Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-06
OLD GRAD OF '66 TELLS
BYG0NE GRIDIR0N TALES
Like All Veterans, He Declares the
Best Days In the Plaskin
World Are Beyond
Recall

To many older graduates OF Yale
there come a reminiscent pang when
the news went out from New Haven
that three undergraduates had been
arrested for kicking football on the
green, says a graduate of '66 in the
Yale Alumni Weekly.
The criminals had merely suffered
O reversion of type to the ancestral
Yale species, whom those earlier
days-had disported on the central
sward of the city without molestation.
Their plight has it's historical side, not
unworthy of attention in these days OF
gladlatorial eombats on the gridiron, the
helmeted heroes of which are a far
cry from the simple, even rustic, kick
ers who, in the days of the present
scribe. 1oyously parted with pieces of
their epidermis that the modern game
might have an ancestor
Many years before such a thing as
match at football between Yale ana
another college was thought OF the
students OF Yale were accustomed, for
recreation in intervals of leisure, 10
kick a ball about in the southwest
corner of the green.
Kicks to Trcetops
The writer and other small boys of
that distant day were wont to resort
TO that place to watch the collegians at
their sport and occasionally to chase
the flying sphere when an erratic kick
sent it off to one side. These old-time
kickers used to gather about tall
elm tree that stood in that corner OF
the public square and kick the ball
into it's topmest bough. or even quite
over the old tree. As consequence.
the elm had a bedraggled look, and
suffered considerably from the wear
and tear of these sportive doings. At
that time the use by the students in
their play spells. OF this section of the
Green was not objected to by the
townsmen.
Even in that far-off time there were
stalwart kickers at Yale. One Of them,
the most proficient in that line. is re-
lated to have kicked the ball cleanly
over the old state house, which stood
between Center church and College
street. This prodigious kicker was eer-
tainly born out of due time" The
skilled coaches of the present day
would have made a superb long dis
lance punter out of him. The balls
originally used were made by insert
ing a bladder In a leather case; later
they were made of rubber, black or
gray in color All had to be inflated
as the occasion required.
Class Games Commence
1t was in 1s40. according to the
chroniclers, that the annual football
ball games between Yale sophomores
ard freshmen began. These were
played in the same part of the green
that was used by the students for or
binary recreation. 1t was customary
for challenges and acceptances to be
posted at the entrances of certain
buildings in the original row--the Ly-
ceum and Atheneum. Sometimes these
defiant documents were cnbellished
with sanguinary quotations from the
poets, indicative of the manner in
which the combatantA proposed to treat
one another when they same together,
according to the program.
The writer recalls distinctly some of
the latter OF these sophomore fresh
man football matches, so called. There
was much popular interest in them
and the state house steps, a good point
OF observation, we're well filled with
spectators many OF whom were women.
There was no limit to the number that
might engage in the contest on one
but there was little kicking, and more
of this than was seemly was probably
directed at the shins of opponents.
The ball was usually lost to sight
in the struggling mob that surged to
and fro on the field of battle Regu-
lation football toys were then unknown,
and the clothing of the contestants,
ill calculated to withstand such rough
usage, became woefully dilapidated In
the course of the encounter. The soph-
ignores, somewhat older and better sea-
soned, were oftenest victorious, but the
sympathies Of spectators were likely TO
be with the freshmen. 1t is on record
that some of the women spectators
on one occasion sent a bouquet to the
freshmen after the game.
Isaac Bromley Down
1t was in one of these primitive
contests that the late Isaac Bromley
suffered at the hands--and feet--of two
sophomores, who, as he told the story,
got him down, back of Trinity church,
and walked upon him" The distin-
6uished journalist said that when,
many years later, he heard that those
former sophomores were acquitting
themselves creditably In the cause of
foreign missions, 1t was a source of
lf-congratulation to him that he had
been instrumental in fitting them for
efficient service in their chosen field.
Three or four years before the Civil
war broke out this annual football
game, or rush" of the two lower
classes at Yale was prohibited by the
faculty, and about the same time the
town authorities forbade the students
to use the green for their sports. Yale
undergraduates were thus Obliged TO
seek fresh fields" for recreative foot
ball. The sport SUI ed all discour-
asements. and int, 1t in 1t seems to
have grown steadily till, in 1872, n
Yale football association was formed.
The college played it's. first match
game--with Columbian the fall of
the same yead, winning by a score of
3 goals to 0. Evidently there was no
time limit, as it took Yale fifty-eight
minutes to score the second goal, and
the time required to score the three
was much in excess OF the time con-
sumed in q modern game of thirty-five
minute halves. The primitive game
would be veritable marvel to spec
tators and players OF the present day.
-----o-e4-~-