Football -- Juvenile fiction; Friendship -- Juvenile fiction
End Tackle Guard Center Guard Tackle End
Douglass Badger Hemming Griffin McGuffey Jackman Jones
MARSHALL
End Tackle Guard Center Guard Tackle End
Smith Everett O'Toole Needham (Capt.) Willets Bennett Haldy
Quarterback
Lighthart
Halfback Halfback
Collins Trowbridge
Fullback
Budge
Of course, as the sides faced each other the left end of Chester,
Jones, found himself confronting the right end of Marshall, Haldy. And
while the fullback bore the ominous name of Budge, it was apparent
from his bulky frame that this was just about the last thing he might
be expected to do, for he looked as though a mountain would not move
him.
Silence fell upon the vast throng. If anyone had ventured to speak
above a whisper just at that critical moment, he would have found
himself frowned upon by a dozen angry persons close by.
Out there in the arena the twenty-two contestants crouched in their
favorite attitudes, and with nerves strained to the utmost, waited for
the ball to be put in action. It was a picture never to be forgotten,
and no wonder the eyes of the gathered multitude of spectators
remained glued upon the motionless figures, looking like statues of
famous gladiators in the arena waiting to battle before a Nero, who by
the crook of his thumb, either up or down, would seal their fate
eventually one way or the other.
Then all at once there was a sudden concerted movement, every one of
the players leaping into life; and from that moment on there would be
something constantly doing.
CHAPTER XI
THE STRUGGLE ON THE GRIDIRON
When the struggle first began it looked as though the veteran
Marshall players meant to smother their lighter opponents by means of
the sheer force of their attack. They immediately carried the ball
over into Chester's side of the field, and there was danger of a
touchdown before the game had been in progress five minutes.
During this period the Chester spectators sat with a numb feeling
clutching their hearts, though they tried their best to assume a
confidence they could hardly feel. Their boys were really novices at
the business, and it was to be expected, they reasoned, trying to
bolster up their waning courage, that at first things would hit the
Chester line hard. But just wait a bit, until they began to recover
their wind, and Jack Winters was given a fair chance to unmask some of
his hidden batteries. "He laughs longest who laughs last," was a
saying with a good deal of truth behind it; and anyhow the game was
very young yet. Besides, Marshall hadn't scored, after all, it seemed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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