Smyrna times., 1901-01-09
Gas House Maffit.
How He Got on to
the Football Team
Ey HARRINGTON KIDD.


did 1 ever tell you" asked the un-
dergraduate. about the time Carl Maf-
fit got on the football team by smoking
a cigarette"
NO. said StOrrow, you didn't, and
you needn't tell us. either, unless it's
good story"
The Undergraduate chuckled. "Oh, |
it's a good story all right enough, but
1 ought to have a picture of old Gas
House to go with it,"
"a picture of old who?"
"Old Gas House Maffit. That's what
they used to call him on account of his
size. He played center rush after he
broke training"
81 don't see how he ever could have
made football man." said StOrrOw.
That's exactly what Bill Connors
told him." continued the undergradu-
ate. 81 remember the first afternoon
we got Carl to come out to the field and
play on the scrub siGe. He moved
around something like a road roller. He
must have been up to go pounds. Con-
nors, the trainer, threw up both hands
and swOre. Blessed day. he shouted,
-an office buildingr Carl turned red,
but sailed in.
'Well they made a monkey out of
him. Every time the ball was snapped
they pushed him down and climbed
over him. and then the play went on
10 or 90 yards beyond and old Carl
would come numbering up just in sea-
son to get the same treatment on the
next signal.
"But after awhile the coaches began
to notice that every time Matfit went
down four or five other men went down
with him. and the fellows who happen
ed to be underneath were rather disin-
terested in the next few Scrimmages.
And they observed that Carl, although
he was being used as a punching bag
and everybody was laughing at him,
never lost heart. but puffed and grinned
and went at it as if he was having the
time of his life.
Between the halves Jack Perkins,
who was coaching the center men, took
Carl one side and gave him few
points about keeping his feet. Now,
Carrs feet looked like dry goods boxes
and moved about as easily. He didn't
know where to plant them, that was
all. Well, when the two teams lined
up again the varsity had the ball, 9nd
the first signal was for Brant to &c
through the center. The famous hall
back tucked the ball in the pit of hi:
stomach and dashed forward with hi:
familiar cannon shot rush straight fol
his hole. But the hole was missing
Carl was there instead. Brant bound
ed back, and Gas House fell over oil
him. When they got up. Brant looked
white, and Connors took him out o
the practice Carl was awfully scarce
and began to be afraid he'd hurt some
body else, so he was worse than use
less for the rest of the afternoon.
"The next day he turned up agair
smiling, and they had some more fu
with him. But once in awhile coac
would take pity on him and give hir
a little tip. and Gas House woul
scratch his head and grin his thanks
By and by it was remarked that tn
scrub was stiffening on center play
The scrub guards were two disal
pointed candidates for the varsit
They knew they had no chance to g
on the team and had been playing lis
lessly until Maffit came out.
"IoOk here he said to them bas
fully. 4 hate this dang game as muC
as you do, but now we're out here v
might as well get to them. They all
so much
"The husky scrub trio certainly d
get to 'em' in great shape. After
fortnight Carl. instead of being a jol
began to be a serious proposition. t
two big guards would boost him. al
War; the little scrub quarter. wou
push him and pinch him in the legs
make him mad. and old Gas HOu
would snort and lurch through the VI
eran varsity center like an OK brea
ing through a snowdrift He was slo
but he was almighty sure
''But this slowness was a fatal ia
as far as getting on the team was c'
cerned. We had been licked the y'
before because our line had been oy
weight. and the coaches were determ
ed that It shouldn't happen again.
Connors couldn't take pound OF [
10 save his life. The big fellow wo
get on the scales after every pract
with a confident look, only to be dis
pointed at seeing that he hadn't lost
ounce. If we could only make a
ginningr Bill would say desperate
So Mafit kept on. hoping against b
and training faithfully until a cert
eventful night.
at happened after the fall boat RAJ
Our class crew had won for the !
time in its history, and a few OF
started out to have celebration.
er supper we bought lot OF hrewo
and started In under the mistaken
preston that we owned the CAM
But the police wouldn't stand for