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
He earns his seat at the Varsity table. He is now on the Varsity squad.
He goes on, determined to play a better game, and realizes he must hold
his place at the training table by hard, conscientious work.
One is not unmindful of the traditions that are centered about the board
where so many heroes of the past have sat. You have a keen realization
of the fact that you are filling the seat of men who have gone before
you, and that you must make good, as they made good. Their spirit lives.
The training table is a great school for team spirit. To have a
successful team, any coach will tell you, there must be a brotherly
feeling among the members of the team. The men must chum together on and
off the field. Team work on the field is made much easier if there is
team work off the field.
I never hear the expression "team mates" used but I recall a certain
Princeton team, the captain of which was endowed with a wonderful power
of leadership. There was nothing the men would not do for him. Every man
on the team regarded him as a big brother. Yet there was one man on the
squad who seemed inclined to be alone. He had little to say, and when
his work was over on the field he always went silently away to his room.
He did not mingle with the other players in the club house after dinner,
and there did not seem to be much warmth in him.
Garry Cochran, the captain, took some of us into his confidence, and we
made it our business to draw this fellow out of his shell. It was not
long before we found that he was an entirely different sort of a person
from what he had seemed to be.
In a short time, the fellow who was unconsciously retarding good
fellowship among the members of the team was no longer a silent negative
individual, but was soon urging us on in a get-together spirit.
It will be impossible to relate all the good times had at a college
training table. I think that every football man will agree with me that
we now have a great deal of sympathy for the trainer, whereas in the old
days we roasted him when it seemed that dinner would never be ready.
How the hungry mob awaited the signal!
"The flag is down," as old Jim Robinson would say, and Arthur Poe would
yell:
"Fellows, the hash is ready."
Then the hungry crowd would scramble in for the big event of the day.
There awaited them all the delicacies of a trainer's menu; the food that
made touchdowns. If the service was slow, the good-natured trainer was
all at fault, and he too joined in the spirit of their criticism. If
the steak was especially tender, they would say it was tough. There was
much juggling of the portions distributed. Fred Daly recalls the first
week that he and Johnnie Kilpatrick were at the Yale training table. Kil
called for some chocolate, and Johnnie Mack, the trainer, yelled back:
"What do you think this is, anyway, a hospital?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account