Football days : $b memories of the game and of the men behind the ball — John Shaqi
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 is a great thing to play the game of football as hard as you can. I
never deliberately went to do a man up. If he played a rough game, I
simply played him the harder. I never struck a man with my fist in the
game. I do not remember ever losing my temper. Perhaps I did not have
temper enough.
"When we speak of a football man's nerve I would say that any man who
stopped to think of himself is not worthy of the game, but there is one
man who seemed to me had a little more nerve than the average. I think
that he played for two years on our scrub, and the reason that he was
kept there so long was on account of his size. He only weighed about 138
pounds, but for all the time he played on the scrub he played halfback
and no one ever saw him hesitate to make every inch that he could, even
though he knew he had to suffer for it.
"In the fall of '88, I think, Yup Cook played right tackle on the
Varsity. He was very strong in his shoulders and arms and had the grip
of a blacksmith. Channing, this nervy little 138-pounder, played left
halfback on the scrub. When he went into the line, Cook would take him
by the shoulders and slam him into the ground. Our playing field at the
time was very dry and the ground was like a rock. I used to feel very
sorry for the little fellow. On his elbows and hips and knees he had raw
sores as big as silver dollars; yet he never hesitated to make the
attempt, and he never called 'down' to save himself from punishment. The
next year he made the team. Everybody admired him.
"Football men must never forget Tilly Lamar, who played halfback. I
think he was one of the greatest halfbacks and one who would have made a
record in any age of football. I have seen him go through a line with
nearly every man on the opposing team holding him. He would break loose
from one after the other.
"Lamar was a short, chunky fellow and ran close to the ground with his
back level, and about the only place one could get hold of him was his
shoulders. He would always turn toward the tackler instead of away, and
it had the effect of throwing him over his head. The only way that the
Yale men could stop him at all was to dive clear under and get him by
the legs.
"You have always heard a lot about Snake Ames. Snake was a very
spectacular player, but one very hard to stop, especially in an open
field. He was very fast and during the last year of his playing he
developed a duck and would go clear under the man trying to tackle him.
This he did by putting one hand flat on the ground, so that his body
would just miss the ground; even the good tacklers that Yale always had
were not able to stop him.
"One of Princeton's old reliables was our center, George, '89. He may
not have got much out of the plaudits from the grandstand, but those of
us who knew what he was doing appreciated his work. We always felt safe
as to our center. He was steady and brilliant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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