a disgrace more keenly than any of us. There
was no shake in his voice, however, or any tears in his eyes when he
bellowed at us to stop blubbering.
"'Don't feel sorry for yourselves. I hope this thing will hurt us all
enough so that we will profit by it. It isn't a matter to cry over--it's
a matter to analyze closely and to take into yourself and to digest, and
finally to prevent its happening again.'
"He drove it home as only Jim Hogan could. At the close Ralph Bloomer
jumped to his feet and cried:
"'Jim, old man, we are with you, and you are right about it, and we will
wipe this thing out in a way which will satisfy you and all the rest of
the college.'
"The whole team followed him. Right then and there that aggregation
became a Yale football team in the proper sense, and one of the greatest
Yale football teams that ever played. It was the game followed by Jim's
speech that made the eleven men a unit for victory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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