New-York tribune., 1907-12-02
Comment on the PennsylUan'd-Cor-
nell and Army-NdUy Games.


,-.r5 Gov the mythical championship and the
honor and glory of their colors? 1t is sa1e 70
say that no two critics viii agree eNdceIs oii -
placing of the leading teams so nluch ihusl nc
considered beyond the mere scores, as tHe tot %
Gus elevens have not been entirely co!lsIsteli1' c
and some reached their top form Garner IMAM
Others only TO go back and prove olsappo@4i. @
raent when most required II h7o peN
proved time and again this season. as III -
mast that comparative scores lead ohly ih'o
maze o4 doubt and uncertainty, ana collse-
rr1entlv while scores must be consiue[eu' i' =!
.npossible TO rank on scores alone, so tIi9t oi
individual Judgment comes into play as TO " li7
-elative merits Of the teams When at leII peet'
oF She leading elevers Yale and Dartmouth
were the only ones which went through lhe Sed-
son without being defeated Vermont playeo q
lie game with Dartmouth and west Polnt heIo
5aje TO q no score struggle. Every other team
81 +5,oea considered tasted defeat more than once
cxcent PENNSYLVANIA, but the latteTs one crush
ing defeat by the Carlisle Indians marred an
otherwise remarkable sequence OF victories
After close study have ranked the ten leaolns
teams in the following order:
1-Yale 6-Nest Point
o-Princeton. i-DarIlilouli
:-Pennsylvania- S-AarFaru-
4-Cornell :'-9foNiI-
Annapolis Jo-o"dI'iIi10'
Pennsv1vania state. Amherst, Lafayette, SYRIA
clIse Iehigh and Williams would follow III
.1,o,,+ that order This is an Eastern ranking,
the Southern and Western teams not being con-
sidered Vanderbilt is the unquestioned cham
1ior of the South by its defeat of Sewanee on
Thursday Willie I am disposed TO place Mich
.ran above Minnesota and Chicago in the west,
as the team must needs be strong tha' couiu
hold Pennsylvania TO a score OF D TO -
Til. carlisle Indians had a wonderfully strong
and versatile team and made record that IN
some respects has never been equalled- They
travelled al over the country, holding theE
form in the mos surprising way, and in eleven
games met only one defeat, when Princeton won
f,v a score of 16 TO O. They played In quick
succession Pennsylvania, Princeton. Harvard
Minnesota and Chicago, and all away from
home on this record they could not be ranked
worse than third. notch above Pennsylvania
NV reasons for not giving them formal rank
ing are twofold. In the first place there are
no eligibility rules at Carlisle, and some OF the
men have PLAYED on the team five, six and seven
years In the second place there is an air Of
semi professionalism about the eleven, and IT
has been said that Dickinson helps to provide
the material There is no place for team
about which the sligAt 4 question can be raised
among the leading college elevens Of 1907.
There can be nc question about Yale's claim
to first rank. The team well deserves the So
called football championship. It slowly
but surely developed along the lines which
have been so uniformly successful at New
Haven. The men met every call and filled every
requirement with greater credit to themselves,
as individual brilliancy always subservient
TO concerted team action 1t was not an eleven
Of stars; not more than three Of the men at
most will earn Al-American honors, but as a
team it was just a shade superior to Princeton
and Pennsylvania The Tigers are placed sec
ord They outplayed Yale in the first half Of
- that long-to- Remembered game, and de-
ssSssad the Indians is TO 0, who beat Pennsyl-
F5nia 26 to 6. They were conquered by Cor
nell by a score Of to 3, the failure TO kick
a goal from a touchdown, and this would have
4Tarn Or7H a
beaten Pennsylvania, but Cornell fell from her
high estate when the Quahers administered such
2 crushing defeat Thursday. Pennsylvania
had a remarkably strong team trained to the
minute for Cornell, and I not altogether
convinced that on that day if would not have
played Yale or Princeton TO a standstin with
an even chance for victory. I hesitated long
time before placing Annapolis and West Point
above Dartmouth and Harvard. The Harvard
eleven it played against Yale would prob
ably defeat any one of the three teams i'm
rnediately above f. but while Harvard beat
Annapolis early in the season It practically
a tie game, and Annapolis outplayed and de-
feated West Point Saturday, which had a
better record on the whole than Cambridge.
Dartmouth while unbeaten and doing all that
required Of it, had an easy schedule up to
the Harvard game and hardly be ranked
better than seventh 1t is hard to understand
Earvard's defeat by Dartmouth by the score
Of % TO o, in view Of the Crimson eleven's play
Harvard cannot be fairly ranked above Dart
mouth Brown had a good team that held its
own against Pennsylvania and Harvard al
though beaten, and was only badly outpIayed
by Yale. Swarthmore beat Annapolis scored
against Pennsylvania and held Cornell to a score
of is to 0. It fairly good record, al
though the Navy did not present her full
strength on the day they met. Pennsylvania
States claim TO recognition came ia the
defeat of Cornell early in the season by score
Of S TO 6.
Even as Yale appears to have the Indian
sign" Harvard at football does PennsyI-
vania have it Cornell In fifteen years the
Ithacans have one lone victory and a tie game
to boast Of over the Quakers. The Cornell team
went to Philadelphia on Thursday with the
strongest eleven, perhaps, ever developed at
Ithaca and supremely confident of victory, bur,
as has been said, the Pennsylvania eleven out
played, outgeneralled and all but outclassed it.
The Cornell players looked and acted in perfect
physical condition. and any excuses offered fer
the defeat of the team this score do not ap-
pear worthy OF consideration What the play
needed more than anything else perhaps,
was an hours practice with the tackling dummy.
Their efforts to bring runner down were al
most ludicrous, particularly I'm the first half To
try to stop players lile> Holenback and Folwell
by tackling high futile as it was disas-
trous. Further than that, there was an appar-
ent weakness in charging quickly and sharply,
and the Quaker iinesmen got the jump on the
Cornell in almost every scrimmage. Early
iu the season I criticised for saying that
the Cornell ends were the. weak spots in an
otherwise strong eleven. Since then have had
no reason TO change my opinion, and less shan
ever since Thursday. Van Orman and Watson
were reasonably good ends but hardly in the
same class with Scarlet and Pauxtis their op-
ponents, who, by the way, played as well in
,.zx s, I t~-yg s.t.x lit