The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-11-24
Some Facts About the Great
Walter EckersalI.
Vests Best Football Kicker Il
a Lad of 10 Years.
GAME ONLY A PASTIME.
Is Studying to Become a Me-
chanical Engineer.
University Of Chicago Has a
Prize in This Player.

A lad of 10 is learning to be a me
chanical engineer at the University of
Chicago, says the Chicago American.
Incidentally, he is mastering all the
fine points Of the game of football at a
rate that has rather obscured for time
his professional aspirations.
If Walter Eckersall, as a mechanical
engineer, obtains but half the publicity
and renown that his good right leg and
unerring eye have given him among the
gridiron celebrities, Coach Stages
"freshie'' will lead a life OF usefulness
and triumph.
The football managers, who envy Mr..
Etagg the possession of this 1.-THE lad,
say Eckersal is a student at the Mid
way institution merely to qualify as a
tutor in the game at which he excels,
so that eventually he may be of assist
ance to his chief when his four-year
term is over.
Not so. Eckersall is bent heart ond
soul on qualifying for the profession
which he has chosen. Out on the chart
ed field in his padded togs this Chicago
boy, with his study of distances that
develops a geometric eye, is applying in
practice the principles he had found in
the books.
That is the way Eckersau himself
looks at it, and one need only to watch
this really remarkable youth in the heat
Of conflict when the opposing team is
rushing to overwhelm him before he
kicks the ball to appreciate how, with
the little quarter back of the University
of Chicago, the profession of mechanical
engineer and the sport of kicking a. pig
skin go hand in hand.
The mind and eye which plan and ex-
ecute the marvellous drop kicks that
Vanquished Wisconsin will some day d.
rect the construction of great bridges.
So President Harper, who knows a lot
q G1rrif nd a n OIL
neering, and Coach Stage, who is the
encyclopedia of football but blank
on bridge building, say, and Eckersall
admits quietly that football is only a
pastime for him.
A successful drop kick in a football
game always earns for the player who
makes it the applause of friends and
foes. 1t is one Of the really brilliant
achievements in a game that otherwise
would be marred by monotony of
Drawn.
The signal for the drop kick is given.
Eckersall or the man to whose prOWesS,
agility and nerve the task is to be en-
trusted drops back. Both teams are on
tiptoe. The comrades of the kicker are
ready to repel the charge of their OPP
ponents, while the eleven that fears a
score by it's enemies prepare to inter-
cept the ball before it leaves the toe of
the kicker.
1t is a dramatic moment. The ball is
snapped back. On the instant eleven
men with might ana main rush TO seize
the kicker.
He must drop the ball to the ground,
and then as 1t rebounds kick it with
force sufficient to carry it high and true
between the bars. Three times out of
five trials, a record unparalleled in foot
ball, Eckersan aomplished the feat last
Saturday in the great game with the
University of Wisconsin, at Madison.
That is why President Harper and
Coach Stage and the student body of
the university are proud of the little
fellow and claim for him a name in
football as great as that of Herschber-
ger, another lad whose foot won him a
name in football.
Eckersall is a little fellow-compara-
lively speaking. By the side of some of
the western giants who are the pride of
the coaches Eckersall is but a midget.
The doughty quarter back is feet I
inches tall and weighs about AS pounds
He is not and never will be a line
bucker, according to Mr.. Stage. The
men who push their way through
struggling heaps of men must have
avoirdupois TO gain momentum, and
Eckersalrs attack on powerful tackles
like Maddox would be repealed like a
feather.
Big. beefy fellows are easy to get
The west is stocked with them. The
uuerring kicker and the fleet runner
are rare, and Eckersall combines both
qualities.
The foes of the Maroons have found
Eckersau formidable slxirting the ends