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
"I am a firm believer in rough, rugged, aggressive, bruising football,"
says Hardwick. "The rougher, the better, if, and only if, it is
legitimate and clean football. I am glad to say that clean football has
been prevalent in my experience. Only on the rarest occasions have I
felt any unclean actions have been intentional and premeditated. We have
made it a point to play fierce, hard and clean football, and have nearly
always received the same treatment.
"In my freshman year, however, I felt that I had been wronged, and
foolishly I took it to heart. Since that time I have changed my mind as
I have had an opportunity to know the player personally and my own
observation and the general high reputation he has for sportsmanship
have thoroughly convinced me of my mistake. The particular play in
question was in the Yale 1915 game. We started a wide end run, and I was
attempting to take out the end. I dived at his knees but aimed too far
in front, falling at his feet. He leaped in the air to avoid me, and
came down on the small of my back, gouging me quite severely with his
heel cleats. I felt that it was unnecessary and foolishly resented it."
One of the most famous games in football was the Harvard-Yale encounter
at Springfield in '94. Bob Emmons was captain of the Harvard team and
Frank Hinkey captain of Yale. This game was so severely fought that it
was decided best to discontinue football relations between these two
universities and no game took place until three years later.
Jim Rodgers, who was a substitute at Yale that year, relates some
interesting incidents of that game:
"In those old strenuous days, they put so much fear of God in you, it
scared you so you couldn't play. When we went up to Springfield, we were
all over-trained. Instead of putting us up at a regular hotel, they put
us up at the Christian Workers, that Stagg was interested in. The
bedrooms looked like cells, with a little iron bed and one lamp in each
room," says Jim. "You know after one is defeated he recalls these facts
as terrible experiences. None of us slept at all well that night, and my
knees were so stiff I could hardly walk. Yale relied much on Fred
Murphy. Harvard had coached Hallowell to get Murphy excited. Murphy was
quick tempered. If you got his goat, he was pretty liable to use his
hands, and Harvard was anxious to have him put out of the game.
Hallowell went to his task with earnestness. He got Murphy to the point
of rage, but Murphy had been up against Bill Odlin, who used to coach at
Andover, and Bill used to give you hell if you slugged when the umpire
was looking. But when his back was turned you could do anything.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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