The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-10
WHY Eli GETS THERE
YALE's GREAT FOOTBALL TEAMS
THE WONDER OF THE COL
LEGE WORLD
SUCCESS COMES by SYSTEM

SUCCESS COMES by SYSTEM
Material Mt Hand is Thoroughly
Known and the Strength or
Weakness of Opposing Clubs Fig
ured UpOn--A GreenhOrn Can Go
to New Haven and Quickly BE-
come an Expert.
NEW YORK, Oct. 9.4The public as
we'll as the members of various college
football teams, wonder why Yale is
SO successful in her football games.
writes Harry Beecher, the well-known
gridiron expert. They. see her one year
with no old men to/start with an new
material of nondescriptP character and
the cry goes up that the Blue is beaten.
Again she seems to carry a bunch of
men true and tried, and while the cry
is absent there is still the hone that
these old-timers will become over-confi-
dent or stale, perhaps mishandled With
regularity that predicates one to the
inevitable she lands first year by year,
or so near it that there Is room for
observation-disclosures.
Why is it that a greenhorn can go
to New Haven and be finished off into
champion? Why is it that her teams
can make close scores and do loose
playing in the early season and vet in
the final struggle show all the attrib-
utes Of experts? Could her opponents
find the answer to these questions the
football championship might be more
in doubt; than it has been in recent
years. 1t is one thing to know that
you have a good team, to feel that it
Is playing good football and that, ac-
cording to your ideas as an expert play
err it has done it's duty, but it is an
other story to have it win with a regu-
larity that becomes painfully apparent
to your rivals.
SYSTEM IS PERFECT.
Yale wins her games by a system Of
training and management that so far
has not been attained by any other
college Of the country. She separates
the manifold duties Of captaining,
coaching and training and so systema-
ties them that not one little advantage
IS lest or missed. She inspires the men
VINO attempt to become players on the
varsity team with a feeling that this
Is the greatest honor of a, cole e course
Io gain 1t they must do and dare
Things beyond the ordinary, and when
once their goal is reached failure. no
matter how small, means disgrace. In
other words, during the football season
Yale makes football the only life to
live. To gain a Yale team a man must
eat with it, sleep with it and think over
1t Tor three solid months. 1t is not a
mere incident, a yearly happening, but
the important factor Of the moment.
Ihene seems to be an opinion that
the head coach is. the. real man in
charge and that the captain is his
underStudy and follows out his COM
mands. This is an error. There are
two distinct departments-one- under
the charge of the captain, who has alb
sOlute control Of the men on and off
the field and who is held responsible
for the results of the seasons work:
the other department is under control
OF the head coach and is advisory to-
ward the captain and intended to help
him on all matters of judgment in or
der that he may be relieved from wor-
ry and this extra work
There is no college known whose
coaching system has been reduced to
such a science. Players from the North,
the South, the East and the West, spe-
c1al1stS in their line, are 'beckoned back
to the elms Of New Haven when the
head coach sees their services are need
ed. When they land in New Haven
they do not go out to the football field
on wild goose chase and coach where
and upon whatever lines they like, but
they Immediately HE themselves to the
head coach, receive their orders and
help to mend the machine wherever
they are told it is weakest. 1t is by
this combination that a fixed policy is
pursued in the training of a football
team. There is no higgledy-piggledy
work; every one works in the same
harness and to the same purpose.
MATERIAL IS KNOWN.
AS soon as the season has advanced
far enough so that the material at hand
is thoroughly known and has been
carefully sifted the policy for the years
play is discussed and fixed upon Of
course, the opponents strength and
weakness have also been studied, SO
| that a scheme is arranged whereby
Yale's strong point will hit against
! their weakest point, and the strongest
! defense will come against their hee,V-
| lest attack. 1t is a game of war, there
in New Haven, scientifically planned
! out and managed by cool headed gen
erals. They will take any risks or
any chances if in their Judgment it
will help in the final struggle to come
What do they care whether they are
nearly beaten by a minor team? Per-
haps if they decided that the team
was weak on a certain line Of play and
| they determined to- use it in that par
llCuldr game III Oru0r TO strengthen 1t
for the season later on, every game
played is outlined and outlined for a
purpose to help this or that weakness,
whether it be an attack or defense. So
that the course of the teams improve
ment is gradual, each play being taken
| up in turn and perfected, game by
game. until at last the defects are hard
to see. and there is a polish over all
that shows that foOtballIhas been well
taught.
There is a certain help to a man in
any sport by the traditions which are
handed down in it. One feels that to
spoil history is not good for his own
welfare So it is at New Haven. When
the old players gather on the field and
tell Of the game in "a or '93, chow the
opposing team had us at the five yard
line and then we 'braced and gave them
the good old Yale dash and they
couldn't score the feeling comes into
the players mind, 81 can't afford to
fail"
STRONG IN DEFENSE.
It perhaps can be truthfully said Of a
Yale team that the hardest position to
beat them at is when the ball is in their
territory. They seem to assume double
strength and to be possessed of mystic
abilities which dash into the opposing
lire and spoil the score. However that
may be, the fact remains that with
poor material Old Eli Is enabled to
turn out more winning teams than both
Princeton and Harvard put together.
Whether politics. ignorance or misman-
agement interfere with these colleges