Vou. VE. “No; Te.
A GREAT YALE DRIVE.
How the Season Ended with the
Princeton Game at 6 to 0
for Yale.
Yale drove it through. Eight weeks
ago a plan of campaign was laid out.
It was a very simple plan. It was to
get the eleven best men in the Univer-
sity together and teach them the game
of football. By best men is: meant
those who had the most football spirit
and the physical constitution to play
the game.
The Captain of the eleven understood
the spirit and the letter of the plan—
indeed personified both. The leader of
the coaches had person:fied himself
in former days of Yale triumphs. He,
on whose shoulders must rest the bur-
den of holding to this plan, had im-
plicit faith in it, and implicit faith in
Yale’s ability to respond to it. He did
not say to anybody that Yale would win
on his plan this year. It is much to be
doubted that he said it to himself. But
both Mr. Butterworth and Mr. Rodgers
determined that the
should be fought out on that line wheth-
er it took eight’ weeks or three years.
It was a plan that recognized no
short-cut to Vale's standard of football.
When first applied it created no mar-
vellous transformation in the Univer-
sity, whose strain of football material
seemed almost to have run out. It had
been held to for weeks and still Yale
was far in the rear. But it was held to.
A little longer and the distance was
closing up. A little longer and more
and more of the College understood,
in what a thoroughly simple football
way Yale leaders were going at their
problem. Yale’s football players were
absorbing week by week more and
more of that football spirit and learn-
ing more and more of that simple,
hard, football game. There had been
mutterings that almost at times seemed
rebellion. Little by little the voices of
discord sank. More and more the
voices of support and the tone of hope
increased. Rank after rank of the Uni-
versity fell into line. From every cor-
ner of the land the old leaders were
coming back,
From Camp of Eighty to Murphy of
Ninety-Seven, they gave every hour
they could spare from work. Day
by day that great line formation of all
Yale grew more and more perfect,
Butterworth and Rodgers and their
sandy players leading.
It was an all-Yale tandem. At 3.45
on the afternoon of November 2oth it
was in perfect working order. Eight
minutes later it had come within four
feet of the uncrossed goal line of Nas-
sau. Thirty seconds later it had sent
Dudley over that line for the first score
against Princeton; for the winning’
touchdown of the final game; for the
greatest victory Yale has won since the
time whereof the memory of man
runneth not to the contrary.
“TI suppose the boat race in 64,” said
Mr. Adee, who didn’t think he was be-
ing interviewed, to the writer, “did
in some ways approach this Fall’s -
Younger men said it .
achievement.”
was Eighty-five come again without
Lamar’s run. These were the only two
incidents. offered in competition against
the record of Yale football in 1897.
It is hard to tell the story of how
Yale won from Princeton November
Yale campaign -
showirg their trust.’
NEW HAVEN, CONN., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1897.
2oth, six to nothing. It was a simple,
but a grand accord of spirit, mind and
muscle, working on sure principles.
For the spirit, it is not possible to
point to anything better in the way of
illustration than the figure and face and
accent of Yale’s Captain, when the Blue
line stood within four feet of Prince-
ton’s goal. One Yale man told the
writer that he would rather carry away
a picture of Rodgers as he braced his
men for that last effort, than any other
thing he had seen in the game. “Now
we're here,” were the words he used,
“we've got to go over.’ You know
how they went over. It was in the
twinkling of an eye. It was where his
Captain had been standing that Dud-
ley found his opportunity. He shot
over as if driven from a bow. Signal,
play and: touchdown seemed almost
instantaneous.
CAPT. J. :O.. RODGERS.
And the mind was there. Did you
ever see a team go on the field more
clearly masters of themselves? Not be-
fuddled by a thousand intricate plays;
not asking themselves what to do next;
knowing by instinct what to do in or-
dinary cases with the mind quite clear
to grasp the opportunity of cases ex-
traordinary. “Keep your wits about
you,’ were some of the last words in the
dressing room. Hall seemed to have
his wits about him when twice he re-
covered for Yale. when someone else
had made the slip. deSaulles was the
personification of something at the
other pole of mental experiences from
the rattles. Line and backs every-
where converging on the ball and
player, whether the attack had been met
according to plan or whether it had
reached an unexpected point through
and behind their own line—they were
all examples of men with mind and eye
clear.
And as to muscle, by which is meant
perfect condition of body, nothing can
be added to the eloquent fact of eleven
men passing through two of the fierc-
est football battles of amateur athlet-
ics and coming out with keener appe-
tite even, for the plays, than when they
went in. Captain Rodgers, the burden
of whose few modest comments since
the victory was won, has been the
splendid spirit of his men and the great
coaching of Mr. Butterworth, said that
they all anticipated with the keenest
pleasure these two last struggles.
There was anything but over-confidence
among them; but there was nothing
like anxiety. They longed to meet
Yale’s dearest foes.
- THE MEN YALE WON FROM.
And over what magnificent rivals was ~
this victory won. Next to the admira-
tion for their own eleven and for the
game of football which they played, |
Yale men spoke on Saturday night and »
are still speaking of the pluck and the
loyalty of Nassau. When a team which
seemed invincible began to give way
yard by yard before the fierce onslaught
of a foe whose strength had not been
dreamed of, the thousands who had
come to see them win only cheered
them harder. And these players fought
still harder. And when the score had
been made and to all appearances the
game had been lost, and more than a
third of their eleven had given way,
unable to stand the pace Yale had set,
then those players gathered themselves
for such an attack on the Blue line as
they had not up to that time made.
For five yards and again for five yards
more and still again for even ten they
crashed through their foe and began to
threaten. :
They could not keep it up and soon
again they were rolled back, and as
evening fell they were once more
fighting under the shadow of their
own goal posts and their foe seemed
the more powerful than ever.
own fight was never more stubborn
than at just this moment. Within but
a few feet of their line they held Yale
until the whistle blew, and six to
nothing seemed the less crushing a de-
feat because it so easily might have
been twelve to nothing and would
almost surely have been, against any-
thing but a Princeton eleven.
And still Princeton, by which is
meant the spirit of Princeton, was
unconquered. Broken in heart and
battered by the fearful fight, half of
the players threw themselves on the ~
gsound and like honest. boys, when
left to do, gave way
But they
nothing was
to honest, bitter feeling.
were still Princeton’s team and Prince-_
ton would not leave them vanquished.
The thousands in Nassau’s cheering
sections held their placés in the stand,
waved their flags all the more wildly,
rolled out their songs all the more
loudly and cheered for each and every
player as he was carried up before them,
in such a way as they never could have
cheered players on a team victorious.
AN IDEAL REPORTER.
If only Walter Scott could have seen
the American football game! Detailed
reports are interesting sometimes, ex-
perts’ opinions are valuable sometimes,
special writers’ stories are interesting
and true to life, sometimes; but if only
a page after Marmion could once ap-
pear, what havoc it would make in the
system of reporting football games.
But Scott didn’t understand American
football. He has a line or two bearing
on some sport which was perhaps the
beginning of the noble game, in “The
Lay of the Last Minstrel.”
“And some with many a shout,
In riot, revelry and rout,
Pursued the football play.”
This shows him far behind the concep-
tion of the game of to-day. However,
he understood tournaments and border
wars, and so grasped some of the ele-
ments of the sport. He understood the
crowd and how they greeted their team
as it appeared, saying:
“And such a yell was there
Of sudden and portentous birth
As if men fought upon the earth
And fiends in upper air.”
And he had the idea of fooball men —
in mind. Speaking of the effect upon
the face of one of his heroes of maturer -
years, or of nose guards, or something
of that sort, he said that they
“Vet had not quenched the open truth
And fiery vehemence of youth,
Forward and frolic glee was there
The will to do; the soul to dare,
: Bled tat glance soon blown to
re.” :
And in some ways he looked forward
to this contest of Nevember 2oth, 1897.
Back, beardless boy,”’ was Princeton’s
But their —
- Prick Tren Cents.
thought concerning the Yale center be-
fore they met him. . And speaking of a
struggle that was quite as important in
its time as the battle of the 2oth, and
looking forward evidently to that in a
prophetic sort of way, and particularly
to the march towards the Nassau citadel
at eleven minutes before four, he used
the simple line—
“King James did rushing come.”
And. somewhere he certainly had
Yale’s right-guard in mind, for he talks
of . “foaming Brown with doubled
_ speed.”
But Sir Walter was-not there and if
you were not there, you can’t know
very much about it. It is safer to go
a step further and say if you didn’t
stand in the Princeton line, you can’t
know very much about it. One of the
Princeton backs, worn out by the fight,
came slowly to the side lines, while a
substitute took his place. “What in
heaven’s name is the matter with the
team?’ was the question that was put
to him by the anxious Princeton men.
His look meant even more than his
words when he replied to them: “You
don’t know what we have run up
against.”
THE GAME BEGUN.
But let us try to tell something about
it. At twelve minutes after two, 15,000
people saw Chamberlin of Yale draw
back for the kick-off. There had been
no Yale luck about the toss; Princeton
had the north goal and the wind.
When Chamberlin had done his work,
Baird, at twenty yards from Princeton's
goal, did his work, and the ball was
back beyond the center of the field.
Then came the first line-up. The nerv-
ous tension of these two elevens as they
first faced each other was felt in every
man, woman and child who saw them
meet and who had such a thing as
nerves. There was too much nerve at
one point and Edwards of Princeton
for a moment lost control of himself.
You could hear the blow on Chad-
wick’s armor, anywhere on the Field,
but it didn’t hurt the Yale guard. It
is safe to say it hurt Princeton very
much later.
But what did Princeton do? The
moment had come when her rushing
game, which had run over and swept
Yale from the field twelve months be-
fore, was to be tried on a new set of
Yale players, mostly young, untrained
boys. When the first effort was over,
and Reiter, trying Yale’s left-tackle,
had only made an advance of two
yards, the Yale bleachers sent forth
such a yell as only a touchdown gen-
erally brings. It certainly wasn't a
“Prep. school” line that Reiter had
struck. It was less an one that Ban-
nard struck, for he hardly gained at
all, and even the next fine advance of
Reiter through nine yards at tackle
didn’t trouble Yale much, for three
more drives at the boys in blue had
about as much effect upon them as
a drive against one of Mr. Sargent’s
permanent stands. They were like
rock. And within five minutes of play,
this young team of Yale had torn the
ball from Princeton by old-fashioned
Yale defense.
Then it was Yale’s turn. It was one
thing to stop Nassau. The coaches had
made up their mind at least that Yale
could do that, although Yale in general
had not’ been ready t- believe it.
Could they break through those superb
giants from New Jersey? They did.
Benjamin took only a few feet at first,
but Dudley cut off nine yards through
Princeton’s left, somewhere about the
place where Holt, so Princeton thought,
would make Yale’s offense a gain for
Princeton.
But it was not easy, though McBride,
Benjamin and Rodgers all made ad-
vances. When it wasn’t safe to rush
