The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-05

Auburn. December 4.-(Spectal.) Over 15O plates were spread for the scrubs. the band and the invited guests at the twenty-fifth annual banquet in honor of the Auburn varsity football squad It was an enthusiastic and hap py crowd that sat around the ban euet table and toasted to the team or 1915 and to Captain-elect Hairston. Hu- nor and wit abounded; the team mem bers of 1915 were lauded and praised, and the "wise ones" predicted great things for the team that will be led by Capain Hairston next season.
 Despite the fact that the ranking accorded the team is as low as any received by any Auburn team since 1908, still it was in many respects the most remarkable season ever eXperi- enced here. Starting out with II regu- lars of 1914 missing, with fair back field and a green line, Coach Donahue developed q team that carried Auburn to honors second only to those re- ceived by Vanderbilt and Tech. and did this when the backfield was shattered beyond all recognition by the injuries to the LWO QuuI tti DetNNS | hO Aiiio "eN' developed into the greatest fighting aggregation ever witnessed; into 8 veritable stone wall that held the best team Georgia has developed in recent years on the one-foot line. The fact that the team gained the high rank ac- corded it with all it's handicaps Is tribute to it's fighting spirit as we'll as to the coaching of Mike Donahue and these facts were not overlooked in the toasts last evening.
 Thomas Bragg, president of the Alumni association, was in excellent form as toastmaster. Despite the fact that several hits were made off his delivery he managed to keep them well scattered and worked the entire game.
 "Prexy" Charles c. Thach headed the batting order and connected safely on "Auburn's Athletic Teams Through the Nose Glasses of College President He paid q tribute to the system at Auburn as developed by Coach M. J. Donahue, using not only his own views but words of praise from numerous other college presidents of the south.
 Dr. Baseball Ross was next on the batting order. He took the first one over, waited on another. but connect ed for hit on the third delivered ball. In answering the toast. "Reminis- ccences." he delivered a Montgomery Advertiser of November, 1893, in the pinch and substantiated his statement concerning Auburn's 30 to 10 victory over Vanderbilt and the origin of Au- burns yell. Well. here we come in a big caboose" He declared that this was originated on the Auburn Spe- cial" of one caboose which carried the Auburn student body to Montgomery for the game.
 hat "a did not know all the rules of the game but stated that "In the eyes of the cosmopolitan" the Auburn othletes are superiority. The band played at the end of the third inning and Manager Bragg returned to the box.
 He was confronted by Michael Don ahue and appeared unsteady. However, ha put one near the plate and Mike |connected for double. After the eX- citement subsided Mike" stated that in other days he had passed up" a few but that he cleaned the plates now and did not miss anything; he thanked the manager for placing him as the "clean up batsman. He stated that the team of 1915 was the greatest fighting team he had ever coached He said that he was only sorry for the season be- cause the team had deserved better re- suits. He stated that it was his opin- ion if the team of 1913 or the team of 1914 had been injured as vitally as had this team through he loss of it's two quarterbacks that they would hardly have closed as successful sea son as did this years eleven. He thanked every member of the team and predicted great season with Captain Lucy Hairston as leader In 1916.
 Captain Bidez showed his old time punch in responding to the toast, The Team. making one of the best talks