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
It does not take you long to get your clothes off and ready for the
bath. How well some of you will recall that after a hard practice you
were content to sit and rest awhile on the bench in the dressing-room.
It may be that, in removing your clothes, you favored an injured knee,
looked at a sprained ankle, or helped some fellow off with his jersey.
What is finer, after a hard day's practice, than to stand beneath a warm
shower and gradually let the water grow cold? Everything is lovely until
some rascal in the bunch throws a cold sponge on you and slaps you
across the back, or turns the cold water on, when you only want hot.
Then comes the dry-off and the rub-down, which seems to soothe all your
bruises. This picture of Pete Balliet standing on the end of a bench,
while Jack McMasters massages an injured knee may recall to many a
football player the day when the trainer was his best friend. From his
wonderful physique it is easy to believe that Balliet must have been the
great center-rush whom the heroes of years ago tell about.
Harry Brown, that great Princeton end-rush, is on the other end of the
bench, being taken care of by Bill Buss, a jovial old colored attendant,
who was for so many years a rubber at Princeton.
I know men who never enthuse over football, but just play from a sense
of college loyalty, and a fear of censure should they not play; who are
sorry that they were ever big or showed any football ability. College
sentiment will not allow a football man to remain idle.
[Illustration: REPAIRS]
I knew a man in college, who, on his way to the football field, said:
"Oh, how I hate to drag my body down to the Varsity field to-day to have
it battered and bruised!"
One does not always enthuse over the hard drudgery of practice. Those
that witness only the final games of the year, little realize the
gruesome task of preparedness. Every football player will acknowledge
that some day he has had these thoughts himself.
But suddenly the day comes when this discouraged player sees a light.
Perhaps he has developed a hidden power, or it may be that he has broken
through and made a clean tackle behind the line; perhaps he has made a
good run and received a compliment from the coach. It may be that his
side partner has given him a word of encouragement, which may have
instilled into him a new spirit, and, as a result, he has turned out to
be a real football player. He then forgets all the bruises and all the
hard knocks.
How true it is that in one play, or in a practice game, or in a contest
against an opposing college, a player has found himself. Do you players
of football remember the day you made the team, the day your chance came
and you took advantage of it? At such a time a player shows great
possibilities. He is told by the captain to report at the training house
for the Varsity signals. Who that has experienced the thrill of that
moment can ever forget it?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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