Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-03-28
Gas House Maffit.
How He Got ON to
the Football Team
BY HARRINGTON KIDD.

9 How He Got ON to o
the Football Team
. BY HARRINGTON KIDD. 8
o~os.o~o~o.o.soo s.os.o~o.eo~o.~c
"Did ever tell you," asked the I'M
dergraduate, .'about the time Carl Maf-
at got on the football team by smoking
cigarette?"
no" said Storrow, you didn't, and
you needn't tell us, either, unless It's q
good story"
The Undergraduate chuckled. ooh,
it's good story all right enough, but
ought to have q picture of old Gas
House to go with It,"
"a picture Of old who?"
"Old Gas House Matfit. That's what
they used to call him ON account of his
size. He played center rush after he
broke training"
II 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. II remember the first afternoon
we got Carl to come out to the field and
play on the scrub side. He moved
around something like road roller. He
must have been up to 28O pounds. Con-
nors, the trainer, threw up both hands
and swore. Blessed day. he shouted,
an Office buildingv Carl turned red.
but sailed In.
"Well, they made q 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 Mafiit 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 punching bag
and everybody was laughing at him,
never lost heart, but pulled and grinned
and went at it as IL 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 q few
points about keeping his feet. Now,
Carts feet looked like dry goods boxes
and moved about us 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, and
the first signal was for Brant to go
through the center. The famous half
back tucked the ball in the pit Of his
stomach and dashed forward with his
familiar cannon shot rush straight for
his hole. But the hole was missing.
Carl was there instead. Brant bound
ed back, and Gas House fell over on
him. When they got up. Brant looked
white. and Connors took him out Of
the practice. Carl was awfully scared
and began to be afraid he'd hurt some
body else. SO he was worse than use
less for the rest of the afternoon.
'sThe next day he turned up again,
smiling. and they had some more fun
with him. But once in awhile coach
would take pity on him and give him
little tip. and Gas House would
scratch his head and grin his thanks.
By and by 1t was remarked that the
scrub was stiffening on center plays.
The scrub guards were two disap-
pointed candidates for the varsity.
They knew they had no chance to get
on the team and had been playing list.
lessly until Maffit came out.
Look-a-here,' he said to them bash.
fully. I hate this dang game as much
as you do. but now we're out here we
might as well get to them. They amt
30 much
'"The husky scrub trio certainly did
get to 'em' in great shape. After a
fortnight Carl, instead Of being a joke,
began to be a serious proposition. The
two big guards would boost him, and
War;, the little scrub quarter, would
push him and pinch him In the legs to
make him mad, and old Gas House
would snort and lurch through the vet
eran varsity center like an OK break
ing through snowdrift. He was slow,
but he was almighty sure.
but this slowness was q fatal fault
as far as getting on the team was con-
cerned. We had been licked the year
before because our line had been over
weight and the coaches were determin-
ed that it shouldn't happen again. Bill
Connors couldn't take pound of Carl
to save his life. The big fellow would
get on the scales after every practice
with confident look. only to be disap-
pointed at seeing that he hadn't lost an
ounce. II we could only make be.
ginningy Bill would say desperately.
60 Mafit kept on. hoping against hope
and training faithfully until certain
eventful night.
"It happened after the fall boat races.
Our class crew had won for the first
time in its history, and few Of us
started out to have celebration. Aft
er supper we bought lot Of fireworks
and started in under the mistaken i'm.
preston that we owned the campus.
But the police wouldn't stand for that