College stories; Sports stories; Yale University -- Juvenile fiction
Monday was a day of rest at the field, but on Tuesday the final
preparation for Harvard began. Behind locked gates under the urgings
of the half a score of coaches who had hurried to New Haven, the
previous practice and even the Princeton game were like child's play.
Armstrong was at right end, a position which he had fairly won, but
Saunders on the Second eleven fought tooth and nail to displace him.
It seemed to Frank that the Second eleven coaches had a particular
grudge at his end, for he was called upon to stop more than his share
of attacks. But he was able to do what was expected of him, backed
up as he was by the sturdy and omnipresent Turner who withstood
everything with a never-failing energy.
Wednesday's practice, fiercer than the day before, if that could be,
found Frank Armstrong still in possession of his place at right end,
but it was with a sigh of relief that he heard the welcome "That's
all," of Coach Hanley. He watched with interest the usual celebration
of the Second eleven which marks the end of the year's practice.
On Thursday the 'Varsity, with substitutes, a score of coaches and
heelers, took the afternoon train to the north, and were quartered
at a hotel just outside of Cambridge. A brief signal practice was
held in the towering Stadium on Soldiers Field Friday, where the last
instructions were given to the men. It would be too much to say, and
not the truth, that the night was a peaceful one for most of the
Yale eleven. Turner and Armstrong were quartered in separate beds in
the same room. The former slept like a log, apparently free from all
thoughts of the morrow. Frank, on the other hand, tossed and turned,
got up in the night and sat at the window while his companion snored
contentedly. In the early hours of the morning he finally dropped
into a sleep which was disturbed by dreams of the Harvard runners
slipping past just beyond his reach. How he got through the morning
he never knew, but he did get through somehow, and finally found
himself dressed for the fray and in the big 'bus with the rest of the
eleven, headed for the Stadium.
"There go the Yaleses!" sang out an urchin.
"Dey won't look so nice as dat when de Harvards get through wit'
dem," shouted his companion.
Occasionally the 'bus passed Yale sympathizers, and then it got a
cheer or: "Go to it, Yale, you're the boys who can do it!"
From every direction throngs of people were heading toward the great
concrete structure whose huge gray bulk seemed to fill the horizon.
Already thousands swarmed in its arches, and even at this hour little
black specks of human beings were seen outlined on its upper heights
against the sky. Progress became slower as the 'bus neared the field,
and it finally took the combined efforts of a squad of police to
break the crowd sufficiently to let the Yale players through to the
Locker Building within the shadow of the Stadium walls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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