The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-15
THE FOOTBALL INSTINCT.


Help Given by the Scrub Team and
Those Who Yell to the Varsity A
COuch's Adv cc.
One very hot day last summer as the
writer was fishing in river in one OF
the widest regions of the south a pecul-
lar dull humping, repeated at intervals
of quarter of a minute or more
reused his curiosity 1t was no sound
that he was able to identify with q
country so sparsely Inhabited that he
had seen but one house in a days
journey, yet there was about it some
thing bafflingly familiar. The next
/ turn in the river furnished the eXpla-
nation. On a sandbar in the stream
stood a young giant holding in his out
stretched hands, of all things magma
BILE in that Wilderness football.
j Stepping forward with deliberation, he
let the oval fall, and as it hit the hard
sand his foot met it and sent it spinning
far up the steep river bank, where 1t
struck, bounded and rolled into the
stream. He was poking it out with a
pole when the writer accosted him.
Yes; I am getting little practice"
he said in answer to the question, wip-
ing his heated face. It's better than
nothing"
Just kicking at random?" asked the
writer,
mo, indeed See that goal up
there" He pointed to a couple OF
sawed-off stumps up on the bank.
1--WE been making that three times out
of five"
Rather an unexpected spot to find
any one practising football. DO you
live here?'
mo; I'm here on surveying trip for
my father, who owns lot of these
hills It's our system of training at
college," he explained. They gave me
this ball when I came away and told
me if I wanted to make the team I'd
better put in some hard practice. You
take this ball, the head coach said to
me- and sleep with it. Use it for pill
low. Garry it around under your arm.
Learn every mark and wrinkle of it.
When you've got room kick, kick 1t.
When you haven't throw it against the
wall and practice catching 1t. Stick to
1t like a fly to fly-paper, he told me.
And that's what I'm doing" concluded
the big fellow, as he picked the big
oval out and licked the bright spots
from the pigskin preparatory to another
trial.
Now, it would be pleasant to add that
this sturdy and faithful young survey
or saved the championship for his team
by skilful drop kick at the crucial
moment in the final game. But he
hadn't had the chance at the time of
the present writing. And in all proba-
bility he won't have; for that kind of
thing happens only few times in a
eentury-outside of fiction. However, |
he had gained place on his college |
team, and whether he had gained that
enviable place or not he is an example, |
none the less, of that spirit which con-
stitutes a colleges success on the foot |
ball field.
With the development and perfect
ing of the American game there has
come into football broader spirit. A
few years ago the only incentive for
practice was the hope of making the |
eleven; If not the Varsity eleven, then
the class eleven, All work was done |
with that end in view. There were
perhaps sixteen or twenty men, the reg
llars and substitutes, who were re-
5arded as the sole guardians of the col
eSe prestige on the gridiron All the
Efforts We're directed to their develop
nent; nobody else was considered.
That is all changed now. To-day it Is
recognized in the small as
we'll as the large colleges that It is the
men who never make the team that win
the victories. The coach who can de-
pend upon a strong, enthusiastic, hard
working scrub team, and, back of the
scrub, the men who sit on the side lines,
Ind, for the love of the game or loyalty
o the college or mixture of both, pa
iently wait for a chance to get into
oractice-that coach has a basis to
work on better than weight or muscle,
he true football spirit that wins over
else
One OF the greatest football players
md best judges of the game who ever
nut on canvas once said in reply to the
question, What quality is the most val
Fable on the field? college loyalty"
mother man, star player of one Of the
ig colleges, who has since won laurels
8 a coach, was hired by a small insti-
ution to train and coach it's team.
1--WE haven't big men, said the cap
ain of the team. "There are only one
hundred and fifty men in college to
lick from, and we are up against col
eyes three and four times as big, but {
he fellows are football wild"
How many can you turn out to
ally practice?" asked the coach.
Quarter of the college," was the
ronpt answer.
IF my big college had been able to I
ct that percentage Of its men out"
aid the expert, there would never
ave been a score against us. You I
We up to that and We'll get the pen
ant, all right" {
They did, and since that time the l.
tile college of Hamilton has been
gliding its own against elevens recruit |
l from many times its own number of a
len. The secret of it Is on the side t
mes, where, as great poet has said Of c
very different subject, 'They also 8
erve who only stand and wait" |
Yale and Princeton long ago recog- '
zed this principle on the gridiron {
award came to the realization later f
I'd simultaneously TO a better position S