The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23


 of '99, how the numbering half of a decade ago must weep to behold the speed of the new generation Then will Billie Moiphy, In high disdatn, relate the real tests of physical manhood, deeds that the young CT chunks could not dream of much less perform.
 Fellowship, Too.
 But through 1t all the wells of fellow snip Will be there. The man of primeval football days may never believe that tho kld in his shoes today Is taking care of the name of Orange and Blue yet he will De made to realize that the kid Is helping some The lightfoot athlete, on the other hand, will be made to know of the orig inal pigskin days. of the fortitude and pluck Auburn displayed at the start
 Broadcast the news has spread, the ath- letfe home coming of Auburn In regu- lar order the history will be unfolded to the boys who have not looked back In a night over smoker. the dweller in the past since college graduation drowned in business will hear the story of recent vic tories, It will be mutual acquaintance mutual knowledge, mutual roaming in the Eelds of gladsome memories.
 Word goes to the surviving members Of the famous old rockbed eleven of 92 Many of them are living and are in reach All along the line the athletic glory of those chaps seems not to have passed from memory, but to have been glorihed in the deeds of actual life The stamina or physical contest followed many through the rough and tumble of the world outside. The football enthusiast is proud of this fact and sees an eternal life ahead for the game.
 It is expected that many of the rnem- bers of the old 92 will return to get an- other touch of the old college spirit That was the first team that ever went forth from Auburn: 1t Is said to have been the first year of real football in the far south. Dr. George Petrle of the present faculty. Is fairly fresh on those days as he was in the conflict on the field and the more worthy battle for financial existence In that year, and the following, the fever was not on until the depth of winter. Washington's birthday was the stellar occasion, and It was the anniversary in 1892 that saw Auburn first extend herself on the football field. It was not a bad start, either, the team, first having removed their tam-o-shanters, laid it onto Georgia, their devoted rival, 10 to 0.
 Some Players.
 or the men who worshpped now for beating Georgia that year, A. F Nc Kfssick Is conspicuous. dragging his pen over a huge bank check where he pulled 215 pounds across the Atlanta gridron IF years ago. He is president Of the Greenwood Cotton Mills, South Carolina He used to pass the ball from center
 Henry DeBardeleben, another member of the team, has been asked to return l the speedy half who had then nerve of | iron and since distinguished himself by digging the metal from the ground. So | has genial Harry Smith, the coolest fel- | low of them all, now in the engineering | employ of the Central of Georgia C. H. Barnwell, now of the university faculty, | is called on to think again of the muddy l day when Georgia dragged in the dust To Dutch Dorsey the summons has | gone to return and hear the accepted | truth that not until present day Hardage has his equal been found for speed and spunk
 Nor will memories be completed with out thought of Capt. Frank Lupton, now a leading physician of Birmingham, or of Prof. F. M. Atkinson, now at the head o fthe department of botany in Cornell or of Prof. Cliff Hare now of the local faculty
 Shadows over the past have crept, but not to mar the checkered schedule of the fall '2 eleven. That year Is without a parallel in southern football history | for not since and never before that slop- py fall did pigskin tournament-carni- val they call it-take place. With memo ries of worn physiques the athletes of that day recall the experiences Now to think of playing more than one game a week is to insult the most spirited. but during that carnival" in Atlanta were played no less than four games in suc- cession. In three of them Auburn par .icipated with the same proud and linn ted squad They were licked by Trinity on Monday on Tuesday they smarted un- fer the defeat by North Carolina; on W ednesday Virginia begged to play Car )lina. only to be smashed, and on the 'ourth day, Auburns men, battered and beaten, pulled their stung but stubborn bones onto the field to start that long line If defeats of Tech that has been broken ,ut one year since.
 Later Figures.
 With the survivors of that tournament l present. or some of them, the ancient day will be lived over again. The famous