The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-11-01
LUCK MISNOMER
FOR GRID BREAKS
Real Skill Is Behind Strokes
of Fortune In Football.
SAM WHITES SPECIALITY.


He Won For Princeton by His Ability, |
Going at Top Speed, to Pick Up |
Bounding Ball - "Shoestrna'' Plays |
Futile.
There is an ever growing proneneSs |
under the new rules in football, to at
tribute too much to what is termed
luck. Victories due, as was Harvard's
over the Massachusetts AggleS recent
D ly, to an intercepted forward pass in
| the final moments of play are too often
ascribed to mere good fortune. The
query presents itself, Is there really
any such thing as luck in football?
To him who battles on the gridiron
the word luck, as applied to the breaks
of the game" is a base misnomer. In
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it
is skill that makes the most out of
sudden break, a tumble, an intercepted
pass To the OnlOOker it appears like
the easiest thing in the world for a
runner to make forty or fifty yards to
the goal line after intercepting a pass
follower of the game knows better.
In the first place, it isn't the least
difficult thing to get ones hands on a
football intended for one of the other
eleven fellows against whom the team
is fighting. But once the player has
! Intercepted the pass or picked up the
tumble the fine work of the coaches
comes in. The players are taught
that just as soon as one of those
breaks of the game" pops up every
man is to single out an opponent and
fall on him with might and main. As
n result, the player with the ball gets
what appears to be very lucky situa-
tion-a clear field.
"Shocstring' Plays Futile.
Close victories of big elevens over
smaller ones-that of Princeton over
| Rutgers recently, for instance-are
| very often due to the breaks of the
| game" that are the direct result of
the reckless style of play adopted by
/ the minor team. With everything to
/ gain and nothing TO lose, the small
Il elcyens have altogether too much re-
II course TO ''shOestring' plays. and when
one of these plays Is successful and con-
II verted into Il touchdown the cry goes
II up-"Luck!' -..
II A "shoestring" attack at best pre-
Il cents nothing more than gamblers
U chance and leaves ait kinds of OPEN
in@s for 4 break III favor OF the other
=, fellow. If Rutgers had relied more on
its straight plays there might have
been Il different story. for, except at
4 the ends and quarterback, it pre-
I sentcd better developed combination
III Princeton more than any other big
3 college has been said to have been the
: beneficiary of that misnOmer 'luck''
y i'll football. The Tiger coaches as far
= back as Bill Roper always taught their
men to take advantage of the breaks,
# and, as a result, Old Nassau in its
?. preliminary" games has beaten many
Z more advanced eleven which it had
- no license to beat. The Dartmouth and
e, ing examples.
- The Case of Sam White.
Sc Some years ago Princeton developed
- superspecialist in its speciality OF
e, taking advantage of the breaks He
was Sam White, who, through his abil
n ity to see loose ball, pick it up and
l., run for Il touchdown, defeated bott
2" Yale and Harvard in 1911. Whites
n dashes fOg scores from fumbles were
e, not mere luck. They could not ever
G be classed under breaks of the game
~ They were football masterpieces be
ce gotten of the highest skill
- Whites big asset possessed by abou
:. one player in n thousand, was his abil
= ity to pick up Il ball on the bound
,: while he was running at top speed
81. Those who have tried know how diff
ficult it is to get hold of the elusiv
st. pigsllin when it begins its uneven ca
~ reer on the turf. However White s,
Q. perfected himself in that art that un
Al: failingly he could, going at full speed
iee- pick up the ball instead of having t,
= obey the time honored instructions t,
a. fall on the ball when you see i
Mt loose"
- White very early in his varsity ex
ice perience realized that the chances 70
nd scoring from tumble were very grea
= If a player could get hold Of tn
ND ND bounding ball. He then set to wor
lys developing his ability. He worked a
19t- by himself on dry fields, ON wet fields
=, In the bright sunlight and in the tw
light. He even went as far as to soa
I'd the ball in order to be able to handl
- the slippery pigskin, and he mastere
md It all too. Certainly that wasn't "luck.
: COLUMBIA. TO ROW YALE.