Football Days | Page 2

on
its present high plane.
William H. Edwards.
[Illustration: MY CORNER
"Fond memory sheds the light of other days around me."]

PROLOGUE
They say that no man ever made a successful football player who was
lacking in any quality of imagination. If this be true, and time and again
has it been proved, then there is no more fitting dedication to a book
dealing with the gridiron heroes of the past than to a man like Johnny
Poe. For football is the abandon of body and mind to the obsession of
the spirit that knows no obstacle, counts no danger and for the time
being is dull and callous to physical pain or exhaustion. It is a
something that makes one see visions as Johnny saw them!
There is no sport in the world that brings out unselfishness as does this
great gridiron game of ours. Every fall, second and scrub teams

throughout the country sacrifice themselves only to let others enter the
promised land of victory. It is a strange thing but one almost never
hears any real football player criticise another's making the team, either
his own or an All America. Although the player in this sport
appreciates the loyal support of the thousands on the stands, every man
realizes that his checks on the Bank of Cheers can never be cashed
unless there is a deposit of hard work and practice. Perhaps all this in
an indistinct and indefinite way explains why football players, the
country over, understand each other and that when the game is attacked
for any reason they stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of what they
know down in the bottom of their hearts has such an influence on
character building. And there is no one better fitted to tell the story of
this and of the gridiron heroes than Big Bill Edwards, known not only
as a player but far and wide as one of the best officials that ever
handled the game. "A square deal and no roughing" was his motto, and
every one realized it and accepted every decision unquestioningly. His
association with players in so many angles has given him a particular
insight into the sport and has enabled him to tell this story as no one
else could.
And what names to conjure with! The whistle blows and a shadowy
host springs into action before one's misty eyes--Alex Moffat, the star
of kickers, Hector Cowan, Heffelfinger, Gordon Brown, Ma Newell,
Truxton Hare, Glass, Neil Snow and Shevlin, giants of linemen. But I
must stop before I trespass upon what Bill Edwards will do better.
Here's to them all--forty years of heroes!
Walter Camp.
[Illustration: WALTER CAMP
Yale's Captain, '78-'79.]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Hillebrand, Cochran, Edwards Frontispiece

My Corner
Walter Camp, Yale's Captain '78-'79
The Old Fifth Avenue Send-Off 1
Old Yale Heroes--Lee McClung's Team 5
We Beat Andover 11
Lafayette's Great Team 24
House in Disorder 30
Hit Your Man Low 32
Repairs 34
The Old Faithfuls 39
Jim Rodgers' Team 45
Cochran Was Game to the End 48
On to New Haven--All Dressed Up and Ready to Go 54
Hillebrand's Last Charge 60
Al Sharpe's Goal 64
Touching the Match to Victory 67
Alex Moffat and His Team 82
Old Penn Heroes 100
Pa Corbin's Team 108
Breakers Ahead--Phil King in the Old Days 125

Lookout, Princeton! 130
Barrett on One of His Famous Dashes; Exeter-Andover Game, 1915
142
Bill Hollenback Coming at You 147
"The Next Day the Picture Was Gone"--Jim Cooney Making a Hole for
Dana Kafer 158
Johnny Poe, Football Player and Soldier 181
Northcroft Kicking the Field Goal Anticipated by the Navy and Feared
by the Army 200
Cadets and Middies Entering the Field 224
Two Aces--Bill Morley and Harold Weeks 251
Vic Kennard's Kick 255
Sam White's Run 261
King, of Harvard, Making a Run; Mahan Putting Black on His Head
268
Princeton's 1899 Team 272
"Nothing Got by John DeWitt" 277
John DeWitt About to Pick Up the Ball 280
The Ever Reliable Brickley--A Football Thoroughbred--Tack Hardwick
284
The Poe Family 296
Just Boys 298

Hobey Baker, Walter Camp, Jr., Snake Ames, Jr. 303
The Elect 310
How It Hurts to Lose 337
Cornell's Great Team--1915 344
One Scene Never Photographed in Football 349
Harvard, 1915 354
The Greatest Indian of Them All 357
Learning the Charge 363
Billy Bull Advising with Captain Talbot 367
Michigan's Famous 1901 Team 370
Columbia Back in the Game, 1915 381
Close to a Thriller. Erwin of Pennsylvania Scoring Against Cornell 386
Crash of Conflict. When Charge Meets Charge 407
Ainsworth, Yale's Terror in an Uphill Game 416
Two to One He Gets Away--Brickley Being Tackled by Wilson and
Avery 422
Snapping the Ball with Lewis. "Two Inseparables"--Frank Hinkey and
the Ball 428
Marshall Newell 434
McClung,