The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-27
SPORTING NEWS.
No New Football Plays East
Says Coach Mccormack.
The Game Appears to Be at a
StandstiIl Back There.
HOW HARVARD LOST.
Yale Appropriated the Grim
sons Tandem Plays.
Some of Incidents Connected
With Mason's Fuss.


Chicago, Nov. 27.-Football fans can
not look to the big elevens of the east
/ for new developments in the game this
/ season, according to Walter e. McCor-
mack, the former EngleWood star and
coach at Dartmouth, who returned TO
! Chicago yesterday morning. Harvard,
| he says, scarcely knows the rudiments
of the game, while Yale simply appro-
priated the tandem play with which
! Harvard defeated the New Haven team
Of 01 and with a few variations of 1t
/ defeated the Crimson men this year.
In only two games this season did the
/ Harvard team attempt straight foot
ball. says Mccormack, land then they
went back to the old tandem play by
which they won their game last year
In those two exceptions they showed
only too plainly that they didn't even
know the rudiments of the game. play
ing three men behind the line for the
back field was lost all the time. When
the tandem was again .resorted to they
made better impression. The defeat
of the Cambridge team this year leads
me to believe that there will be a gen
eral return to the old first principles OF
the game next year. and that these mass
| formations behind the line this tandem
which to me is only a variation Of
Wcodruff's old guards back play, will
be laid on the shelf until some brand
new formation is invented that will win
around.
"Harvard's team was woefully weak.
There were only three men who thor
Oughly knew the game as they were
playing it, and they didn't know the Old
style of three men in line in the back
held-the most rudimentary formation.
IN the game of football. These three men
are Herman. Graydcn and BoWditch.
"Graydon / regard as the best line
plunger in the country, not even barring
Capt. Chadwick of Yale. Chadwick is
corker in the jack-knife' play Yale
used this year, which is simply another
name for a very old formation of three
men behind the line and the man carry
ing the ball leaving his interference and
jumping through an opening in the lire
where he sees chance to make ground
In such a play Chadwick excels. for he
IS a marvel at picking openings in the
line and can hold his feet we'll. But as
a line bucker, pure and simple, Graydon
has them all beaten.
On ends Harvard was fairly good.
Bowditch being a good man and Mills
nearly his equal. At tackle too they
could have held their own if the center
of the line had not been so punk In
the Dartmouth game against the Grim
son We made nearly all our gains right
over the three center men, Sugden, Andy
Marshall and Barnard We turned Bar
nard over on his back thirty times ir,
mat game Marshall was worse yet. I
nad MIN for two Years, but he couldn't
make the team I was coaching He is
great big elephant. weighing 230
pounds, but has no head for the game
and his strength is not commensurate
with his size Leo DAILY is regarded
generally by the Harvard undergradu-
ates as the superior of Carl Marshall as
a quarter, but Marshall had the advan-
tage of having played on the winning
team of OF and was older at the game
lie IS good quarter and has been elect
ed captain for o.
ale has two of my old players on its
team. Hogan and Rockwell both of whom
played under my instruction at Exeter
Rockwell never could make quarter at
Exeter, and l don't believe he would at
Yale either if it wasn't for that Yale line
That's the strength OF the blue team
Rockwell played end most of the time at
Exeter. though I tried time and again to
get him in at quarter, but he hadn't the
mead Hogan was not regarded the Won
der they think he is at Yale either in
those days, but he is young yet and SO
has probably developed greatly since the
left the prep school.
BaTvard's tandem is one of the great
est plays have ever seem and with the
right men in it, as the Crimson had last
year, hardly think there is a defense
that has been developed that can stop it.
IN" first ard greatest difficulty with
stopping it is that the ball is so concealed
that the point of attack is unknown TO
Ihe opposition. In the Dartmouth game
Wien the ttams Were close to the side
line. 1 couldn't even then tell where the
pan was or who was carrying it
1t IS similar TO the old guards-back
play, only instead of the guards it is Il
tackle that is drawn behind the linz. It
IS after this manner; The left tackle Cor
righD is drawn back and stands aboi1t
TWO feet to the left Cor right Of the
quarter and the same distance behind
MN, Close behind him is a half-back and
pehlnd that the fullback and sometimes
the other half. too. UusualIy, however.
the second half stands to the left (or
rlghD of the tackle, eighteen inches away
from him and six inches ahead Of him
The line of three men stands slightly in
the bias. the last man being nearly di-
rectly' behind the center. while the first
man of the formation is behind the guard
and the line points toward the opening
between guard and tackle In this close
formation it is impossible to tell whether
the first, second or last man takes the
ball Then the man with the ball has q
dozen different ways he can go-straight
ahead or to either side, and he always
has interference and a man behind to
push. Harvard lacked the line to open
the holes for this formidable battering
.ugine and Yales hammering proved
more successful.
Did that 'Slugger' Mason story get
| into the western papers, too? Well. I'm
surprised But Farley certainly was
wrong in the way he treated Mason, for
Mason did not give away anything of
Harvard's play He didn't know anything
to give away. The trouble was that Far
ley was sore because we beat his men
on play that he himself had turned
down. Mason, you must know, is a very
eccentric fellow. He had been helping
around the Harvard team. but Farley did
not pay him anything for his work He
was hard up Finally he evolved two
-====------.----.=-.