Norwich bulletin., 1917-11-20

magnificent. example of fighting spirit against great odds. In the Army Notre Dame contest Oliphant, the bril- liant leader of the West Point eleven splendid football that alone he was al- most equal match for the splendid Notre Dame eleven. In both these examples this fighting spirit was note worthy because it was made against odds. In the Pennsylvania-Pittsb game Penn was not expected to have any chance whatever. An overwhelminfs the start of the year. the fact that the team was much the lighter of the two, and the known prestige of Pitt were the reasons assigned for another crushing setback.
 But the little Quakers, filled to over flowing with what they call The Spirit of '76' in Red and Blue foot ball, made up in savage determination and sheer reSllleSSneSs what they lack ed in almost everything else. While they went down to defeat, two touch downs to one, there was not one pres ent, including the clean playing and sportsmanlike Pitt players. who dtd not think it defeat tinged with vic tory. At that the breaks of the game favored Pitt. Its first score was ! most fortunate execution of long forward pass and it's second a blocked kick, while excellent football, was no finer bit of playing than the little Quakers themselves showed when they, too, blocked a punt. In the first case the ball bounded back close to Penns goal where Pitt player gained it; in the second the ball fell dead behind the line of scrimmage. Every body admired Penn for that gallant fight.
 The play of Ollie" lOliphant against Notre Dame was nothing short Of miraculous. Without in any sense wishing to detract from the splendil +I.- -1lf l~, ,l.,., NT Notre Dame. it is my beliefe that on 8 dry field Olphant would have ccene very close, single handed, to winning that game for the Army His play was of the savage. fighting style, yet never did he lose control of himself or fail to make use of every faculty to, turn the tide. It is mighty comforting t0 know that men of Oliphants type are bred on the football fields of West Point and Annapolis each year.
 A year ago a coach and a team from the eastern section of the middle west sprang into sudden fame when In6ii ana, tutored by "Humbo" Stiehm, de- feated P the splendid eleven of Tufts conqueror of Harvard. All the ods favored Tufts and when a touchdown and goal from the field had sent the down customers home without the bacon many left that game with the impression that Indiana won a fuky victory. Stiehrn, the coach, was new to the east. True, he had been Wis consin star in his college days and later had won renown at Nebraska, but these facts had been almost totally overlooked in the east Shiehm now stands high as coach anywhere. This is his. version of that memorable game.
 ''In our Tufts game last fall you wills remember that Tufts had a, series of plays in which the center faced his backfield and tossed the ball to the quarter. The plays were extremely dangerous when once under way. Th.e chances of their going wrong were small. Tufts had used them to good advantage against both Harvard and Princeton.
 Our plan was to smash up. this at tack before, it got under way; To do so we had to nail the quarter in his tracks before he could pass the ball to another back. We accomplished this by having Stutesman, our center, dive over the Tufts center, as he passed the ball, and tackle the quarter. receiving it.
 we also knew that.sTufts did not sufficiently protect the players who received forward passes. We took ad- vantage of this by covering each of their eligible men with two or three or four players each time Tufts tried the pass. When Erelart caught a Tufts forward pass and sprinted 40