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
"Murphy stood about all he could and when he saw the officials were in
a conference he gave Hallowell a back-hander, and dropped him like a
brick. His nose was flattened right over his cheek-bone. Fortunately
that happened on the Yale side of the field. If it had happened on the
Harvard side, there would have been a riot. There was some noise when
that blow was delivered; the whole crowd in the stand stood aghast and
held its breath. So Harvard laid for Murphy and in about two plays they
got him. How they got him we never knew, but suddenly it was apparent
that Murphy was gone. The trainer finally helped Murphy up and the
captain of the team told him in which direction his goal was. He would
break through just as fine and fast as before, but the moment his head
got down to a certain angle, he would go down in a heap. He was game to
the core, however, and he kept on going.
"It was in this game that Wrightington, the halfback, was injured,
though this never came out in the newspapers. Wrightington caught a punt
and started back up the field. In those days you could wriggle and
squirm all you wanted to and you could pile on a thousand strong, if you
liked. Frank Hinkey was at the other end of the field playing wide, and
ready if Wrightington should take a dodge. Murphy caught Wrightington
and he started to wriggle. It was at this time that Louis Hinkey came
charging down the field on a dead run. In trying to prevent
Wrightington from advancing any further with the ball, Louis Hinkey's
knee hit Wrightington and came down with a crash on his collar-bone and
neck. Wrightington gave one moan, rolled over and fainted dead away.
Frank Hinkey was not within fifteen yards of the play, and Louis did it
with no evil intention. Frank thought that Wrightington had been killed
and he came over and took Louis Hinkey by the hand, appreciating the
severe criticism which was bound to be heaped upon his brother Louis.
There was a furor. It was on everybody's tongue that Frank Hinkey had
purposely broken Wrightington's collar-bone. Frank knew who did it, but
the 'Silent Hinkey' never revealed the real truth. He protected his
brother.
"Yale took issue on the point, and as a result the athletic relationship
was suspended.
"It was in this game that Bronc Armstrong established the world's brief
record for staying in the game. He was on the field for twenty
seconds--then was ruled out. I think Frank Hinkey is the greatest end
that was ever on a field. To my mind he never did a dirty thing, but he
tackled hard. When Frank Hinkey tackled a man, he left him there. In
later years when I was coaching, an old Harvard player who was visiting
me, came out to Yale Field. He had never seen Hinkey play football, but
he had read much about him. I pointed out several of the men to him,
such as Heffelfinger, and others of about his type, all of whom measured
up to his ideas, and finally said:
[Illustration: SNAPPING THE BALL WITH LEWIS]
[Illustration: "TWO INSEPARABLES"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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