The Topeka state journal., 1916-11-07
HUMAN SHRAPN mel
Maulbetsch of Michigan in Old
Time Form Again This Year.
He Is as Great as He Was Dur
ing the Season of 1914.
BY FRANK G. MENKE.


betsch is starring again. The Human
Shrapnel' was the sensation of 1911 4
football and one of the biggest flivvers
of them all in 1915. And now, in his
final year at Michigan, the Wolverine
captain is tearing lines to tatters like
he did IN those days when first he
flashed into varsity view.
Maulbetsch's case is a strange one.
No westerner ever created half the
stir in the east as did this Michigan
der when his team battled the great
Harvard eleven of 1914 Maulbetsch
alone gained more ground in that
game against Harvard by his terrific
line than did any other four half
backs that battled the Brickley-Mah-
an-Hardwick machine.
Maulbetsch played no favorites in
1914. What he did to Harvard he did
to every other team that he faced.
Times without number in every game
that he played, Human Shraprel'
split asunder the enemy's ranks. No
team ever stopped Maulbetsch in
1914. His peculiar, battling style of
attack, backed by phenomenal
strength almost always earned for
him gains of from five to twenty
yards every time he was called upon
to carry the ball
The Maulbetsch Mystery.
And in 1915, when everyone ex-
pected him to accomplish even more
remarkable feats, this Wolverine half
back skidded from the heights of
greatness to the level of mediocre He
was the real "bloomer" of the football
year. The lines that he had crumpIed
like eggShellS a year before stood up
under his charges, often dumping him
back for losses. The once ''unstop-
pable' Maulbetsch not only was
stopped but forced to retract.
What had happened? No one could
say with certainty. Many offered ex-
plantations Some said Johnny was
sick. Others-and they were in the
ma ajority-claimed that the opposition
had circumvented his three legged"
mode of attack
Very good. If Maulbetsch had fail
ed this year. that explanation would
have seemed plausible. But the great
M1chlgander, using the same method
of attack, has repeatedly broken to
fragments this year the lines that he
couldn't dent in 1915-and which he
split with ease in 1914. So the 1915
slip back of Maulbetsch must be cata-
logued among the unSolved mysteries
of the gridiron.
He Scared Harvard.
Right after the 1914 battle, Harvard
severed athletic relations with Mich
igan- And the reason, undoubtedly,
was Maulbetsch- 1t had been tenta-
lively agreed that Harvard and Mich
igan were to meet annually after that.
But when faih Hahvahd saw what
Maulbetsch did in that first clash, it
decided it cared to see no more of him
He was too rough. And so Harvard
answered mike when Michigan ask
ed for a 1915 game.
The miraculous playing of Maui
betsch would have won that game had
| 1t not been for concrete" work by the
| Michigan quarterback.
Michigan iT1fn bof
classed in practically every depart
ment- Its team was green" its line
weak and it's ends still weaker. Against
this combination was pitted the peer
less crimson machine-probably the
greatest that Haughton ever welded
together. And Harvard won by only a
Z to score.
Maulbetsch, without a real line to
help him, played Harvard off it's feet
EVERY time he rammed it he ripped
thru for tremendous gains His
plunging never has been equaIIed on an
eastern gridiron. Oftentimes Harvard
drew in its ends and used them with
two of the halfbacks to form a strong
secondary line. And MauIbetsch
crashed thru both walls of human
frames as tho they were stalks of way-
! ing grain.
Maulbctsch Only Gamer.
Maulbetsch. in that game. gained
something like 300 yards-three times
the length of the field. Why didn't
Michigan score? Ask the fellow who
quarterbacked for Michigan that
day His actions were too mystifying
for the spectators to figure out
/ Only one man on the whole Michi.
gan team could gain on Harvard And
that was Naulbetsch who gained every
time he got the hall. On three or -four
occasions he carried the ball-unaide ec
to within the shadows of the Har-
ward goal posts. And then. amazing az
it may seem, the Michigan quarter
elected to let the other backs to tr,
for the touchdown: he chose men who
had failed and failed and failed an6
refused to permit Maulbetsch to tr,
Cor the glory of crossing the Crimson
line.
And every time those other back,
did exactly what everyone expected
they would do-lost the ball on a FUN.