The age-herald., 1898-11-25
SOLDIER BOYS
 THE WINNERS Walked Away from Athletics by Score
 of s to 0. NlCkLIN'S WINNING DASH Around the Left and to the Goal
 Made the Score. TEAMS WERE EVENLY MATCHED Not the Real Football, But Enough of It to Make the Game Interest
 ing Society Was Out
 in Force.
TEAMS WERE EVENLY MATCHED

A stockily-built, alert young man, who ordinarily wears a chevron upon either shoulder, did the trick for the soldier lads His name is. Nickln. He is lieutenant
 in the Third Tennessee of Uncle Sam's glo-
 rious volunteer army It happened in this l wise-a peculiar wise: l The army had the ball. They had tried | breaking the Athletic clubs line and with | success So the end play was unexpected. | The soldiers had gained fifteen yards on straight buclxing, and everybody looked for | a continuation of what seemed good gen | eraship. Then the ball was passed to Nick l lin He started as if to pound through 1 the center, then suddenly darted to the left. He ran by the whole Birmingham team as | if they were tied to a post ,and down the, | field to square between-the-posts touch- down, from which an easy goal was kicked. The play was peculiar in that seemingly l so little effort was made to stop it. The | local players seemed to be busy as a | bird dog on stand. They had players suf-
 
 high school effort. only one Hill Fergu- l son, got within haillng distance, and he was passed. despite desperate forward dive. That ended the scoring, and the game stood to 0.
 Teams Were We'll Matched The teams were fairly matched gards weight Neither had the advantage
  | team drill and a consequence ind vdual | play was relied upon and team play ree- l gated One most unsatisfactory feature was the brief time allotted for play. Two l ffteen-minute halves never told a football | story with truth. The Athletic club may 1 not have won had the halves been regula- l ton time, but fifteen minutes is not a de- | cent time to warm up in, and condition, l training and skill scarcely be mani l fested or proven in what is scarcely de- | cent scrub practice time. 4a l Barring Nicklin's run there was little &C., | complished in the way of demonstrating superiority by either side. The Birming- | ham boys In the first half walked through l the soldier line like wind through wheat 1 field. Then they lost the ball and the sol- | diers seemed just as capable in the same | direction. Both sides made gains whenever l they started, as is evidenced by the fact l that neither lost the ball because of fail- ure to gain, and but kick was at- l tempted.
 Soldiers in Better Condition The soldier boys seemed to be in better condition. Three Birmingham players were | laid out during and after the game and the | whole team looked Jagged and weary, | while the laddie bucks skipped off the field
 like four-time winners. It had been clean, | decent football; not high-class football | by mile and half; but just enough foot ball to make it interesting and to suggest | the possibilities of the game
 | Society came-who can resist the double attraction of brass buttons and a pig-skin? Over 100 of the Anniston rooters were there also. They had marched down the street 1 in the morning, but they broke ranks out l on the field and cheered Gilmore and Nick | lin and Holman, the particular soldier stars, at every possible opportunity. l MT. Dixon, of the Athletics, should have been put in the game earlier. He began in l the second half and made more ground | than all the rest of the team during his | brief career. He plays football and his dives through the center won him much | applause.
 Another man on the army team who did good playing was Lieut.. John London, who | took almost his first lesson in the game | as a member of the Athletic club team in | years past. He did some good tackling and | line bucking.
 l For Birmingham Edgar Laird perhaps | played the steadiest and showiest game, l stopping nearly every man who came | around his end. All four of Birmingham's bucks, Hughes, Halden, Danforth and Dix | on, did some very good line bucking but they were weak in their plays around the
 end, never gaining more than a yard or two in any of them.
 Wanted More Kicking | Football critics on the outside seemed to | think that both sides should have kicked | more. Both full backs were good kickers,
 but either side seemed to be opposed to
 this method of offensive work. All of the
 big college teams this fall seem to be play
 ing kicking game to very large extent, | but as it was, the teams yesterday kicked | only when absolutely necessary. | To detail the game would be tiresome, as | it consisted of simple plays with no start | ling developments and but few strategic | plays The Laird brothers played we'll | Belden kicked and tackled we'll His tackle | of Necklin was something fierce. Hughes, | of Birmingham, was right in it.. as were | Holman and Gilmore, of the army boys. The teams lined up as follows:
 | Birmingham. Soldiers. | Cowan.. .. Center. Gardner Rurke tstght Guard. .. . Furnee | Green . .,.Left Guard. .. ..... Everett | l.. Brown. .. Right Tackle. ..Gimore | Toff Tb0mq l Ir Iai. iulaf Ind opu