Boarding schools -- Juvenile fiction; Football stories; School sports -- Juvenile fiction; Teenage boys -- Juvenile fiction
There were some who advocated forfeiting the game while there was still
time, but this idea didn’t meet with general approval, not even while
the stunning effect of the blow was yet at its height. No, they’d play
Wolcott and do the best they could. That was only sportsmanly. And
maybe the poor, decrepit old Team would crawl out of the contest still
recognizable to its closest friends! In any case, defeat was honorable
if not desirable!
There was a good deal of talk during Wednesday and Thursday about Honor
in Defeat, and the Last Ditch, and Going Through With It. Wednesday
night’s mass meeting was truly pathetic. “Shadowed Walls” sounded
like a dirge when it was sung, and “Win! Win! Wyndham,” for all of
its volume, was less a cheer than an intoned elegy. It suggested
renunciation but not defiance. Mr. Babcock’s gravely cheerful remarks
were applauded politely. The School appreciated his efforts but was not
to be deluded. There were other speakers, too, and they wasted a lot
of words, in the judgment of their hearers. What was the good of being
hopeful when there wasn’t any hope left?
But on Thursday evening the meeting was different. Though defeat was
still accepted as inevitable, the notion of taking it lying down was
no longer popular. The sentiment to-night favored getting in just as
many good, hard licks as was possible before being counted out. There
was still a strong “We who are about to die salute you” savor to
proceedings, but the salutation was distinctly defiant. A courteous
letter from the Wolcott Academy Athletic Association deploring the
unfortunate loss to Wyndham of its Head Coach was read and almost moved
the hearers to tears. Somehow, there seemed something quite touching in
the idea of the lion sympathizing with its victim before devouring him!
Wyndham cheered that letter to the echo.
The Scrub did not disband on Wednesday, according to custom, although
Wednesday witnessed the final real game between it and First. At Mr.
Babcock’s direction the Scrub postponed dissolution for twenty-four
hours and on Thursday lined up opposite the big team for some twenty
minutes while the latter put the polishing touches on several plays,
among them Number 30. Tackling was prohibited, and the somewhat
ludicrous spectacle of Billy Desmond and Al Greene scowling darkly at
each other without once coming to grips was presented. The captaincy
of the Scrub had fallen to Johnny Thayer on Monday, and it was Johnny
who gathered the team about him in the early twilight that Thursday
afternoon and led the cheer.
“Win, win, Wyndham! Win, win, Wyndham! Win, win, Wyndham! Scrub!
_Scrub!_ SCRU-U-UB!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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