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 well remember that at Exeter we were planning how to celebrate our
victory over Andover, even to the most minute detail. We knew who was to
ring the academy and church bells of the town, and where we were to have
the bonfire at night. We were deprived of that pleasure on account of
the great playing and better spirit of the Andover team. A few of our
Exeter men then and there made a silent compact that Exeter would feel a
little better after another contest with Andover. The following three
years we defeated Andover by large scores.
"Any one who has played the game can recall some amusing situations. I
recall the first year at Harvard when we were playing against the
Andover team that suddenly the whole Andover School gave the Yale cheer.
Dud Dean, who was behind me, fired up and said it was the freshest
thing he had ever heard. At Springfield I remember one Yale-Harvard game
started with ten men of my own school, Exeter, in the game. In another
Yale game we were told to look ugly and defiant as we lined up to face
Yale, but I was forced to laugh long and hard when I found myself facing
Frankie Barbour, the little Yale quarter, who lived with me in the same
dormitory at Exeter for three years."
[Illustration: BREAKERS AHEAD
Phil King in the Old Days.]
CHAPTER IX
THE NINETIES AND AFTER
Men of to-day who never had an opportunity of seeing Foster Sanford play
will be interested in some anecdotes of his playing days and to read in
another chapter of this book some of his coaching experiences.
"As a boy," said Sandy, "I lived in New Haven. I chalked the lines on
the football field for the game in which Tilly Lamar made his famous run
for Princeton. I played on the college team two years before I entered
Yale. I learned a lot of football playing against Billy Rhodes, that
great Yale tackle.
"I'll tell you about the day I made the Yale team in my freshman year.
Pa Corbin took me in hand. I think he wanted to see if I had lots of
nerve. He told me to report at nine o'clock for practice. He put me
through a hard, grueling work-out, showing me how to snap the ball; how
to charge and body check. All this took place in a driving rain, and he
kept me out until one o'clock, when he said:
"'You can change your jersey now; that is, put on a dry one.'
"I went over to the training table then to see if I couldn't get some
dinner. Believe me, I was hungry. But every one had finished his meal
and all I could pick up was the things that were left. Here I ran into a
fellow named Brennen, who said:
"'They're trying to do you up. This is the day they are deciding whether
you will be center rush or not.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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