The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-02-11
Old Football
Rev. Bruce Griffth's
College Souvenir.

College Souvenir.
An interesting trophy from the helds
of many a hard fought foot ball game
is in possession of Rev. Bruce Grif1th,
the eloquent pastor Of the REFORMED
church here. II is a foot ball that was
kicked by Lieutenant Worth Bagley, the
first commissioned naval officer killed IN
the Spanish-American war. The football
is the regular intercollegiate Spauldlng
foot ball known to all foot ball men as
a regulation pigskin. Mr.. GriSith was for
two years captain of the eleven OF the
franklin Marshall college of Lancaster,
Pennsy4ean ia, and was at that time con-
sidered one Of the best foot ball men in
this country The Franklin-Marshall col
lege team in fact was one of the ''crack"
teams in the intercollegiate association.
This was in 1891 and 1892, the last two
years that Mr.. Griffith was in college.
During that time captain Grifhth's team
played Princeton, Haverford college ana
Swarthmore. the two leading Quaker col
leges, University of Pennsylvania, Buck
nell University, La Fayette college, Le-
high University, Allentown, Pa, college,
and the United States Naval Academy
teams and won nearly all the games.
The game with the Naval Academy elev-
en-. however, resulted in victory for the
navy bows. This memorable game was
PLAYED at Annapolis, Nd. on October
%. 1892 Arrangements had been made
with the West Point eleven, but this was
cancelled for some reason and game
was Arranged with the Naval team. This
was a great game and was witnessed by
a tremendous crowd. 1t was brilliant
scene. hundreds of naval and army Of
fcers and their ladies being there in their
gayest apparel g The naval team" said
Mr. Griffith, in explaining the history of
foot ball to an Eagle reporter, was COM
posed of the finest set Of young men L
ever saw in a foot ball eleven. They
were noble manly fellows, courteous and
gentlemanIy and fine athletes. Among
them were Lieutenant Worth Bagley, of
the Winslow, killed in the late war, and
Ensign Cavanaugh, who was with Ad-
miral Dewey in the olympia at Manila
Both were noble young men, and types
Of physical and mental perfection. Lieu
tenant Bagley played end rush right in
this game Cavanaugh was captain Of
the navy team and played one of the
guards"
The statisticians Of the navy observed
the course Of the game closely. Naval
officers are great mathematicians and
every calculation and maneuver they
make is based on figures and statistics
AT foot ball game they take notes of
everything Their object is to obtain by
figures whether foot ball playing depends
upon the individual development of the
players. thus ascertaining whether or not
the individual records of the men tailed
with the score they made. They reason
everything from a mathematical calcula-
tion. After the game every man of both
teams underwent a physical examination.
Tests were made on height, age, weight,
clip. pull. back muscles, leg muscles, fore
arm, lung capacity and found the points
to average COZ. Mr. Griffith, the captain,
played quarter back and the record given
to him by the naval officers showed Mr..
Grffith's record tobe 693, the best test
of the twenty-five men engaged. The av-
erage age OF the players was PA years.
The custom obtained in their foot ball
teams to permit the captain of the team
to select a ball as a trophy. Mr.. Griffith
selected this historic ball owing to its
having been used in this great game and
for the further reason Of the game hav-
ing been played on his birthday And it
might be mentioned here that two others
of this game have become famous, one,
J. w. Baker, of Lancaster a class mate
of Mr. Griffith was killed in Porto Rico
while a member Of the Philadelphia bat
terry, and the other Paul Dashield now
Professor Of chemistry in the Naval
Academy at Annapolis, and chairman of
the committee on foot ball rules, who are
authority on all foot ball matters.