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MR. CAMP'S OPINION.
Yale Making an Heroic Effort to
Overcome a Bad Handicap—
Players Full of Fight.
Two years ago Yale defeated Prince-
ton in an intensely exciting contest in
New York. The two most lasting
memories of this occasion were the re-
markable work of Captain Thorne of
Yale and the telling play, of a revolv-
ing mass nature, operated by Prince-
ton so successfully in the second half
of the game. Probably every Prince-
ton man carried away visions of Thorne
speeding down the field, throwing off
or eluding men as though he had a
charm concealed in his jacket, and it
was with a sigh of relief that they re-
flected that, at any rate, it was the last
time they should see that man behind
Yale’s line. But the memory that Yale
men bore away was different. They
had won, but a play, had been used
upon them which their defense had not
satisfactorily met, and that play would
not graduate as would Thorne. Ex-
Captain Hinkey, who had coached the
Yale team that year, in speaking, previ-
ous to the game, of their chances
against Princeton, had said that their
defense was erratic and weak, but that
they were a scoring team; that Prince-
ton would undoubtedly score, as had
several other teams, but that Yale would
score too, and it would be a case of
who could score fastest and most. The
game carried out his prediction. —
Just at this juncture in the football
season of 1897 it is well to look back
upon that bit of ancient history and
see what was being done by both teams
individually after that Yale victory.
Princeton went to work to do two
things: to build up a stronger defense
and to perfect the play that had proven
in its elementary stage so wonderfully
effective. Yale retired on her laurels.
There was no immediate consideration
of the position and no Winter study of
what should be done to continue Yale’s
lead: - In : the ; past = Year --Princeton,
with her play more highly developed
and her defensive tactics greatly ad-
vanced, simply slaughtered Yale. It
would not seem to be over-difficult for
Yale, having been pitted against that
style of play for two years, to have put
heads together and to have journeyed
to Princeton, where a few days after
the University match the Princeton
Freshmen performed in a crude way
the same type of play, and to have thus
made themselves thoroughly masters of
the technique of the movement. Having
transferred it to paper and studied it
over, Yale should have had a second
eleven thoroughly able to perform it
this year and give the University steady
daily practice in meeting it. Yale
should also have studied the develop-
ments in the play of Harvard and Penn-
sylvania. In addition, if it seemed ad-
visable, the Yale University could have
adopted such ideas as seemed prom-
ising.
WHAT YALE HAS LACKED.
But the old question arises at this
point, who should have done all this—
the retiring captain? No; he could
not be on hand to teach it, even had
he learned it. The incoming captain,
then? No, for he did not exist. So
there was nobody, and the thing was
not done. . This year the greatest as-
sistance to Mr. Butterworth and his
staff of coaches, and the most valuable
possession for Yale, would have been a
second eleven that could, from the -be-
ginning, put forth with force and
vigor a play of this order. It would aid
not alone for the Princeton contest, but
-hospital list at once.
for the Harvard match; for Harvard
will certainly be playing concentrated
mass plays on tackle with a runner
going out around the end, just as
Princeton and Pennsylvania are doing.
The very evidence needed to prove that
Yale’s defense must be weak and re-
quire strengthening in just such a
fashion, the last week in October has
generously furnished. The second
eleven, with absolutely no practice but
simply formed into mass plays, were
able to push the University line aside,
run over it, and finally actually score
without marked opposition. There is
no team in the country that has not
mass plays in hand, and hence it fol-
lows that when Yale meets them, as in
the Brown game and as in the case of
the second eleven, the Yale University
team goes down before tnem. The
fault in all this lies not with the pres-
ent coach or captain, or with any for-
fier coach. -or captain. I[t<lies inthe
force of circumstances. Other teams
and other universities, profiting by the
lesson actually learned from Yale, that
a continuity of system would produce
good teams, have made such arrange-
ments as shall insure just what Yale
has ‘lacked: now for°some ‘time. -The
material in the team this year is excel-
lent and a great deal is being made of
it. The work is heroic and the results
apparent. But with such material and
such work, had the defense and the
material progress of the play been care-
fully followed all the year instead of
two months, Yale would have had a
team whose chances of victory in all
contests would be double what they can
be made now.
THE CHANCES AGAINST HARVARD.
But to consider just what the chances
are now. A serious attempt is being
made to improve the defense. It is
coming hard on the men, because none
of them is familiar with stopping mass
plays. The line men naturally are suf-
fering the most: Cadwalader, Cutten,
Brown, Allen, and others all on the
! But that very
fact speaks well for the pluck of the
team. As men, they refuse to let plays
trample over them so long as they can
resist, and in this resistance—inexperi-
enced resistance—they have been hurt.
The offensive work of the team is en-
couraging. It is more than that, if one
stops to consider just what it is likely
to develop. The team has been kept
upon straight football until almost
every man understands the value of
helping his comrade. That lesson is
better learned than it has ever been be-
fore in any green team. Now, if upon
that foundation concentrated plays of
the more modern type can be raised in
the comparatively short time remain-
ing, the power of execution will be
there. A team that is taught mass
plays before mastering ordinary straight
runs will never be as able as one that
takes its mass plays as a higher course,
after the regulation play. Moreover,
the long steady practice of mass plays
throughout a season sometimes has the
effect of making a team lose some of
its dash. So, on this score also, Yale
has.a-good ‘start...
*-THE* VARIOUS: POSITIONS.
If the present injuries do not prove
serious, Yale is fairly well equipped in
men for line positions, save.on the ends.
Here there are plenty of men, but when
one compares them with such men as
Cabot of Harvard or Cochran of Prince-
ton,- one feels -that Yale’s men aré
not as expert in the tactics of the game:
and physically not the equals of their
opponents.
_ Behind the line Yale has some bril-
liant men and in McBride a most
consistent worker who does wonders
for his comrades. There is no substi-
NEW HAVEN, CONN., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1897.
GEORGE JARVIS BRUSH.
PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY.
FIRST DIRECTOR OF THE SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL.
A Reproduction of the Portrait Presented to the Sheffield Scientific School.
ee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooaaaaaoowweam=m==*s
tute for his position who can compare
with him. It looks also as though
Yale would be short of quarter-backs
before the season is over. In half-backs
the situation is better, although, as at
Harvard, the brilliant men are not
built to stand the banging of defense
and the sturdy ones, who can do their
part in helping the rush line, are not
fast. But plays must be adapted to the
individual in this regard, and fortu-
nately such a thing is possible in the
modern game, save on the defense,
where, unfortunately, the opponents
have the lead. Neither Harvard nor
Yale would be a choice against Penn--
sylvania or Princeton at this stage, and
with their late graduation into the ad-
vanced plays it looks as if both would
suffer defeat at the hands of the above
teams. But when
match of the 13th, when they meet each
other, it will be—barring accidents to
players—a match where Yale will have
the advantage of more spirited play and
Harvard the better defense; where the
Harvard play will be the more strate-
gic, but Yale the faster.
The way in which the old coaches
have rallied to the assistance of the
green team here at New Haven, has
been something to be remembered by
the present players and emulated by
them a few years from now, when they
are graduates and find it harder to get
a day or two than it is now. The
wishes and the hopes of the University
are going out with this team as they
have almost never before, for the team
oe them more than any other ever
id.
They are boys, but they are boys
who will discount their disadvantages,
believe in their possibilities and fight as
long as they can stand. It is good tim-
ber and promises well for the future.
WALTER Camp.
sent good numbers.
it comes to the
SHEFFIELD SEMI-CENTENNIAL,
Large Graduate Attendance—Perfect
Suceess of the Exercises. .
—
The semi-centennial of the Sheffield
Scientific School on Oct. 28 brought
back several hundred graduates of the
school from all parts of the country.
Classes as far back-as Forty-Eight were
represented, and the more recent classes
The weather dur-
ing the day was fine.
THE ALUMNI MEETING.
The first of the series of meetings,
connected with the semi-centennial, was
held in North Sheffield Hall, at Io A.M.
Prof. William H. Brewer, ’52, called the
meeting to order, and, after a short
address of welcome announced that the
Governing Committee had nominated
Prof. George F. Barker, ’58, of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, as Chairman
and Henry B. Sargent, ’71, as Secre-
tary of the meeting.
Prof. Barker spoke a few words of
reminiscence. He contrasted the pre-
sent prosperity of the school with its
condition while he was a student and
lamented the fact that as anniversaries
went on; he saw fewer and fewer of his
classmates and instructors. He was
amazed at the growth of the institution,
and saw that the size of the classes
kept pace with the opportunities offered
by the school.
He then presented Prof. George J.
Brush, ’52, who showed by statistics the
advances made by the school since its
founding. He showed how progress
had been made, step by step, from the
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