The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-29

There are other times when the mas 1 ter of the spiral punt must use a low 1 ball. He must drive it far up the field
 or to one side when kicking from near | his own goal line. Otherwise the kick
 may fall short, give the opponents 1 chance to make a fair catch and kick placement goal or put them in a fa-
 vorable position to strike for a touch down. A wonderful punt under such conditions gave Cornell it's greatest foot ] ball eleven, that of 1915
 1 Early in it's Harvard game that year Cornell lost it's star back, Barreta, through injury. It had wrestled a touch 1 down from the Crimson by straight foot ] ball when Barrett was in the game and l in the third quarter was leading 7-0 but l Harvard was forcing the game with all 1 it's might Without Barrett it began to I look as though Mahan and his team
 mates would win out. Cornell had the ball on it's own 12-yard line. Here IS
 what Al Sharpe, the Cornell coach. had ! to say about the play which turned the l day:
 SEASONS GREATEST PUNT
 If I had not seen the kick and had ! not the chart before me l should hesi- I tate to believe the facts l am about to
 relate. The ball was on Cornelrs 12-ard l line and Shiverick stood about two yards l from his goal line as the ball was put | III pldy. lne Wlnu was DlOWlIS uOWH I the stadium against the kicker and Ma | han and Wilcox, the Harvard backs, 1 stood near the Cornell 40-yard line. ITO me 1t seemed to spell the turning 1 point of the game, for it looked as if things were commencing to break ] against us; a penalty having been the cause of our being so near our goal line 1 I could picture Mahan catching the punt and worming his way well into our ter ! ritory and then they would have us "Shiverick kicked the ball out through a mass of outstretched Harvard arms. a low spiral that had the follow through ! on it. Mahan and Wilcox, to their amazement, as we'll as that of the crowd, 1 saw it go sailing by over their heads. Knowing a home run when they saw one they immediately started to chase it. WENT OVER 80 YARDS No one touched the ball and it rolled out-of- bounds on Harvard's 14-yard line, making a total gain from where the ball was put in play of "A yards. From where Shiverick punted the distance was something over 80 yards. Any person who saw that kick will agree with me that it was the banner performance or the 1915 football season. ShivericlI was elected captain of this years Cornell team, but is now a lieutenant in the 1 O. R. C."
 Mike Bennett, playing for Pennsylva- mia against sCornell in that memorable 1902 game, which Penn won 12-11, got off an even longer kick. Then the field was 110 yards long. On a quick kick from his goal line Bennett got the ball over the Cornell quarterback head. Brewster touched it and put it onside and I recovered it just 100 yards from where Bennett had kicked 1t. Unfortu- nately, I was offside and the ball was brought back
 One of the oldest punt plays happened in the Colgate-West Point game when Ellery Huntington, now a captain in | the field artillery, was captain of the Colgate team. Here is what he says | of it:
 PUNTING IMPORTANT We were playing the Army and had them, GO. We wanted to stay on the defensive and save our stuff for Syra- cuse, and we were having no trouble keeping the Army back of our 4O-yard | line. With 50 seconds to play and the ball in our possession on our 30 and with three to go on the fourth down 1 called for punt. Just then a substi- l tute team. with the exception of Abell, who was doing our kicking, was sent | in. He got off a fine high punt to Pritchard. Pritchard, always a good l dodger circled our right end and ran l through our team for touchdown. They l kicked the goal and beat us, 7-6. That l game has always remained nightmare | to all of us. The hopeless, helpless feel 1 ing of seeing the game snatched away, after you thought it 'sewed up and just
 as the whistle was to blow, is not soon l forgotten"
 l All of which goes to show that any | thing may happen in the bunting game. ! It is for this reason that the kicking | department of team is by all odds the most important. A coach cannot spend ! too much time in drilling his men in a play which may turn the battle one 1 way or the other at any time in the game.