Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-19


Harvard's established reputation and the
splendid material composing this years team
gave ground Tor no other expectation. 1t is
to be wondered at that Harvard has so many
phenomenally good men. Usually when a
man is obliged to retire from the field be-
cause OF injury, his opponents are relieved
because OF hope that his successor will be
poorer player, but when a Harvard player
leaves the field his substitute is usually
man who is his equal or superior.
1t Is certainly In no wise strange II the
general public now stands aghast and asks
confusedly: What is the meaning of all
thie?" AS starter to the present foot ball
tangle Princeton defeats Columbia by IL to 0,
then little later in the season Columbia
downs Old Eli to the tune of 8 to 0, while
on the same day the Ithacan eleven was
trouncing the Tigers to the same music.
Columbia's victory over Yale was a surprise,
but had been looked for by some of the
knowing ones, who had watched the steady
Improvement of the Blue and White eleven
and we're also aware that Yale was weak
to an almost unheardof degree. But the
victory OF the Carnelian and White over the
Orange and Black upset all calculations, as
two weeks previous Cornell had made but
poor showing against the University of Chi
cago and been defeated by score of II to 6.
On the same day which saw the Yale and
Princeton coors dragged in the dust Penn
sylvania upset all calculations by playing
tie game with Chicago, which eleven, after
the easy conquest of Cornell, had been looked
upon as a sure winner over the exceptionally
weak team then representing Pennsylvania.
Chicago thus dropped much of its prestige
which 1t had been given after its sweeping
defeat of Cornell.
Then on election day came Columbia's
downfall, as unexpected as a bolt of lightning
out of clear sky, and the foot ball muddle
reached climax Cornell, victor over
Princeton and Columbia. and victor by
proxy over Yale, has reached point on the
championship ladder where it can but
one above 1t, and that of course, is Har-
ward. Small wonder that the Cornell stu
dents went wild over their victorious team
and drove them about the streets OF Ithaca
like conquering Roman army. Small Won
der, indeed, that Captain Starbuck and Coach
Haughton were filled with pride at their
teams glorious showing.
But what of Chicago all this time? II
Cornell claims, as it does, superiority over
Yale since its defeat of Columbia, why shall
the weeterners not claim the second position
over the Ithacans, whom they so easily de-
feated? If we allow one of these proxy
victories" such as Cornell over Yale. we
cannot stop with one Chicago would then,
despite it's tie game with the Quakers, claim
a precedence over Cornell in the race for
second place honors
The present season has been the most dis
aetrous that Pennsylvania has experienced
since it sprang into prominence as a foot
ball college In three games Pennsylvania
scored but once, and besides defeats by the
Indians, Lafayette and Harvard, Chicago
and Brown have tied it. and Bucknel,
Virginia and Wesleyan have also scored upon
it. Pennsylvania's poor showing has been
attributed to a hard schedule, lack of pre-
liminary work and changes in lineup Going
deeper than that, 1t can be seen that Penn
sylvanias weakness is mainly due to disor-
ganization and the guards back play. The
team has lost confidence in Coach Woodruff
and his system and there has been lament
able lack Of harmony on the eleven. When
the season opened Woodruff had lost prestige
in the eyes of his men by Harvards easy
victory on Soldiers Field. The guards
back" had been hammered to a standstill
both by Harvard and Cornell. The selection
of Hare as captain caused friction in the
eleven. Outland or McCracken had been re-
garded as the logical candidate for the cap
taincy, but Hare's unquestioned purity as an
athlete and other reasons had put him in
the place.
At any rate, it strengthened Pennsylva-
MAS relations with Harvard more than the
election Of any other man on the team would
have done. AS the season advanced there
was no Indication that Woodruff would
adopt any plays or system on which Hare
could rely IL Harvard again mastered the
guards back" Since the days of Brooke
Pennsylvania has had no fullback who could
compete with any Of the first-class kicking
fullbacks who have represented Harvard,
Yale and Princeton in that interval. Wood
ruff is such firm believer in his smashing
guards back that he has never developed
a good kicking fullback. He has carried the
same methods into the game by keeping his
ends in on both defense and offense, arguing
that modern team would trust to its gains
by mass plays. For that reason he wanted
his ends In a position where they could more
readily back up the tackles and guards,
trusting to their individual ability to nail a
man ike DlDDlee, ,Beacharn, Walbridge or
Sawin on end runs. Pennsylvania, following
the same line OF reasoning on the part OF the
veteran coach has had no first-c lodging
back since Osgood and Brooke. Pennsylva-
mia has advanced the ball by heavy backs
and linemen, but the guards back" was
mastered this year by Brown, Lafayette
Carlisle, Chicago and Harvard, and its day
has passed. The knowledge that they could
n In mi 10
their old system failed acted in depressing
manner on the men. In the Harvard game
Pennsylvania resolutely held to the guards
back play when the ball was well inside
of their twenty yard line, for there was
nothing else that it could do and the gains
were measured by inches, not yards. Hare
has done his best to fill his place as captain,
but he has done too much. The spectacle CT
guard giving the signals Is an unusual
one in these days of foot ball, and besides at
tending to this important duty Hare has
done great proportion of Pennsylvania 8
rushing, kicking and tackling, playing
wouderful individual game, but attempting
too much With Mike Murphy looking after
the physical condition of the men Penn
sylyania cannot lay its defeats to a crippled
condition. new system must be adopted
at Philadelphia before the Quaker team can
again hold its place among the leading
elevens.
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