United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
The shrill blast of the referee's whistle--and the game was on. The
first half was a see-saw up and down the field. Near the end of the half
Raleigh was within twenty yards of the Sanford line. Shouts of "Score!
Score! Score!" went up from the Raleigh rooters, rhythmic, insistent.
"Hold 'em! Hold 'em! Fight! Fight! Fight!" the Sanford cheering section
pleaded, almost sobbing the words. A forward pass skilfully completed
netted Raleigh sixteen yards. "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
The timekeeper tooted his little horn; the half was over. For a moment
the Sanford boys leaned back exhausted; then they leaped to their feet
and yelled madly, while the Raleigh boys leaned back or against each
other and swore fervently. Within two minutes the tension had departed.
The rival cheering sections alternated in singing songs, applauded each
other vigorously, whistled at a frightened dog that tried to cross the
field and nearly lost its mind entirely when called by a thousand
masters, waited breathlessly when the cheer-leaders announced the
results from other football games that had been telegraphed to the
field, applauded if Harvard was losing, groaned if it wasn't, sang some
more, relaxed and felt consummately happy.
Sanford immediately took the offensive in the second half. Slade was
consistently carrying the ball. Twice he brought it within Raleigh's
twenty-five-yard line. The first time Raleigh held firm, but the second
time Slade stepped back for a drop-kick. The spectators sat silent,
breathless. The angle was difficult. Could he make it? Would the line
hold?
Quite calmly Slade waited. The center passed the ball neatly. Slade
turned it in his hands, paid not the slightest attention to the mad
struggle going on a few feet in front of him, dropped the ball--and
kicked. The ball rose in a graceful arc and passed safely between the
goal-posts.
Every one, men and women alike, the Raleigh adherents excepted, promptly
turned into extraordinarily active lunatics. The women waved their
banners and shrieked, or if they had no banners, they waved their arms
and shrieked; the men danced up and down, yelled, pounded each other on
the back, sometimes wildly embraced--many a woman was kissed by a man
she had never seen before and never would again, nor did she
object--Wayne Gifford was turning handsprings, and many of the students
were feebly fluttering their hands, voiceless, spent with cheering, weak
from excitement.
Early in the fourth quarter, however, Raleigh got its revenge, carrying
the ball to a touch-down after a series of line rushes. Sanford tried
desperately to score again, but its best efforts were useless against
the Raleigh defense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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